1000 NEW TREES -
IN GRIM'S DITCH FOR CARBON ARMY 3
By your favourite BTCV blogger Elaine !
By your favourite BTCV blogger Elaine !
I went out last week with the London Biodiversity Action Team (BAT), to a very interestingly titled woodland, Grim's Ditch, over in Harrow. It is the site of a linear earthwork that is thought to date from the Saxon period, "grim" being the Saxon word for devil or goblin, it served as a boundary marker, and is one of the few remaining Anglo-Saxon trenches in England. Grim's Ditch is under threat from motorcycle scrambling and illegal rubbish dumping, but as an important part of Harrow's heritage, it is essential that it is preserved.
We arrived in good time at about 10am from London, piling out of the mini van and unloading our equipment. We saw frost on the rooftops where we parked, and the cold air was a noticeable few degrees colder than in London. I started to feel a bit hesitant and I was wondering if I had dressed warmly enough to survive the day outside. However, as we walked along the dirt path covered with oak leaves into the woods, it felt great to be out in the fresh air, and on reaching our spot, we then warmed up with a nice cup of tea.
We were to continue removing all the Cherry Laurel and thereby make way for 1000 new trees to be planted as part of Carbon Army Phase 3 campaign. The 1000 trees we will be planting there are native species; 100 Field Maple, 400 Hawthorn, 200 Hazel, 150 Blackthorn, 100 Dogwood and 50 Spindle. It will be quite exciting to see all the newly planted trees once they are put in.
Cherry Laurel is a very pretty, exotic looking plant, with long elliptical, dark green shiny leaves, but it is an invasive species that is taking over the area, killing off the heather understorey and other native shrubs. It grows rapidly, with a lot of low lying leafy shrub and vines, easily tolerating drought and shade, so it often out-competes and kills off native plant species.
We had a quick walk around the wood, looking for the sinister Cherry Laurel, and then all we dug in; I grabbed a pair of loppers and went off to begin attacking the Laurel. It was easy to spot, however, once I started on a plant I found it had pervaded everywhere, it's vines and shoots insinuating itself all around. It was easy to lop off as it was rather soft wood, and the roots came up fairly easily as well. With all the lopping, sawing, pruning and felling, I was almost a bit too warm; certainly the cold was kept well at bay.
We broke for lunch and when we came back I started on a large Laurel tree, much bigger than I thought I was capable of removing. But bit by bit, branch by branch, vine by vine, the whole area came clean, with just a trunk with some far overhead branches left to be removed. That would be for next time, as the sun was starting to indicate it was heading on its way down.
We started packing up, my back and hands a bit achy, but I was comfortably tired and very satisfied. There was a very large oak tree just near us, with one of its immense lower lying branches having fallen off right next to it, a branch as big as a large tree itself. We counted about 100 rings on the branch, so the oak should be somewhere over 100 years old, massive and mighty, and hopefully living on many hundred more.
More from me soon. Enjoy the trees - it's National Tree Week!
For more details see Grims Ditch Woodland
We arrived in good time at about 10am from London, piling out of the mini van and unloading our equipment. We saw frost on the rooftops where we parked, and the cold air was a noticeable few degrees colder than in London. I started to feel a bit hesitant and I was wondering if I had dressed warmly enough to survive the day outside. However, as we walked along the dirt path covered with oak leaves into the woods, it felt great to be out in the fresh air, and on reaching our spot, we then warmed up with a nice cup of tea.
We were to continue removing all the Cherry Laurel and thereby make way for 1000 new trees to be planted as part of Carbon Army Phase 3 campaign. The 1000 trees we will be planting there are native species; 100 Field Maple, 400 Hawthorn, 200 Hazel, 150 Blackthorn, 100 Dogwood and 50 Spindle. It will be quite exciting to see all the newly planted trees once they are put in.
Cherry Laurel is a very pretty, exotic looking plant, with long elliptical, dark green shiny leaves, but it is an invasive species that is taking over the area, killing off the heather understorey and other native shrubs. It grows rapidly, with a lot of low lying leafy shrub and vines, easily tolerating drought and shade, so it often out-competes and kills off native plant species.
We had a quick walk around the wood, looking for the sinister Cherry Laurel, and then all we dug in; I grabbed a pair of loppers and went off to begin attacking the Laurel. It was easy to spot, however, once I started on a plant I found it had pervaded everywhere, it's vines and shoots insinuating itself all around. It was easy to lop off as it was rather soft wood, and the roots came up fairly easily as well. With all the lopping, sawing, pruning and felling, I was almost a bit too warm; certainly the cold was kept well at bay.
We broke for lunch and when we came back I started on a large Laurel tree, much bigger than I thought I was capable of removing. But bit by bit, branch by branch, vine by vine, the whole area came clean, with just a trunk with some far overhead branches left to be removed. That would be for next time, as the sun was starting to indicate it was heading on its way down.
We started packing up, my back and hands a bit achy, but I was comfortably tired and very satisfied. There was a very large oak tree just near us, with one of its immense lower lying branches having fallen off right next to it, a branch as big as a large tree itself. We counted about 100 rings on the branch, so the oak should be somewhere over 100 years old, massive and mighty, and hopefully living on many hundred more.
More from me soon. Enjoy the trees - it's National Tree Week!
For more details see Grims Ditch Woodland
No comments:
Post a Comment