In our February blog post, I spoke of the promise of Spring; in our March blog post, I said that Spring seemed to be almost here. Today, even though we have had another month of seemingly endless rain, I think that it finally arrived. We had a lovely morning.
We also had a bumper turn out of sixteen volunteers, including four new ones!
We met in Buckstone Road and today we had two tasks: litterpicking; and removing seedlings and saplings from Adel Moor.
Four of our volunteers chose to litterpick, and they gathered two bags of litter, ranging as far as the Stairfoot Lane carpark. One of our seasoned litterpickers commented that when they got there, she had never seen the carpark looking so pristine, so perhaps another group had been out litterpicking recently.
We had twelve volunteers on Adel Moor. This is a special habitat as it is the last piece of heathland in Leeds, and it is home to a small population of viviparous lizards, and green hairstreak butterflies.
Without management, the heathland will eventually be taken over by woodland, and so for the last fourteen years Friends of Adel Woods have worked with Leeds City Council rangers to keep the heathland in good condition. One of the tasks is to remove tree seedlings and saplings.
The smallest seedlings can be pulled up by hand. Others can be dug up using a mini-mattock or a mattock. Saplings with a trunk up to about an inch in diameter can be levered out of the ground using our tree popper, an amazing tool which enables us to get the job done a lot faster than with mattocks and spades.
About Friends of Adel woods
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website.
Our next events
On Sunday the 5th May, our committee member and expert naturalist, Steve Joul, will be leading a birdsong walk in Adel Woods, meeting at 6.55 am in the Village Green carpark opposite the shops on King Lane. This event will be from 7 am to 9 am.
Our next work party will be on Saturday the 25th May when we will be litterpicking and doing further work on Adel Moor from 10 am to 12 noon.
Further details are given on our homepage and will be sent out via our mailing list.
Friends of Adel Woods 