Heath Spotted Orchid, Adel Bog, 29 July 2012
Adel Bog is a lovely, peaceful place within Adel Woods. Secluded and off the beaten track, it is a calming place to do some conservation work. It is what is left of what was once a much larger boggy area. It is home to a population of Heath Spotted Orchids.
In 2011, The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, funded by Leeds City Council and Alwoodley Parish Council, cleared a lot of Purple Moor Grass from the bog, as it was taking over the area and turning it into dry land. Since then, Friends of Adel Woods have carried out further work, clearing back the trees which surround the bog, and pulling up saplings and brambles.
Our work is clearly having an effect. The bog is not as wet as we would like it to be, but it is still wet, and the vegetation is changing in nature: there are many rushes, and other moisture loving plants.
It was a fine morning, and fourteen volunteers met up today – including two new volunteers – to pick up litter and help Steve Joul work on the bog. Four people went off to pick up litter, while the rest of us made our way to the bog.
Disappointingly, on our way to the bog, we found that someone had dumped about seven bags of charity bags – for Children with Cancer and Candlelighters – in the middle of some holly bushes. Clearly, whoever put them there, wanted them not to be found because they were not flytipped on the outskirts of the woods: it clearly took a lot of effort to get them to where they were dumped. Needless to say, FOAW removed them and disposed of them.
Moving on to more uplifting things, the bog looks different every time we visit it. Today, it was quite dry, particularly at the northern end. Over the years, we have removed thousands of saplings from the bog. Today, there seemed to be hundreds of new tree seedlings, and we removed very many of them. Fortunately, the pulled up very easily.
There is still lots more to do: in an ideal world, we would have a FOAB group – a Friends of Adel Bog group! But our volunteers have so many areas of the woods to work on. Fortunately Steve can bring other teams of volunteers to work on the bog.
Thank you to everyone who helped today.
Friends of Adel Woods 