A fine day, and we had a wonderful turn out of eleven Friends: one ready to litter pick, and ten to work on Adel Moor.
Adel Moor is the last remaining heathland in Leeds, and as such is an important habitat, and home to plants like heather and bilberries, and a population of common lizards. Left to itself, it will quite rapidly turn into birch and oak woodland and lose what makes it special. So over the last twelve years, Friends of Adel Woods have carried out a lot of work on the moor, and so have Leeds Parks and Countryside Department with the help of various corporate groups. We have improved the condition of the moor and it is in a reasonable state at the moment, though there is still a huge amount of work to do.
We set to work clearing brambles, bracken, rosebay willow herb and saplings from the heather. In the past, some of the invading trees were cut down rather than dug out. In effect they were coppiced and the remaining trunks have vigorously sprouted many shoots. Frequently, what looks from a distance like a small bush or sapling has a large trunk at the base and is very difficult to remove. Undeterred, one of our Friends successfully tackled some of these larger trees.
Whilst the heather is in very good condition over a large area, in certain places bracken has overwhelmed it. Thus, at the moment, areas of the moor look devastated under a surface matting of last year’s dead bracken stalks. However, we know from experience that if bracken is removed, heather seedlings in the soil will sprout.
We gathered up as much of the dead bracken as we could and carried it off into the woods for composting with the brambles, saplings and other plants we had removed.
At about 11.15 am we had a few drops of rain, but fortunately the weather held and we had a very enjoyable morning.
While ten of us were working on Adel Moor, our litter picker was beavering away elsewhere in the woods and picked up two bags of litter, including a number of glass bottles.
Thank you to all who joined us this morning!
Friends of Adel Woods 