Monthly Archives: August 2022

Wednesday, 24th August 2022: bracken pulling on Adel Moor (3)

Posted on August 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

Today was our third and final bracken pulling morning on Adel Moor.

Despite rain as we got up – and an unpromising weather forecast – it turned out yet again to be a lovely morning. Again we had a lovely group of seven enthusiastic and hardworking Friends.

We set ourselves the target of clearing a triangular area of bracken adjacent to the area we cleared last Wednesday. And we more or less achieved our aim! The first photograph below shows the area at 10.11 am, and the second photograph shows the same area two hours later at 12.15 pm, after we had finished carrying all the pulled bracken to a compost heap in the woods.

Adel Moor, Leeds before Friends of Adel Woods clear bracken on 24th August 2022 — ***Before pulling bracken…***

Adel Moor Leeds after clearing bracken by Friends of Adel Woods on 24th August 2022 — ***…and after.***

If you think that bracken looks good and are wondering why we pull it up , the brown patches in the photo above give an indication: where bracken has been established for a while, all other plants die off and we are left with a monoculture of bracken. Fortunately, quite a lot of heather and bilberries were hanging on under the bracken we pulled up. Bilberries and heather are both typical and desirable moorland plants. In the photo above, the bilberries are the green plants in the middle right.

At this time of year the moor looks fantastic – as you can see from the next two photographs.

Adel Moor, Leeds. Friends of Adel Woods. — ***Heather on Adel Moor, 24th August 2022***

The post and brown tube you can see in the foreground of the photograph above is used by mason bees and leaf cutter bees and is part of a study by Leeds University to understand more about bee biodiversity in urban areas.

Heather on Adel Moor, Leeds — ***Heather on Adel Moor***

***Three tired but happy Friends of Adel Woods***

For more information about bracken pulling on Adel Moor, see our blog posts for the 10th August and 17th August.

Saturday, 20th August 2022: litterpicking; cleaning the Slabbering Baby; and working on Adel Bog

Posted on August 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

Another lovely Summer day and another great turn out for Friends of Adel Woods.

Today, there were two programmed tasks: litterpicking and working on Adel Bog. Three of us chose litterpicking and six of us chose to work on Adel Bog – more below.

A tenth Friend, Judith, chose to clean up the Slabbering Baby.

The Slabbering Baby, Adel Woods, Leeds — *The Slabbering Baby*

And she made a great job of it!

Litterpicking

Starting from Buckstone Road, the litterpickers set off up the track by the cricket grounds and then along Crag Lane to the Village Green, each picking up two bags of rubbish. They also found a charity bag containing hundreds of unused charity bags for Breast Cancer Research UK which someone had obviously dumped. This is the second time this has happened – the first time, some years ago, we found six heavy bags of unused charity bags for the charity Coping With Cancer hidden deep in impenetrable undergrowth near Adel Bog – a good five minutes walk from the nearest vehicle access.

Adel Bog

While all this was going on, six of us spent the morning working on Adel Bog, our task this morning being to clear saplings, bracken and brambles.

Small and large tree poppers - a plate is missing from the foot of the smaller one

In carrying out this task we were helped considerably by the loan of two tree poppers from the Council.

The tree poppers make light work of removing small saplings and enabled us to clear far more than we would have been able to remove using mattocks or spades.

They are basically a lever with a jaw at the foot which grasps the trunk of a sapling. You can then lever the sapling out of the ground in a matter of seconds in the case of a small sapling. With larger saplings with extensive roots it might take a few minutes, but still a very quick job.

Friends of Adel Woods working on Adel Bog, Leeds on the 20th August 2022 — ***Man conquers nature – with the help of a tree popper!***

Adel Bog is a beautiful little habitat which is home to rushes, purple moor grass, heath spotted orchids, cotton grass, bog asphodel, tormentil, devil’s bit scabious, and yellow iris. Often when we work there, there are lots of butterflies. It is a lovely place to be.

Unfortunately, it is a constant battle to conserve the bog against the invasion of brambles, bracken and trees. That invasion has moved the top boundary of the bog inwards by about six metres – as can be seen in the photograph below. A map from about a hundred years ago shows that the bog stretched all the way to Adel Pond at that time!

Today, in view of this Summer’s drought, it cannot be said that the bog was boggy. However, the vegetation was surprisingly green and this habitat is definitely worth preserving.

Wednesday, 17th August 2022: bracken pulling on Adel Moor

Posted on August 17, 2022 | 1 comment

Friends of Adel Woods pulling bracken on Adel Moor, Leeds, on 17th August 2022

This was our second Wednesday “work party” during August in which we focused on pulling bracken on Adel Moor. Again we had a very good turn out of nine “Friends” and it was another lovely morning. We have one more bracken pulling session this year – next Wednesday, the 24th.

If you are wondering why we pull up bracken, it is because it eventually smothers all other plants and diminishes bio-diversity. This was very evident in some parts of the area we worked on today where there no other plants living under the bracken. However, in other parts, we found lots of heather and bilberries still managing to carry on – as can be seen in the “before and after” photographs below.

Friends of Adel Woods pulling bracken on Adel Moor, 17th August 2022 — *Before…*

Today we focused on a triangular area to the east of the main path crossing the moor from North to South. Again you can see from the photographs below that there was still a lot of heather growing under the bracken and it was very satisfying to bring it to light. In the area beyond and to the left of the area shown in the photographs, there was little growing as can be seen in the last photograph in this post.

As we pulled the bracken, we had a lovely surprise when one of our party found a bird’s nest suspended in the top of some bracken fronds. There were empty egg shells in the nest which we identified as a robin’s nest. The fact that the egg shells were still in the nest is probably not a good sign as birds usually remove shells from the nest once the chicks have hatched.

Friends of Adel Woods, Adel Moor, Robin nest 17th August 2022 — *A bird’s nest found in the bracken fronds on Adel Moor*

Friends of Adel Woods on Adel Moor on Wednesday the 17th August 2022 — *Three* *Friends of Adel Woods on Adel Moor: 17th* *August* *2022*

Another lovely morning. In the foreground, you can see how bare the ground can be once the bracken has been removed. Hopefully, other plants will now have a chance to repopulate the moor.

Fortunately, you can also see lots of heather and gorse in the background.

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Wednesday, 10th August 2022: bracken pulling on Adel Moor

Posted on August 10, 2022 | 1 comment

Friends of Adel Woods; Adel Moor, 10th August 2022. Bracken pulling — *Adel Moor: 10th August 2022*

Today was the first ever Friends of Adel Woods event to take place on a weekday.

It was Barbara’s idea to have three midweek events during August focusing solely on removing bracken from Adel Moor. We have two more coming up – on Wednesday the 17th and Wednesday the 24th.

For those of you reading this in a few weeks, months or years time, we are currently in the middle of a heatwave, the second in less than a month, and it was already very warm by the time we met at 9.55 am on Buckstone Road. Despite the heat, we had a fantastic turn out of ten Friends, including three new volunteers.

Friends of Adel Woods pulling bracken on Adel Moor on 10th August 2022 — *Bracken pulling on Adel Moor: Getting started*

Friends of Adel Woods and the council have done a lot of work on the moor over the last thirteen years and it is looking fantastic. However, it is a constant battle to remove bracken, brambles and saplings. Bracken is particularly invasive and will eventually smother other plants which we wish to see on the moor.

*Bracken pulling on Adel Moor: an hour and a half later!*

In an hour and a half of diligent activity we were able to clear an area which I would estimate as similar in size to a 25 metre swimming pool – a fantastic achievement. You can see from the photo above, that where the bracken has overrun an area, there is very little other vegetation underneath it. However, heather and bilberries were still hanging on. [By the way, the two photographs above were taken from the same spot, but I didn’t point the camera in quite the right direction for the second].

Unfortunately, it takes a determined and regular effort to remove bracken from an area. However, we are hopeful that as bracken pulling work continues, the heather and bilberries will be renewed.

Friends of Adel Woods; bracken pulling on Adel Moor on 10th August 2022 — *Adel Moor: looking towards the south.*

Adel Moor has a population of viviparous lizards, though we did not see any today. In the last three years, green hairstreak butterflies have also been found here.

We are continuing the work of bracken pulling next Wednesday, the 17th August, and on Wednesday the 24th August. All are welcome – see our home page for more information.