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

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 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.

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.

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.