Today one of our team picked litter. The rest of us worked on Adel Bog with David Preston, our local ranger from Leeds City Council.
Working on Adel Bog is a favourite task with Friends of Adel Woods. Located in the heart of Adel Woods, near Adel Pond, it is a very peaceful place to work.
It is home to various plants that like wet conditions – such as rushes, Devil’s Bit Scabious, and Bog Asphodel – but it is gradually drying out, partly due to the surrounding trees and the seeding of trees within the bog, and this year partly because of the dry summer.
Ten years ago, the boundary between the bog and the trees to the left of the photograph below was about 15-20 feet further back. Many saplings have taken root and without urgent action the bog will have a short future. Maps show that 150 years ago, the bog extended all the way to the pond, about 75 yards away. Now, the area between the pond and the bog is woodland.
A further problem is that, as the bog has dried out, more people have started to walk across it, creating paths and trampling the flora. A well-worn path can be seen in the foreground of the photo below.
Our task today was threefold:
- to block off paths leading into the bog
- to remove saplings, bracken and brambles within the bog
- to cut back tree branches overhanging the bog
We blocked off the main path leading into the bog with a process called “dead hedging”. This involves using branches, uprooted saplings and any other vegetation, to construct a fence or hedge.
While David led the construction of the dead hedge, the rest of us provided materials by pulling up saplings with “tree poppers” (wonderful tools which can pull up a small sapling in a matter of seconds), clearing brambles, and cutting back branches on the trees around the edge of the bog.
Friends of Adel Woods 