Today the plan was to help David Preston to carry out further work on Adel Bog. Unfortunately, due to a puncture to his van tyre, he was unable to join us, and so, while two of us did some litterpicking, six of us did some path clearing.
The path we chose was the raised path which runs from Adel Pond, along the north side of Adel Bog, towards Stairfoot Lane.
The trees on each side of this path are mainly holly which were creating a dark canopy over the path. We removed a great deal of holly from above the path.
We used the offcuts to create some dead-hedging between the path and Adel Bog.
Looking along the path in the direction of Stairfoot Lane: dead hedging on the left of the pathLooking back towards Adel Pond
Another successful and enjoyable morning in the woods.
On Friday, the Chair of FOAW (ie me) attended the inauguration ceremony for the creation of a new area of woodland off King Lane to the north of Alwoodley.
Leeds University has purchased 37 hectares of land (that is about 90 acres) from Clonmore Farm in order to create the new woodland. The precise location is shown below. The boundary is shown in red. To help you orient yourself, Five Lane Ends is the bottom centre of the map, and King Lane runs along the south west boundary.
It was a beautiful afternoon and the event was attended by about 40 people – including two Alwoodley parish councillors, representatives of the Forestry Commission and other interested parties.
The university’s intention in creating the woodland is to:
provide the opportunity for research and teaching
increase biodiversity
reduce carbon in the atmosphere
provide benefits to the university and the local community
The research and teaching opportunities will be across many departments of the university.
The university will be leaving in place the existing woodland adjacent to Eccup Whin (which is owned by Leeds City Council) and leaving some of the land as scrub to study how the land changes over time. Where they plant woodland, they will be planting appropriate broadleaf trees. They will also be planting trees of different ages to try to create the mix of ages to be found in a natural woodland. The existing buildings will be retained but only to provided shelter to lecturers and students. No new buildings are planned.
The long term intention is to allow public access to 20% of the woodland. 80% will be kept as private because the primary purpose of the woodland it to provide opportunities for research and walkers and dogs may well affect the outcome of the research. Public access to the 20% will be allowed in phases. Phase 1 is to provide an alternative route for Leeds Country Way and the Meanwood Valley Trail.
Roger Gair and Professor Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University, after planting the first tree in Gair Wood.
The woodland is named Gair Wood to honour Roger Gair who retired as secretary of Leeds University last year, and has had a long interest in conservation. He and Professor Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University, planted the first tree, an oak, and then the rest of us had the opportunity to plant cherry tree whips (ie very young trees which have not yet developed branches).
If you would like the opportunity to plant some trees in the new woodland, the university is organising some planting days and you can book your place by clicking on the following link which will take you to Eventbrite where you can choose a time and date to do your bit. You don’t need any previous experience and you will be shown what to do.
Friends of Adel Woods 