A cool but dry morning when we met at the Slabbering Baby entrance to Adel Woods on Buckstone Road. Our plans this morning were litterpicking and working on Adel Bog with David Preston, our local Parks and Countryside ranger.
Three Friends (of Adel Woods) chose to litterpick. One of them, Steph, also went off to clear, as far as practicable with a pair of loppers, the branches of a tree which had fallen across the path down from the picnic area to the Meanwood Valley Trail.
The work party working on Adel Bog was boosted by six strapping lads from Ahmadiyya Youth Association in Bradford who we hope will join us again. So in all we had eighteen volunteers – from memory our second largest turn out ever!
The bog is a a distinctive habitat within Adel Woods and we usually include one morning a year to look after it. It needs care and attention as the surrounding trees drop thousands of seeds on it each Autumn and it is a constant battle to push the boundary back to where it was twelve years ago, so that bog plants like bog asphodel, heath spotted orchids, devil’s bit scabious, and rushes can continue to thrive.
The task today was to remove brambles and saplings from the bog and establish a clear boundary around the perimeter. On the southern edge, our plan was to mark the boundary by creating a “dead hedge”.
Creating a dead hedge involves driving stakes into the ground to form a framework into which uprooted brambles and saplings, and branches can be interwoven to create a barrier. The stakes are ideally straight branches of trees or trunks of saplings. David had brought with him some stakes gathered from another site. You can find a photograph of the completed dead hedge at the end of this post.
Fortunately, apart from a heavy shower at about 11.30 this morning, the weather was dry today. However, one very positive consequence of the heavy rain we have experienced in the last month (Storm Babet in mid-October and Storm Ciarán over the last couple of days) was that Adel Bog was wetter than it has ever been. Everywhere was extremely squelchy – which was not very pleasant for people who had arrived in trainers!
This was a chance to use for the first time a tree popper which FOAW purchased with the assistance of a grant from Alwoodley Parish Council – for which we are very grateful.
As the photograph shows, a tree popper is a lever with a jaw at the bottom. You put the trunk of a sapling in the jaw, and it is then very easy to lever a sapling out of the ground in a matter of seconds.
Thank you David and all our volunteers!
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events. Recently, we have had a bat walk, and a fungal foray.
Our next “work party” is on Sunday the 10th December, when we will be litter picking, and carrying out path maintenance.
If you would like to take part in our activities, please get in touch by leaving a comment on our website.
Friends of Adel Woods 