This morning fourteen of us met at the Slabbering Baby entrance to the woods on Buckstone Road. We had two tasks scheduled: litterpicking, and working with ranger Joe Craig-Jackson on the orchid meadow.
Litterpicking
Four of us chose to pick up litter – three working together, and one choosing to work on her own (with her dog). Here are their reports:
“Three of us and we collected three bags of litter. Dave left us to collect litter on his way back home and two of us walked to the picnic tables, Adel Crag and the Stairfoot Lane Car Park. It was quite challenging with the wind gusts so the bin bag hoops proved their worth. There was very little litter on the main paths and car parks – most was in the woods adjacent to paths. There was plenty of dog poop, mercifully bagged, and the usual plastic bottles, cans and paper waste.”
“This morning I went from Buckstone Road to the village green. There was a fair bit of rubbish around – mainly cans, plastic bottles, sweet wrappers and a couple of wipes!! From there through the woods to Devil’s Rock and then to St Gemma’s field. I targeted an area tucked away in the middle, previously used as a chill out zone – lots of rubbish etc. Returned to the Orchid Field with one large bag of rubbish.“
The orchid meadow (aka the cricket meadow)
Ten of us chose to work on the orchid meadow (also known as the cricket meadow).
Friends of Adel Woods have been looking after the meadow since 2014. It is home to many beautiful common spotted orchids which flower in June andJuly each year, as well as other wild flowers. To keep it in good condition, we need to mow it in August each year and rake off the mowings. If we don’t, the meadow will be soon be taken over by brambles, bracken and saplings – which was its state in 2014.
This year, Leeds City Council rangers Rachel Todner and Louise Gibson mowed the meadow a week or so ago, and raked the mowings into long piles to allow them to dry out in the sun and drop any seeds.
However, they left an area of the meadow unmown so that Joe could show members of Friends of Adel Woods how to use a scythe. Several of our group chose this option and they made a good job of it.
The rest of us raked the mowings into piles and transported them into compost heaps in the woodland edge.
We also took the opportunity to pull up a lot of Himalayan Balsam from the woodland margin around the meadow.
We finished working just after 12 noon and Joe got out the brew kit and some biscuits to provide much needed refreshment.
Join Friends of Adel Woods
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.
Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.
We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods, and make new friends. If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page and come along to one of our work parties.
If you would like to join our email mailing list, please get in touch by leaving a comment on this website – you should be able to see a comment button at the bottom of this page.
Friends of Adel Woods 