This morning half a dozen of us met with local ranger, Joe Craig-Jackson, by the cricket pavilion at 10 am. Three of us were there to work with Joe on the pond, and three to pick up litter.
Adel Pond
For many years, Adel Pond has been an important breeding place for frogs, newts and many invertebrates, and every Autumn one of our events is to work with our local ranger to dredge the pond of silt washed into the pond from the ditches which supply it with water.
As can be seen in the photograph at the beginning of this post, this Autumn the pond was in a particularly bad state due to the Summer drought and a leak in the outlet sluice. When we arrived, it was possible to walk across the pond and it was strewn with logs, bits of wood and rocks.
Our first task was to remove the year’s detritus from the surface of the pond. It is surprising how many logs and rocks arrive in the pond each year. Some of the logs fall in from the trees, but some logs and the rocks must be thrown in for “a lark”.
Having cleared the surface rocks and logs, we started to dig out the mud from the centre of the pond clearing many more logs and large stones buried in the mud.
We transported the mud out of the pond in buckets and distributed it in the nearby undergrowth. As we came to the end of our session, Joe also raked out the mud to form a saucer in the centre of the pond.
It may be hard to see how much we achieved, but have a look at our blog entry for the 4th November 2026 (in the pipeline) and you may be surprised!
Litterpicking
Our three litter pickers each went separate ways so that they could cover more ground.
Sue made her way along Crag Lane to the picnic area, Adel Crag and the Stairfoot Lane Car Park taking diversions along smaller paths for a lovely walk in the sunshine.
She found very little litter but found lots of bags of dog poo – some of it thrown into the bushes making it difficult and treacherous for the imaginary dog poo fairies to retrieve.
Rob went the opposite way along Crag Lane to King Lane and then all around the Village Green, picking up two bags of litter.
Carol picked up litter around the Adel Moor area and on towards the Seven Arches but did not find much litter there. She then made her way back to the Village Green focusing on the wooded area between the playground and Crag Lane. Here she found lots more litter – the usual assortment of bottles, wrappers, wipes etc. She collected one bag of litter. En route she chatted with a couple who told her:
“We’ve lived in the area for ten years but still feel we’re on holiday because we enjoy Adel Woods so much!”
It’s true: we are lucky to have such beautiful and varied woods on our doorstep.
Join Friends of Adel Woods
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, 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. You don’t need to book to come along to one of our work “parties”: just come along!
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 box at the bottom of this page.
