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.
Devils Bit Scabious, Adel BogBog Asphodel, Adel Bog
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.
Clearing saplings, bracken and brambles
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.
Starting the process of “dead hedging”.
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.
Preparing a stake for dead hedging
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.
Using a “tree popper” to uproot saplingsThe completed “dead hedge”David and today’s volunteersAdel Bog: Sunday 18th September 2022
Today was our third and final bracken pulling morning on Adel Moor.
Despite rain as we got up – and an unpromising weather forecast – it turned out yet again to be a lovely morning. Again we had a lovely group of seven enthusiastic and hardworking Friends.
We set ourselves the target of clearing a triangular area of bracken adjacent to the area we cleared last Wednesday. And we more or less achieved our aim! The first photograph below shows the area at 10.11 am, and the second photograph shows the same area two hours later at 12.15 pm, after we had finished carrying all the pulled bracken to a compost heap in the woods.
Before pulling bracken……and after.
If you think that bracken looks good and are wondering why we pull it up , the brown patches in the photo above give an indication: where bracken has been established for a while, all other plants die off and we are left with a monoculture of bracken. Fortunately, quite a lot of heather and bilberries were hanging on under the bracken we pulled up. Bilberries and heather are both typical and desirable moorland plants. In the photo above, the bilberries are the green plants in the middle right.
At this time of year the moor looks fantastic – as you can see from the next two photographs.
Heather on Adel Moor, 24th August 2022
The post and brown tube you can see in the foreground of the photograph above is used by mason bees and leaf cutter bees and is part of a study by Leeds University to understand more about bee biodiversity in urban areas.
Heather on Adel MoorThree tired but happy Friends of Adel Woods
For more information about bracken pulling on Adel Moor, see our blog posts for the 10th August and 17th August.
Another lovely Summer day and another great turn out for Friends of Adel Woods.
Today, there were two programmed tasks: litterpicking and working on Adel Bog. Three of us chose litterpicking and six of us chose to work on Adel Bog – more below.
A tenth Friend, Judith, chose to clean up the Slabbering Baby.
The Slabbering Baby
And she made a great job of it!
Before – you can just about see the leaves and mudAfter – nice and clean
Litterpicking
Starting from Buckstone Road, the litterpickers set off up the track by the cricket grounds and then along Crag Lane to the Village Green, each picking up two bags of rubbish. They also found a charity bag containing hundreds of unused charity bags for Breast Cancer Research UK which someone had obviously dumped. This is the second time this has happened – the first time, some years ago, we found six heavy bags of unused charity bags for the charity Coping With Cancer hidden deep in impenetrable undergrowth near Adel Bog – a good five minutes walk from the nearest vehicle access.
Adel Bog
Adel Bog: Saturday, the 20th August 2022
While all this was going on, six of us spent the morning working on Adel Bog, our task this morning being to clear saplings, bracken and brambles.
In carrying out this task we were helped considerably by the loan of two tree poppers from the Council.
The tree poppers make light work of removing small saplings and enabled us to clear far more than we would have been able to remove using mattocks or spades.
They are basically a lever with a jaw at the foot which grasps the trunk of a sapling. You can then lever the sapling out of the ground in a matter of seconds in the case of a small sapling. With larger saplings with extensive roots it might take a few minutes, but still a very quick job.
Man conquers nature – with the help of a tree popper!
Adel Bog is a beautiful little habitat which is home to rushes, purple moor grass, heath spotted orchids, cotton grass, bog asphodel, tormentil, devil’s bit scabious, and yellow iris. Often when we work there, there are lots of butterflies. It is a lovely place to be.
Unfortunately, it is a constant battle to conserve the bog against the invasion of brambles, bracken and trees. That invasion has moved the top boundary of the bog inwards by about six metres – as can be seen in the photograph below. A map from about a hundred years ago shows that the bog stretched all the way to Adel Pond at that time!
And another one bites the dust!
Today, in view of this Summer’s drought, it cannot be said that the bog was boggy. However, the vegetation was surprisingly green and this habitat is definitely worth preserving.
Five Friends of Adel Woods on Adel Bog – with two tree poppers! – at the end of a busy morning.
This was our second Wednesday “work party” during August in which we focused on pulling bracken on Adel Moor. Again we had a very good turn out of nine “Friends” and it was another lovely morning. We have one more bracken pulling session this year – next Wednesday, the 24th.
If you are wondering why we pull up bracken, it is because it eventually smothers all other plants and diminishes bio-diversity. This was very evident in some parts of the area we worked on today where there no other plants living under the bracken. However, in other parts, we found lots of heather and bilberries still managing to carry on – as can be seen in the “before and after” photographs below.
Before……and after!
Today we focused on a triangular area to the east of the main path crossing the moor from North to South. Again you can see from the photographs below that there was still a lot of heather growing under the bracken and it was very satisfying to bring it to light. In the area beyond and to the left of the area shown in the photographs, there was little growing as can be seen in the last photograph in this post.
Before...After
As we pulled the bracken, we had a lovely surprise when one of our party found a bird’s nest suspended in the top of some bracken fronds. There were empty egg shells in the nest which we identified as a robin’s nest. The fact that the egg shells were still in the nest is probably not a good sign as birds usually remove shells from the nest once the chicks have hatched.
A bird’s nest found in the bracken fronds on Adel MoorThreeFriends of Adel Woods on Adel Moor: 17th August 2022
Another lovely morning. In the foreground, you can see how bare the ground can be once the bracken has been removed. Hopefully, other plants will now have a chance to repopulate the moor.
Fortunately, you can also see lots of heather and gorse in the background.
Today was the first ever Friends of Adel Woods event to take place on a weekday.
It was Barbara’s idea to have three midweek events during August focusing solely on removing bracken from Adel Moor. We have two more coming up – on Wednesday the 17th and Wednesday the 24th.
For those of you reading this in a few weeks, months or years time, we are currently in the middle of a heatwave, the second in less than a month, and it was already very warm by the time we met at 9.55 am on Buckstone Road. Despite the heat, we had a fantastic turn out of ten Friends, including three new volunteers.
Bracken pulling on Adel Moor: Getting started
Friends of Adel Woods and the council have done a lot of work on the moor over the last thirteen years and it is looking fantastic. However, it is a constant battle to remove bracken, brambles and saplings. Bracken is particularly invasive and will eventually smother other plants which we wish to see on the moor.
Bracken pulling on Adel Moor: an hour and a half later!
In an hour and a half of diligent activity we were able to clear an area which I would estimate as similar in size to a 25 metre swimming pool – a fantastic achievement. You can see from the photo above, that where the bracken has overrun an area, there is very little other vegetation underneath it. However, heather and bilberries were still hanging on. [By the way, the two photographs above were taken from the same spot, but I didn’t point the camera in quite the right direction for the second].
Unfortunately, it takes a determined and regular effort to remove bracken from an area. However, we are hopeful that as bracken pulling work continues, the heather and bilberries will be renewed.
Adel Moor: looking towards the south.
Adel Moor has a population of viviparous lizards, though we did not see any today. In the last three years, green hairstreak butterflies have also been found here.
We are continuing the work of bracken pulling next Wednesday, the 17th August, and on Wednesday the 24th August. All are welcome – see our home page for more information.
Our agenda today was litterpicking through the woods, and removing bracken, brambles and saplings from Adel Moor. As can be seen from the photos we were blessed with lovely weather.
Two of us chose to litterpick and gathered about three bags of rubbish during the morning.
Our intrepid litterpickers!
The rest of us, eight in all, spent a warm morning working on the moor, focusing mainly on pulling up bracken. If you are wondering why we do this, it is because bracken is extremely prolific and eventually smothers and kills off all other plants. In the photo below, you can clearly see, just beyond our Friends, the dividing line between the heather (which we are trying to encourage) and the lighter green bracken.
Adel Moor is special as the last remaining piece of heathland in Leeds and it is also host to a population of common lizards, though we didn’t see any today.
In the last three Springs, green hairstreak butterflies have been found on the moor. They are not a rare species nationally but until 2020 they were only found in the Leeds area on Otley Chevin.
Fortunately, bracken is usually pretty easy to pull up, though the main part of the root is left in the ground and it takes several years of “bracken bashing” to kill bracken off.
It was heartening to find plenty of heather still hanging on beneath the fronds of bracken.
Two piles of bracken and four of our bracken bashers.
At the end of the morning’s work, the bracken is carried into the surrounding woodland for composting
At the end of the morning’s work, the bracken is carried into the surrounding woodland for composting.Time for lunch!
It has been a beautiful week weatherwise, with soaring temperatures yesterday. Still a nice day today, but fortunately a lot cooler at 10 am this morning.
Twelve Friends today: four of us to pick up litter and eight of us clearing paths.
Having furnished the litter pickers with equipment and bags, the path clearers set off with the ultimate aim of widening the path that runs South across the meadow between the picnic area and the Meanwood Valley Trail.
First, though, we made our way to the path heading north off Crag Lane from the back of Old Leo’s clubhouse. The entrance to this path had become much narrower due to encroaching grass, nettles, brambles and other plants, and so we widened the entrance and trimmed back the more prominent holly further up the path. We also removed a large fallen branch from the path.
From there we made our way back to Crag Lane, heading in the direction of the picnic area. However, we had only gone a few yards when one of our Friends made the amazing discovery of a mole snuffling around in the foliage at the edge of the path.
A mole wandering about on Crag Lane
We all stopped work to have a look at him or her. It was the first time your correspondent had ever seen a mole – and probably the first time any of us had! We didn’t touch the mole but watched it wander around. It seemed completely unaware of our presence, but also seemed not to know where it was going. We speculated that it had lost its way and could not make its way back underground because the ground was so hard. One of us poured out some water for it and it immediately lapped it up. We were worried for its safety as we could hear dogs nearby, but fortunately it made its way into the undergrowth and we left it to its own devices. What an exciting start to the day!
As we made our way along Crag Lane, we cut back foliage which was encroaching most onto the path.
Once we reached the picnic area, we took the path down to the Meanwood Valley Trail which had become very narrow. But first, two of us made a detour to ensure that the drainage pipe under the path just beyond the picnic area was clear. We dug out the mud from the entrance and exit ditches, and cleared the mud from the pipe.
Clearing the drainage pipe near the picnic area
By now, the sun was out and it was hot work clearing the path. One or two of our Friends were extremely pink in the face! However, we made good progress before finishing at 12 noon.
Widening the path from the picnic area down to the Meanwood Valley Trail
Having finished work, some of us went to have a look at the orchids in the orchid meadow (otherwise known as the cricket meadow).
Friends of Adel Woods in full colour after a very enjoyable morning
The meadow was an absolute picture, full of buttercups and orchids, clover and all sorts of grasses and other wild plants.
Common spotted orchids, buttercups and clover in the orchid meadow, Adel Woods
We first discovered this meadow in 2014. At that time it contained a large number of common spotted orchids but it was in a poor state: trees and Himalayan Balsam were beginning to take over. We began work on the meadow under the supervision of Steve Joul in 2016 and it has been transformed into a wonderful haven for wild flowers and insects. We have removed the trees and most of the Himalayan Balsam, and Steve has mown the meadow each Autumn for the last three years. Our new ranger, David Preston, is planning to mow the meadow again this Autumn.
You can see what the meadow looked like in 2016 here.
Thank you to all the Friends who joined us today. The litter pickers picked up about three bags of litter.
The orchid meadow, 18 June 2022. There are a lot more orchids than you might think!
The chair delivered a report on the last twelve months’ activities – see below.
In the treasurer’s absence, the secretary delivered the treasurer’s report. As at 31st March 2022, FOAW held funds of £475, of which approximately £157 will be spent on insurance in July. The chair said that a further £70 or so will be spent on mini-mattocks which members have found very useful when working on Adel Moor.
After the chair’s and treasurer’s reports, appointment of the officers and committee took place.
All the committee members and officers stood for re-election and were duly re-appointed. In addition, two more people, Steve Joul and Sue Chambers, agreed to join the committee, bringing the number on the committee up to eight out of a possible ten.
Roger Gilbert was re-appointed chair; Judith White was re-appointed treasurer; and Stephanie Clarke was re-appointed secretary. Rob Hall agreed to act as auditor.
The committee members are now: Roger Gilbert; Judith White; Stephanie Clarke; Rob Hall; David Hampshire; David Smith; Steve Joul; and Sue Chambers.
A vote of thanks was passed for the work of Steve Joul, who retired from Leeds City Council in March, and David Preston, who was Meanwood Valley Ranger for three years, and has been appointed full time ranger as Steve’s replacement.
David has been assigned to work with Friends of Adel Woods four days a year and will probably work with us on tasks which FOAW can’t do on their own – eg tasks which need machinery rather than hand tools. He said that he will also be doing a lot of work with corporate groups. We discussed plans for work on Adel Moor, Adel Pond and Adel Bog and Adel Crag. David will also be able to assist with applications for grants for tools and the like.
The Chair’s report
Our last AGM was on the 26th May 2021 in the middle of a covid 19 lockdown. At that time, we hadn’t had any FOAW events since 13th December 2020. So our first event in 2021 was on the 25th July, shortly after what was dubbed at the time “Freedom Day”, the 19th July!
Working on the Stairfoot Lane steps on 25th July 2021
On the 25th July we litterpicked; repaired the Stairfoot Lane steps; removed a fallen tree from the path by the stream and created some drainage channels; and Steve Joul and Roderic cleared the drainage channel by the picnic area.
Since July we have had a further fourteen events – thirteen “work parties” and one birdsong walk. I have adopted the term “work parties” since David H used it to describe what we do: it sounds better than “task”, or “chain gang”! Our work parties have included the following:
seven mornings of litterpicking
two mornings of raking mowings off the orchid meadow (after it had been mown by Steve Joul)
three mornings working on Adel Moor – removing bracken, brambles and saplings
one morning on Adel Pond
one morning on Adel Bog
three mornings of path clearing
a day and a half of surveying and cleaning nest boxes
one morning of working on the hospice woodland, including removing a large tree which had fallen across the footpath
The birdsong walk took place on the 8th May. It was led by Steve Joul, and attended by twenty four people, raising £53.50 for FOAW funds. We saw or heard 19 species of birds. You can find out more about all these events by reading the entries on this blog.
Birdsong walk in Adel Woods on the 8th May 2022
Nature notes during the year
Azalea in Adel WoodsThe lime tree in Stairfoot lane carpark
The blog entry for July 2021 asked: Is Stairfoot Lane carpark the most fragrant part of Adel Woods? This was not a ridiculous question. There is a beautiful, fragrant, yellow azalea just below the carpark. It blooms in May and was still in bloom last Saturday and it casts a wonderful fragrance around the area. To find it, start down the steps leading down to the stream; after the fifth step, turn onto the path on the left, and the azalea is about 25 yards along. There is also a large lime tree in the Stairfoot Lane carpark and it will be coming into bloom and exuding a sweet fragrance in the next few weeks.
Green Hairstreak butterfly photographed on Adel Moor on 17th April 2022 by Joseph Worrilow
I am also pleased to be able to say that Green Hairstreak butterflies were spotted on Adel Moor again last month – the third April in a row. They are not a rare butterfly nationally, but locally they were previously only known in this area on Otley Chevin.
Steve Joul
In March 2022, Steve Joul retired from Leeds City Council and we wish him a very long and happy retirement – and a retirement where he continues to be involved with Friends of Adel Woods!
Steve has worked with Friends of Adel Woods since the group was formed in July 2009 and his first event was to lead a walk around the woods on 4th August 2009 to establish the kinds of tasks which FOAW can usefully carry out.
Making nest boxes in January 2010
Since then he has been a regular mentor, leading us on many work parties, in particular:
making nest and bat boxes in 2009 and 2010, and helping us to put them up
teaching us how to make Christmas wreaths which we made each year until lockdown
helping us to survey and clean the nest boxes each year
improving the Stairfoot Lane steps
guiding us and helping us with work on Adel Moor, Adel pond and Adel Bog
working on the orchid meadow.
A fungal foray: 27 October 2013
He has also led numerous walks and talks over the years including:
birdsong walks
bat walks
nature walks
newt safaris
tree walks
wildflower walks
a small mammal safari
fungal forays
how to carry out a habitat assessment
Inspecting a nest box in January 2020
So, on behalf of all at Friends of Adel Woods, I want to say a big thank you to Steve for all he has done for us over the years.
But all is not lost! He has continued to work with FOAW as a volunteer since he retired – and this evening he has joined our committee!
David Preston
Another reason that all is not lost is that Leeds City Council has appointed David Preston as a full time ranger to replace Steve, and he has been assigned four days a year to work with us.
Completing installation of one of our interpretation boards: March 2021
You may well know that David was Ranger for the Meanwood Valley for three years, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, when he did a lot of fantastic work up and down the Meanwood Valley, including Adel Woods.
We are delighted that David will now be working with us, and already has a list of “work parties” lined up for later in the year. We are looking forward to working with him.
So finally…
All that remains is to thank our committee for all the work they have done over the past year. Likewise to all our amazing volunteers. Friends of Adel Woods would not exist with out the committee and volunteers.
Thank you too for Old Leo’s Rugby Club for letting us use their car park over the last year.
Let’s look forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship.
A fine day, and we had a wonderful turn out of eleven Friends: one ready to litter pick, and ten to work on Adel Moor.
Adel Moor is the last remaining heathland in Leeds, and as such is an important habitat, and home to plants like heather and bilberries, and a population of common lizards. Left to itself, it will quite rapidly turn into birch and oak woodland and lose what makes it special. So over the last twelve years, Friends of Adel Woods have carried out a lot of work on the moor, and so have Leeds Parks and Countryside Department with the help of various corporate groups. We have improved the condition of the moor and it is in a reasonable state at the moment, though there is still a huge amount of work to do.
We set to work clearing brambles, bracken, rosebay willow herb and saplings from the heather. In the past, some of the invading trees were cut down rather than dug out. In effect they were coppiced and the remaining trunks have vigorously sprouted many shoots. Frequently, what looks from a distance like a small bush or sapling has a large trunk at the base and is very difficult to remove. Undeterred, one of our Friends successfully tackled some of these larger trees.
Man conquers tree!
Whilst the heather is in very good condition over a large area, in certain places bracken has overwhelmed it. Thus, at the moment, areas of the moor look devastated under a surface matting of last year’s dead bracken stalks. However, we know from experience that if bracken is removed, heather seedlings in the soil will sprout.
Surveying a pile of dead bracken before removing it from Adel moor
We gathered up as much of the dead bracken as we could and carried it off into the woods for composting with the brambles, saplings and other plants we had removed.
A view over Adel Moor: the bright green plants are bilberries, and the dark green-brown are heather.
At about 11.15 am we had a few drops of rain, but fortunately the weather held and we had a very enjoyable morning.
While ten of us were working on Adel Moor, our litter picker was beavering away elsewhere in the woods and picked up two bags of litter, including a number of glass bottles.
A dry mild morning, and at 6.55 am twenty four “larks” (some a little bleary eyed) joined Steve Joul for the Friends of Adel Woods’ eleventh “annual” FOAW birdsong walk. It would have been our thirteenth, but our walks in 2020 and 2021 were canceled due to covid 19.
A flock of expectant “larks”
Adel Woods are part of land owned by Leeds City Council and they offer a range of different habitats where various species of birds, flora and fauna can be found. Steve took us on a tour through these varying habitats to discover what we would see and hear.
Setting off from Old Leo’s Rugby Club carpark, we headed north into Alwoodley Plantation, an area of woodland made up mainly of birch trees, beech trees, holly, sycamores and oaks, but also with a number of scots pine. From there we made our way to the area of open scrubland above the disused rugby field, where in the past we have often seen whitethroats (but sadly not today).
The entrance to the Hospices Woodland, just off Stairfoot Lane
We then walked up to the entrance to the Hospices Woodland, just off Stairfoot Lane, a mixture of young native trees planted in about 2020. We walked through the woodland and back down to the disused rugby field, where we paused to have a look a a small orchard of ten fruit trees planted by Steve last year as a countryside ranger with Leeds City Council.
From there we strolled along Crag Lane and down the steps from the Stairfoot Lane carpark to Meanwood Beck. We made our way along the beck, a very peaceful spot where the only sounds are the babbling of the stream and the calling of the birds, to Adel Pond.
“What’s that over there!”“And that!”That look’s really interesting!
By now it was 8.30 am and we made our way back to Old Leo’s carpark, making a detour across Adel Moor.
On our travels we spotted or heard nineteen species of birds including:
jay
songthrush
woodpigeon
carrion crow
wren
magpie
chiffchaff
robin
great tit
dunnock
blackbird
blackcap
bullfinch
great spotted woodpecker
treecreeper
blue tit
red kite.
One species were were delighted to hear for the first time in a number of years was the willow warbler, near the entrance to the Hospices Woodland. We also had a surprise sighting of a pair of mandarin ducks on Meanwood Beck. The mandarins are an exotic species and this pair had probably come from Golden Acre Park.
We were hoping to see or hear a few more species, but birds like the chaffinch, pied wagtail, starling, nuthatch and feral pigeon, which we could have expected to be around, were lying low today.
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading us on a very enjoyable and informative walk – and thanks to all the “larks” who attended and donated to Friends of Adel Woods’ funds.
Friends of Adel Woods 