Friends of Adel Woods

Another good turn out and yet another beautiful morning.

Mary and Graham picked up litter on Crag Lane, Buck Stone Road and the copse opposite Tesco’s, while five of us headed off down to the Seven Arches to clear vegetation from the Meanwood Valley Trail.

In an hour and a half we managed to make a massive difference – completely opening up the path from two or three feet wide to seven or eight feet.

Before…

…and after!

From experience, if we only cut back vegetation by a foot or so, it grows back even further in a year.  We therefore cut the vegetation right back and where the main culprit was brambles, we pulled them up by the roots as far as we could.

Before…

…and after

We all enjoyed ourselves and felt a great sense of achievement.

The Meanwood Valley Trail, by the Seven Arches

Your correspondent does not know how the Friends of Adel Woods do it, but we did it again:  torrential rain on Friday evening, torrential rain on Sunday morning, but a glorious day on Saturday for a team of thirteen to litterpick and help Steve Joul clearing tree saplings from Adel Moor.

Common lizard found on the moor in April this year

To remind you why we clear saplings, Adel Moor is the last bit of original heathland in Leeds and is a unique habitat, home to moorland species including the common lizard.  If we did not clear the saplings, the moor would be birch and oak woodland in a matter of years – the number of tree seedlings and saplings is amazing.  The birch saplings need to be dug up by the roots:  if we merely cut them down, they come back even thicker – as shown by the many thriving coppiced birch trees.

Pride in achievement!

Our team self selected into two groups:  those who did the important task of prevention, pulling up hundreds of seedlings by hand; and those who felt in need of hard exercise, digging up coppiced trees with mattocks and spades.

In the morning sunshine, the moor – and in particular the heather – looked magnificent.  The FOAW and the many other groups who have worked on the moor over recent years can be very proud of their achievements.

Unfortunately we did not find any lizards this morning, but Geoff did find interesting galls on oak seedlings on the margin of the moor and the surrounding trees- see the picture below.

Unfortunately, your usual correspondent was unable to take part in today’s activities and had to delegate the task upwards to She who must always be obeyed (“Barbara”).

It was a very wet morning, but nevertheless there was a turn out of four strapping men (David, Andrew, Brian and Tom) who joined She who must etc to pick up litter and to clear paths.  The litter was particularly bad in the area where Crag Lane meets the lane down to the cricket pitch because a public minded individual had generously deposited the detritus of a party in that area.

It is always refreshing to hear a new voice with new and original ways of looking at things in a blog like this.  Here is Barbara’s take on the morning’s work.

Barbara’s blog

Always heed the omens!

On leaving the house to join the FOAW team for Saturday’s tasks, I noticed a ringed racing pigeon taking refuge from the heavy deluge and previous night’s stormy weather. Was he disorientated or just tired?

The woods were damp and wet, but there was plenty of rubbish to be collected.  Musing idly on the amount of soiled tissue behind a clump of bushes, Miss Marple [ie Barbara (ed)] was reaching the decision that users of the village green must be using the area as an ‘al fresco’ toilet, when my litter picker chanced upon a full tin of Pedigree Chum. “Shame Judith is not around I thought” as I slipped it into the sack.

Progressing onward, I determined to go to the car park at Stairfoot Lane where I had heard there was much litter. Reaching the entrance I was warmly greeted by a bouncing, lively, canine who thereon adopted me as we litter picked together.  After some time, without a sign of his owner, I decided that perhaps he was lost. I pondered on this as I collected bottles, sandwich cartons and an inordinate amount of straws and other detritus. Armed as I was solely with bag and litter picker I had no way of communicating with the outer world.  I wondered idly what Roger might think if I managed to get this bundle of canine energy back into our largely open plan house, where he was running a course with serious minded therapists. Where was Judith when you needed a dog expert??

At that moment a car pulled into the car park driven by a dog walker. He too was given a warm welcome by my new canine friend. What a hero he proved to be. Both of us without our reading glasses made it tricky to read a telephone number on the collar of an excited and strong dog. Eventually we got the number but when we rang there was no response. My hero returned home with his own dogs whilst I held onto our new friend, by this time on a leash he did not relish. After ten minutes of dog sitting, being dragged around the car park numerous times, my hero returned and bundled the dog into his car and set off to drive him home.

I continued for a further half hour clearing the car park before I walked back along the path. After I had gone some way, I heard someone whistling me.  I stopped, looked round, and saw a distant figure in a red jacket. “Ah, this must be David!” I thought, so I waited as the figure approached through the rain mist. Then I discovered that it was a complete stranger with a whistle in his hand. Feeling foolish I tried to look useful with my pickers. Then the penny dropped.

“Are you looking for a dog?” I queried. Yes, indeed he was looking for a bouncing, friendly brown German Pointer. So I was able to set his mind at ease and say his dog was probably already back at his house. At which point, his relief at knowing his dog was safe, was replaced by imagining what his wife was going to say when she realised he had lost the dog!!!

A big thank from FOAW to my hero dog walker who reunited dog with owners.

The pigeon is still with us, but now preening his feathers. He too, hopefully, will be reunited with his owners.

B

Postscript

The racing pigeon recovered and set off home on Saturday afternoon.

A small but hardworking group this morning.

David went off on his own, pruning vegetation, while Judith took Steve Joul to see some orchids before litter picking, and Brian and your correspondent went down to the Bog where we were joined by Sylvia, Steve, Geoff and finally Judith.

Clearing brambles

First task was to trample the bracken at the west end of the bog.  We then settled down to clearing brambles and tree seedlings from the north east corner of the bog.

Bog Asphodel

It was a beautiful morning, the tranquil seclusion of the Bog enhanced by a proliferation of ringlet butterflies, the many flowers – heath spotted orchids, tormentil and bog asphodel among others – and the fine weather which improved throughout the morning.

Surface water on the bog

It was particularly pleasing to see that much of the Bog was very wet and had standing water on the surface – even at the north end.  There is no doubt that the work done by BTCV three years ago in removing much of the purple moor grass was a large step forward in returning the area to a boggy state.

Newly arrived flag iris!

One pleasant surprise was to find a flag iris had appeared amongst the rushes on the southern side of the Bog.  Let us hope that more arrive.

In the afternoon Steve took your correspondent to have a look at the orchids discovered by Judith.  They were in a field which neither Steve nor your correspondent had come across before (which just goes to show that there is always more to learn and discover!) and there were very many of them.

Common spotted orchids

Steve was very excited by Judith’s discovery.  They were common spotted orchids, distinguishable from the heath spotted orchids of the Bog by a small difference in the petals.

A very satisfying day!

This morning Steve Joul led FOAW’s first wildflower walk through the woods. Your correspondent was unable to attend but has heard that it was a great success – attended by 15 adults and a number of children.

Over 70 species of flower were spotted as listed below.  Since your correspondent was not there, he was unable to take any pictures – but here are a few taken by Steve on other occasions so that you can at least gain an impression of the walk.

The flowers spotted on the walk were:

Bog Asphodel; Wood Avens; Himalayan Balsam; Heath Bedstraw; Creeping Bent; Bilberry; Bird’s-foot Trefoil; Brambles; Creeping Buttercup; Meadow Buttercup; Red Campion; Greater Celandine; Creeping Cinquefoil; Cleavers;  White Clover; Cock’s Foot; Columbine; Common Couch; Daisy; Dame’s Violet; Dandelion; Red Dead-nettle; Broad-leaved Dock; Curled Dock; Elder; Enchanter’s-nightshade; Red Fescue; Foxglove; Meadow Foxtail; Common Gorse; Ground-elder; Tufted Hair-grass; Wavy Hair-grass; Bell Heather; Herb-Robert; Hogweed; Honeysuckle; Yellow Iris; Hairy Lady’s-mantle; Annual Meadow-grass; Rough Meadow-grass; Smooth Meadow-grass; Black Medick; Purple Moor-grass; Common Mouse-ear; Garlic Mustard; Hedge Mustard; Common Nettle; Nipplewort;  Wild Oat; False Oat-grass; Cow Parsley; Ribwort Plantain; Soft Rush; Toad Rush; Perennial Rye-grass; Pendulous Sedge; Snowberry; Creeping  Soft-grass; Common Sorrell; Prickly Sow-thistle; Common Spike-rush; Creeping Thistle; Purple Toadflax; Sweet Vernal Grass; Meadow Vetchling; Water-Dropwort; Broad-leaved Willowherb; Rosebay Willowherb; Field Wood-rush; Hedge Woundwort; Yorkshire Fog.

This evening we had our 5th Annual General Meeting at Old Leo’s Rugby Club.  We had a good turn out and and a good meeting before adjourning for refreshments.  Thank you to Old Leo’s for letting us use their bar for the meeting.

The minutes of last year’s AGM were approved; the Chair presented his annual report (see below); the treasurer presented the accounts and the accounts were approved. The officers and committee were chosen.

The new officers and committee are:

Chair: Roger Gilbert

Treasurer: Judith White

Secretary: Stephanie Clarke

Auditor: David Hall

Committee (in addition to the above):

Rob Hall

Tom Swire

Brian Joyce

Jen Potts

David Smith

Thanks are due to Phil McAteer and Wyn Barney who retired from the committee.

Chair’s annual report

We have had about 24 events since our last AGM. It has been another varied, interesting and enjoyable year. If you have not had a look at the blog, I think that it is well worth doing so. I find it amazing how much we have done together, and I get very happy feelings looking at the pictures and reading the reports of our achievements.

Events

We have two kinds of events: the tasks (the playing out in the woods events) and the educational events (also playing out in the woods events!).

Tasks

If I start with our monthly tasks. Firstly, there has been our regular litterpicking whose importance cannot be overstated. Litterpicking makes a huge difference to the woods – for example, a fortnight ago a handful of us collected 7 bags of litter in an hour! So thank you to everyone who has contributed by picking up litter!

Adel Moor

Adel Moor: 18 August 2013

Over the last year we have had two mornings working on Adel Moor (May last year and April this year) and – in conjunction with the other groups who work on the moor – we are now seeing a huge improvement – a lot of the young saplings have gone and there is lots of new heather coming up. I know that Steve Joul is very pleased indeed with the progress that is being made.

The moor has a population of common lizards and when we worked on the moor this April, Andrew found a lizard, pictures of which can be found on the blog.

Path improvements

Path clearance has been another regular task. Over the last year we have not devoted as much time to this task but we have removed a number of trees which have fallen over paths, and we have cleared the path through the hospice woodland, as well as generally cutting back holly and branches encroaching onto paths.

Adel Bog

Over the last few years we have instigated or done a lot of work on Adel Bog, starting with clearing a lot of the purple moor grass which was carried out by BTCV in 2011. We have continued with that work over the last year – removing a number of large birch trees around the perimeter and clearing a lot of encroaching vegetation such as brambles which were slowly turning the bog into dry land.

Last June, a number of us helped Steve Joul carry out a survey of the bog as a prelude to spending two mornings – in July and August – working on the bog. When we arrived for the July event, some of us were rewarded with a sighting of a roe deer.

The bog had a nice showing of bog plants like the bog asphodel, potentilla and heath spotted orchids of which we counted about 80 specimens, much higher than last year.

Nest boxes

We had three days out surveying the nest boxes and the good news is that they were almost all used. We were also able to find a couple of nest boxes which we had not been able to find in previous years!

Last year Councillor Buckley gave us a grant to purchase 8 woodcrete nest boxes which are easier to take down and clean and we have  had a rolling program over the last two surveys to make the wooden nestboxes much easier to take down and clean.  Both of these things have assisted in speeding up the job.

There were no nuthatch nests this year but you can feel pleased that there is a good chance that the great tits and blue tits in the woods were reared in a FOAW nestbox!

The Japanese Knotweed

Over the last two years we have helped Steve Joul with a lot of work on the Japanese Knotweed by the picnic area and we seem to have got it licked!

The Buck Stone

Two years ago we did two days work on this and made it accessible to the public again. Over the last year we have done some bracken bashing and clearing to keep it open but it will probably need some more work.

The hospice woodland

We have had three sessions tidying up the hospice wood.

Christmas Garlands

We had another session making Christmas garlands for sale to raise funds and we raised about £100. More importantly, everyone who had one seems to have been delighted with it.

Adel Pond

Adel Pond is one of our regular jobs now. In September about 12 of us got down and dirty clearing silt out of the pond and we made a big difference. It is looking great at the moment.

Educational/social events

Birdsong walks

Listening to birdsong in Alwoodley Plantation

Steve Joul led a birdsong walk last May when 15 people were up with the lark. Last Sunday he led another and 31 adults and 3 children attended and it was a great success.

Newt survey

Last May, Steve also led a newtfari – ie a safari in pursuit of the newts in Adel Pond and we caught (and returned to the wild) 18 newts. Again this was very well attended, and one of the things I like about this sort of event is that we get children along who hopefully will find their imaginations captured and will care about Adel Woods or other woods in the future.

Adel Bog survey

Q7 western end of Bog

I mentioned earlier that last June a team of us helped Steve Joul carry out a survey of Adel Bog as part of our program of restoring the bog. Not surprisingly, in view of the amount of clearance of unwanted species, we found a great improvement in the number of bog plants. Steve has done a number of the surveys now and I recommend that if he does any more, you have a go. It is a really enjoyable experience where you will learn a lot about how to do a survey and the woods.

Fungal Foray

Steve led a fungal foray. This was amazingly successful – approximately 30 adults and 10 children.. It was a thoroughly enjoyable event with everyone having a great time looking to see what secrets the woods had to disclose.

ACA Gala

Last June we had a stand at the ACA gala. The weather was kind to us and we had a great afternoon.

Meanwood Heritage Walk

In September, Kerry Fieldhouse, a conservation officer with Leeds City Council, led a heritage walk around Adel Woods. Whilst not strictly a FOAW event, there were a few FOAW friends there and it was interesting to learn more about the woods.

Waitrose

FOAW were put forward to Waitrose to go in their community funding scheme which resulted in us receiving a cheque for £394 from Waitrose in November. This money and the money we have raised from various events means that we are in a very strong financial position at the moment.

The future

We will be publishing our calendar of events for the next six months shortly. Our next event is on Sunday the 18th May when we will be litterpicking and working on Adel Moor! On Sunday 22 June Steve Joul will be leading a wildflower walk in the woods. This is a first for FOAW and it promises to be a great event. Please can you publicise this event to friends, family, neighbours and work colleagues.

It is now almost five years since we set up Friends of Adel Woods. Times are changing. Leeds CC are limiting us to having Steve Joul working with us for four times a year. If we want him to work more than that, we have to pay for him. Similarly, whereas Steve’s time was free for  educational events, we now have to pay for him now – which is why there is a charge for the events he leads.

Thanks

I would just like to end by thanking all the people we need to thank for supporting us over the last year.

First of all, I would like to thank Steve Joul for all the support – and tuition – he has given us over the year – in particular with the newt survey, birdsong walks, the fungal foray, the nest box survey, and the work on Adel Bog.

I would like to thank Alwoodley Parish Council and our local city councillors for their financial support and encouragement.

I would like to thank Tina and Stephanie for putting us forward to Waitrose and everyone who voted for us – and of course Waitrose for setting up the scheme in the first place!

I really must thank Tony and Old Leo’s for letting us use their facilities for making the Christmas garlands and have our AGM here.

I would like to thank Old Leo’s Cricket Club for putting up and giving us the use of a notice board on their pavilion.

I would like to thank our committee and officers for all their support and hard work over the year.

And finally, I would like to thank all our wonderful Friends – whether here or absent – for the hard work you have all put in over the year. I hope that tonight’s summary has reminded you of some happy mornings or evenings and shown you that you have all made a fantastic improvement to the state of Adel Woods and to our local community. Thank you!

Hi-de-hi!

Archive picture

Today Steve Joul led our 5th annual birdsong walk, attended by thirty one adults and three children.

The walk was a great success and twenty one species of birds were seen or heard:

Blackcap
Chaffinch
Great tit
Mistle thrush
Jackdaw
Robin
Greenfinch
Song thrush
Woodpecker
Blackbird
Chiffchaff
Willow warbler
Whitethroat
Wren
Wood pigeon
Bullfinch
Treecreeper
Nuthatch
Blue tit
Long-tailed tit
Starling

Thank you to Jen for keeping a record!

Despite less than 24 hours notice and heavy rain in the run up to 9.45 am, a crack team of ROLO’s (removal of litter operatives) joined your correspondent for  some heavy duty litter picking in the woods.

Star Wars litter sabres!

This seemed an excellent opportunity to try out our brand new ROLE’s (removal of litter equipment), purchased a month ago, and astoundingly, it turned out that the new equipment has a reach a good 6″  longer than the old!

As usual, the weather improved dramatically even before we set off into the woods, and although the sun did not shine on the righteous, nor did the heavens pour down upon them.  It was in fact a pleasant morning and – for the record – the weather has continued this afternoon to the extent that the sun is shining at the time of writing (3.27pm).

In the space of an hour, seven bags of litter were collected from the King Lane carpark, Crag Lane and the lane down to the Cricket Club.

The woods were looking lovely, a haze of bluebells colouring the undergrowth,  and resonated to the melody of birdsong – wrens, great tits and a greater spotted woodpecker amongst other songsters.

Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the woods next Sunday by joining Steve Joul on a birdsong walk from 7 am to 9 am.

Another lovely day in the woods.

Judith litter picked while a team of five of us continued with the work of clearing saplings from Adel Moor.

Early on, Andrew found a lizard pictured here. Your correspondent was surprised to find a lizard at this time of year on not the warmest of mornings. This is the viviparous or common lizard – viviparous because it can give birth to live young rather than laying eggs.  You can see that part of its tail is missing, which is not uncommon.

FOAW and other groups have made a great difference to the moor over the last five years and it is very gratifying to see lots of new heather springing up.  Click on any of the pictures to get a better view.

We will be working on the moor again later in the year.