A pleasant and dry morning, and nine of us gathered by the cricket pavilion at 10 am for a morning of sprucing up the woods by picking up litter and clearing paths. Three of us chose to litterpick and the rest of us to clear paths.
Path clearing
The path clearers started with the “diagonal” path leading from Crag Lane into and westwards through the Plantation. This was fairly clear as we did some work on this path in February. Nevertheless we found a couple of branches to remove and plenty of holly to cut back.
The path alongside the disused rugby pitch
We then worked on the path from the plantation down to Crag Lane alongside the disused rugby field. We spent about an hour on this path cutting back holly and pulling up brambles in order to widen the path.
Due to other commitments, we finished work at 11.45 but we still achieved a lot this morning – as well as enjoying pleasant company and interesting conversation.
At the end of the morning
One of our litterpicking team joined us for the last half hour or so.
Five of our happy team
Litterpicking
Our litterpicking team walked up to Crag Lane and then turned right to go up the path alongside the disused rugby field. They then made their way to the Hospice Woodland, turned left down to the Stairfoot Lane carpark and returned to the cricket pavilion via Crag Lane. They picked up a bag of rubbish – a lot of it being full dog poo bags 🤢🤢.
One of our litterpicking team with some of our litterpicking equipment
About 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.
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 button at the bottom of this page.
Today, despite an unpromising weather forecast, we had a magnificent turn out of fifteen volunteers, six to litterpick, and nine to help Joe Craig-Jackson, our local ranger, to work on Adel Bog.
Litterpicking
Our team of six litterpickers divided into a trio, a duo and a soloist who took separate routes covering the Village Green, the disused rugby field, Crag Lane, Adel Crag, the Stairfoot Lane carpark, the path along Adel Beck, and the path through the woods from the pond to Stairfoot Lane.
Between them they picked up four bags of litter including lots of wipes, a nitrous oxide cylinder, a large car carpet, a condom, poo bags, sweet and snack wrappers, bottles, cans, two items of clothing and an old Nokia phone.
Some of our litterpicking equipment after the event
Adel Bog
Adel Bog is a lovely secluded part of Adel Woods. In 2010 the Bog was in a poor state as it had been taken over almost in its entirety by Purple Moor Grass, though it still had populations of wild flowers such as heath spotted orchid and bog asphodel.
In 2011 the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers carried out improvement works on the bog, funded in part by a grant from Alwoodley Parish Council. Since then Friends of Adel Woods have worked to maintain the bog, removing bracken, saplings and brambles, and putting a dead hedge around its southern and western boundaries.
“I really enjoyed tackling those brambles, it was very satisfying.”
Today we continued our work under the guidance of our local ranger, Joe Craig-Jackson. We also put to good use three tree poppers purchased with the aid of grants from Alwoodley Parish Council. Tree poppers are wonderful tools which enable you to remove a sapling with a trunk size up to about 3 centimetres in a fraction of the time it would take with a mattock or a spade. Today we removed many saplings and lots and lots of brambles.
Joe with some of the Friends of Adel Woods
On the way back to our cars at lunchtime, we passed Adel Pond and were delighted that it is in much better condition than it was over the Summer – see our report on the 19th October – though it still needs work to repair a leak.
Adel Pond: water is leaking from under the bridge on the far side
Grant from Alwoodley Parish Council
Friends of Adel Woods are very grateful to Alwoodley Parish Council for a grant in October this year for the purchase of two tree poppers. The council had previously given us a grant for the purchase of our first tree popper in Autumn 2023.
A tree popper is basically a lever with a jaw at the bottom. You put the jaw around the sapling trunk and lever it out of the ground. The tree poppers enable us achieve far more in a morning’s work when removing saplings from Adel Bog, Adel Moor, the orchid meadow and anywhere else in the woods.
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.
You don’t need to book to come along to one of our work “parties”: just come along. Our next work party is on Sunday 14th December 2025 when we will be litterpicking and clearing paths.
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.
Before: Adel Woods Pond at 10.23 on Sunday the 19th October 2025 – looking Southwards
Today we had a fantastic turn out of seventeen volunteers – seven for litterpicking and ten to work with our local Parks and Countryside ranger, Joe Craig-Jackson, on Adel Pond.
Adel Woods Pond
Adel Woods pond is an important habitat for frogs, newts, dragonflies and other invertebrates and every Autumn Friends of Adel Woods work with our local ranger to dredge silt from the pond.
However, as can be seen from the photograph above, the pond has had a difficult year. It is fed by a ditch on the north side, and water flows out via a sluice gate in the southern bank. Unfortunately, a leak developed in the sluice gate about a year ago, and the situation was exacerbated because very little water has flowed into the pond over the very dry summer: a month ago it was possible to walk to the middle of the pond without getting wet feet!
Joe Craig-Jackson tests the water depth in Adel Woods Pond
We made our way to the pond and, having outlined our aims for the morning, Joe tested the depth of the water with a stick. There was little water in the northern half of the pond, but with the recent rain the ground had turned to mud. There was a foot or more of water in the southern half of the pond.
One of the things that surprises us each Autumn is the number of sticks, branches, logs and large stones which end up in the pond. Each year we remove them, but each year we find a lot more have arrived. Some of the sticks and branches must fall in from the neighbouring trees, but some of them -and the logs and the large stones – must be thrown in by passers-by for a lark.
Removing debris and silt from Adel Woods Pond
The first job was therefore to remove all logs, branches and stones. In addition to the many to be seen lying on the mud, in the southern half of the pond there were many more concealed under the surface of the water.
The second job was to clear the ditch feeing the pond and to dig as much mud as possible from the pond, load it into buckets and dispose of it well away from the pond.
The outflow from Adel Woods Pond
Our third task was to clear all the vegetation and mud from around the leaking sluice gate so that we could see work out what needs to be done to repair the leak.
Some of our happy volunteers at the end of a morning’s work
We had a very successful couple of hours work as can be seen by comparing the photograph below with the photograph at the beginning of this post.
After:Adel Woods Pond at 12.24 pm
Litterpicking
Seven of our Friends picked up litter today.
Flytipping in Adel Woods
Starting from our meeting point on Buckstone Road, they picked up litter on the recreation ground, along Crag Lane, around Adel Crag, the Stairfoot Lane carpark and Alwoodley Plantation. In addition to the normal bottles, cans, paper litter, and bags of dog poo, they found two lots of flytipping – a bag of clothes and a table football table.
More flytipping in Adel Woods
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. 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 button at the bottom of this page.
A fine morning and nine of us met at 10 am at the Slabbering Baby entrance to the woods on Buckstone Road.
We had two aims this morning: to pick up litter and to clear holly and fallen branches from the paths running alongside Adel Beck.
Litterpicking
Two of our team chose to pick up litter.
They made their way up to the King Lane carpark and then along Crag Lane to the Stairfoot Lane carpark.
Whilst the main paths and public carparks were virtually litter free, they gathered two very full bags, most of the litter coming from around the rugby car park and the edges of the cricket ground. There was very little litter by Adel Crag but plenty of tiny pieces of glass which were hard to see and hard to pick up.Â
They finished at 11.50 am.
Path clearing
The other seven of us walked down to Adel Pond and then along the path which runs from there alongside the beck. We cleared a number of fallen branches from that path.
We then climbed the steps to the Stairfoot Lane carpark. Just short of the top the branches of a fallen tree obstruct the entrance to a path to the right. We cleared these branches to make the path more accessible.
Finally we made our way back along Crag Lane and back to Buckstone Road, stopping briefly to cut back holly on the path heading northwards along the side of the disused rugby ground.
Another enjoyable morning!
Some of our irrepressible volunteers by the disused rugby ground
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. We are putting on a Fungal Foray on the 5th October with local expert naturalist, Steve Joul. Places are limited and it is essential to book. If there is sufficient demand we will put on another foray at the end of October.
You don’t need to book to come along to one of our work “parties”: just come along. Our next work party is on Sunday the 19th October 2025 when we will be litterpicking and working with our local ranger on Adel Pond.
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.
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)
Joe going through the Risk Assessment before we start work
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.
Gathering up the mowings – and in the distance, learning to use a scythe
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.
One of our compost heaps
We finished working just after 12 noon and Joe got out the brew kit and some biscuits to provide much needed refreshment.
Some of our happy team
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.
A beautiful morning, and even though the forecast was for extremely hot sun, we still had an excellent turnout of fifteen volunteers – including four new Friends!
We met on Buckstone Avenue at 9.55 am with two tasks on the agenda: litterpicking and clearing away scrub from around the Buck Stone.
Litterpicking
Setting off from the Buck Stone to litterpick
Five people and Coco the collie chose to go litterpicking.
A group of four litterpicked as they made their way to the Village Green and around the play area and the Village Green carpark. Between them they picked up two full bags of litter including litter from Nanny Beck.
The fifth litter picker and Coco walked through the woods from the Buck Stone to the Village Green, returning to the Buck Stone by a different route. She collected one bag of litter, mainly from the Village Green.
The Buck Stone
The north face of the Buck Stone at 10.30 am
The Buck Stone is a well-known landmark in Alwoodley and the Buckstone estate is named after it. The earliest known reference to it on a map dates back to the 1770’s when the local landowners, the Lane Fox family, had the map prepared in relation to a property dispute.
The south face of the Buck Stone at 10.30 am
In the 1960’s, the Buck Stone was a popular place for children to play, but by 2012 the stone was completely obscured by an oak tree. In March of that year, Friends of Adel Woods removed the bulk of the tree and have subsequently removed the scrub – bracken, rosebay willow herb, saplings and Himalayan balsam – from around the stone several times.
Bindweed growing counter-clockwise up a bracken stem.
Today the main plants we removed were bracken, Himalayan balsam and bindweed.
The path behind Buckstone Avenue at 10.30 am
We also took the opportunity to clear the path that leads from the Buck Stone to Adel Moor along the back of the houses on Buck Stone Avenue.
The path behind Buckstone Avenue at 12 noon
Fortunately, though very warm, the weather did not live up to the inferno predicted in the press! No one called upon our supplies of cold water and sunscreen, and we all enjoyed our morning’s exercise and socialising.
The north face of the Buck Stone at 12 noonThe south face of the Buck Stone at 12 noon
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. Our next work party is on the Saturday the 9th August and our local ranger will be leading a batwalk for us the evening of Thursday the 14th August.
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.
A beautiful morning and eleven Friends met at 10 am at the Slabbering Baby entrance to Adel Woods. We had two tasks for the day: litter picking, and working on Adel Moor.
Litterpicking
Two of our team chose to pick up litter.
They made their way up Buckstone Road, across the Village Green, and along Crag Lane to Adel Crag where they found and cleared up bags of litter which had been left to the right of the Crag. Together they filled one and a half purple bags.
One of our team picked up two lots of unbagged dog poo (a first for her) using the dog poo bags donated by Fetch for our last event. Despite this unpleasant job, her verdict was:
“A lovely morning and we both enjoyed our litter pick and a picturesque walk back to the cars.”
Working on Adel Moor
Nine of us chose to work on Adel Moor. As can be seen from the photographs, the moor was looking wonderful in the sunshine. The light green areas in the photographs are areas of bracken. The brown-green areas are heather.
Friends of Adel Woods have been working on Adel Moor for fifteen years now – removing tree saplings, bracken and brambles. Today our focus was primarily on reducing the amount of bracken and removing saplings with our trusty tree popper.
One of our long-serving Friends about to tackle a patch of bracken.
The purpose of doing this is to preserve this special habitat within Leeds, and it was pleasing to find that as we cleared areas of bracken we revealed plenty of heather plants and seedlings. Other typical moorland or heathland plants found on Adel Moor are gorse and bilberries. The bilberries seemed to be doing particularly well this year.
Removing saplings with our tree popper – an uprooted sapling can be seen front left
Unfortunately, a small number of dog owners believe that the moor is a great place to let their dogs “do their business”. This is damaging to the moor for a number of reasons. The increase in nutrients in the soil discourages moorland plants while encouraging grass to grow. The damage is apparent in that the paths through the moor now have very wide grass verges. This is probably harming the population of native lizards: their habitat, the heathland, is being divided into small patches separated by wide stretches of grass. We did not see any lizards today but we have seen them previously when working on the moor.
We need to preserve the habitat for the lizards – and for its intrinsic beauty – and so yours truly sacrificed pleasure for duty and took on the task of gathering up deposits of doggy do do.
Two Friends at the end of our morning’s workA Friend adding to the pile of bracken removed during our morning’s work
“Adel Moor is a wonderful place to work!”
Happy Friends of Adel Woods!
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.
Litterpickers and bin bag hoops purchased with a grant from Leeds Together Fund
Today’s work party was a special event to celebrate a grant of ÂŁ165 which the Leeds Together Fund awarded to Friends of Adel Woods this month to enable us to purchase three new litterpickers and six bin bag hoops. Bin bag hoops hold the mouth of bin bags open and make litterpicking a lot easier.
We had two aims today: first, to use our new equipment on a community litterpick around the Village Green and in Adel Woods; second, at the request of the Parish Ranger, to clear Himalayan Balsam from the woodland on the northern fringe of the Village Green.
We met in the Village Green carpark and had a record turn out of twenty six volunteers including a baby and your correspondent! Alwoodley Wombles also came with a supply of additional litterpickers in case they were needed.
Our happy and excited litterpicking team – brandishing litterpickers and bin bag hoops
Fourteen of our group were there to pick up litter. We furnished them with litterpickers, purple bags and bin bag hoops and despatched them to pick up litter around the Village Green and in the woods.
“Thanks so much for organising the litterpick – the boys and I had a great time…I hope we’ll join you again”.
The rest of us, including your correspondent, set off to pull up Himalayan Balsam.
The Himalayan Balsam team with Mark, the Parish Ranger
Himalayan Balsam is a non-native invasive plant which, left to its own devices, will cover large areas of land and shade out other plants. We discovered this morning that that is certainly the case to the north of the Village Green.
Massed Himalayan Balsam on the northern edge of the Village Green
Fortunately, Himalayan Balsam has extremely shallow roots which meant that in the space of an hour and three quarters we were able to pull up many thousands of plants.
In the course of our work we found a number of piles of dog mess. Your correspondent went to Fetch, the pet supplies shop opposite the Village Green, to purchase some poo bags, and Diane generously donated to Friends of Adel Woods a box of three hundred!
We were due to finish at 11.30 am but more than half of our balsam team enjoyed it so much that they stayed until 12 noon!
Friends of Adel Woods next to a pile of uprooted Himalayan Balsam
Thank you to the Leeds Together Fund for their generous grant, to Fetch for donating some poo bags, to Alwoodley Wombles for their support, and to all our wonderful volunteers who came and made the event a great success.
Come along to Friends of Adel Woods events!
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.
Our next work party is on Sunday the 15th June 2025 when we will be litterpicking and working on Adel Moor. You can find out more here.
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 at the Buck Stone in July 2024
We are just about to complete our sixteenth year since Friends of Adel Woods came into being, and the last twelve months have been successful with many work parties and educational walks and talks.
Work parties
Usually, our work parties comprises a team of litterpickers and another team carrying out a task such as path clearing.
In the last year we have had twelve mornings of litterpicking and picked up about fifty bags of rubbish – so hats off to our dedicated band of litterpickers! We haven’t kept a tally, but it seems likely that since Friends of Adel Woods was formed, we have picked up over eight hundred bags of rubbish – in addition to disposing of larger items such as tyres and beer barrels!
Some of the rubbish we have collected over the last year
As well as litterpicking we have completed fifteen and a half mornings on the following tasks:
one morning working on Adel Moor with David Preston removing bracken, brambles and saplings.Â
one morning clearing bracken from around the Buck Stone
three mornings mowing the orchid meadow
four mornings clearing paths and fallen trees
three mornings working on Adel Bog (1 with David Preston)
one morning dredging Adel Pond with David PrestonÂ
one and a half days of nest box cleaning and surveying with Steve Joul
one morning putting tree guards on the orchard in the practice rugby field
Working on the orchid meadow with David Preston
Educational events
Since the last AGM we have had six educational walks – five with Steve Joul, and one with Leeds City Council ranger, David Preston. They were all a great success.
A fungal foray with Steve Joul on 17th November 2024
Steve led a variety of walks:
30th June: exploring biodiversity – a joint event with Alwoodley 2030
20th July: a stream and pond safari
29 September: a fungal foray
17th November: a fungal foray
4th May this year, a birdsong walk
On 28th August David led a guided batwalk attended by twenty six adults and nine children.
A bat walk with David Preston on 28th August 2024
I know from speaking to people who attend, and the messages I get from participants after these events, that people really enjoy them.
The Friends of Adel Woods Blog
If you would like to know more about our activities, please have a look at our blog entries.
Grants
Putting tree guards on the orchard in bitterly cold driving rain
We have received two grants in the last year.
In February we received a grant from Alwoodley 2030 to purchase tree guards for the orchard in the practice rugby field as the trees were suffering damage from deer and rabbits.
This month the Leeds Together Fund awarded Friends of Adel Woods a grant to purchase three litterpickers and six bin bag hoops. The purpose of the grant was to put on a community event during May and on the 31st May we are having a community litterpick.
Improvements to the Stairfoot Lane Carpark and Crag Lane
The Stairfoot Lane carpark after improvements
In December Leeds City Council resurfaced the Stairfoot Lane carpark and created a separate fenced off path through the carpark for the route of the Meanwood Valley Trail to keep pedestrians away from vehicles. This was clearly a big improvement.
In February the council resurfaced Crag Lane from the Stairfoot Lane carpark to Old Leo’s rugby club. This involved scraping off the mud from the surface, laying hardcore and then creating the new surface. This end result is a great improvement to Crag Lane.
Crag Lane after resurfacing work
However, my particular reason to mention this is that one of our regular volunteers, Matthew, contacted me on the 9th February, before the work was completed. He was very concerned because he had noticed that the hardcore used was of poor quality – containing crushed bricks, concrete, white ceramics and plastic piping – which was completely unacceptable in a woodland area. I contacted our local councillors and David Preston and passed on Matthew’s concerns and the result was that the worst hardcore was scraped off, and replaced with better quality hardcore.
So thank you very much to Matthew.
Water Quality in our Local Streams
Possible pollution in Adel Beck
Pollution of our rivers is a hot topic at the moment and in the past it has been raised with me by members of Friends of Adel Woods. One of the problems about looking into this is having accurate information about whether the streams are polluted or not.
In October last year I met up with a PhD student at Leeds who is active in promoting citizen science projects relating to water quality of our local streams. On 10th October, I walked with her along Nanny Beck and Meanwood Beck to look for signs of pollution and in February I organised a meeting of members of Friends of Adel Woods who would like to get involved in a water sampling project. About fourteen people attended the meeting. I am organising a meeting to form two or three groups who will take responsibility for the sampling. While it makes sense for Friends of Adel Woods to help steer this project, I am hoping that this will become a separate self-sustaining project.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust event
On the 19th November, three of our committee – Steve, Sue and myself – went to an event organised by Alwoodley 2030 when Yorkshire Wildlife Trust gave a talk on the state of nature in Yorkshire.
Thank yous
Working on Adel Bog
So as usual, I would like to thank our committee and volunteers for all the work they have done over the last year. FOAW would not exist without the committee and volunteers. And I am looking forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship. New members are always welcome!
I would particularly like to thank Judith for all the work she has done as treasurer over the last 16 years, and Stephanie who was our secretary from 2009 until July of last year.
Steve Joul on a stream and pond safari
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading five educational events this year – and helping to raise funds for Friends of Adel Woods.
Thank you to David Preston for the work he has done with us the last year. David is changing jobs to join the Public Rights of Way team imminently, and so we may not work with him again.
Looking to the future
As I and the rest of the committee get older, I get more concerned about how to ensure that Friends of Adel Woods continues for years to come. This is something which we need to consider over the coming year. New volunteers are always welcome!
Roger Gilbert
Chair of Friends of Adel Woods
COME ALONG TO FRIENDS OF ADEL WOODS EVENTS!
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.
Another lovely day, and fifteen of us met up to work on Adel Bog and to pick up litter.
Litterpicking
Four Friends chose to litterpick this morning, and they split into two “teams”.
One team worked their way along Crag Lane, to the picnic area, Adel Crag and the Stairfoot Lane carpark and collected two bags of litter.
The other team focused on the Village Green and around the children’s play area. There was a lot of litter and they picked up two very full bags. They found two sun hats, socks, and woollen gloves in the play area and positioned them on railings in the hope that their owners might return to collect them.
Adel Bog
The rest of us worked on Adel Bog. Despite the period of almost two months of drought, the bog was looking quite green – with wild flowers beginning to appear, and lots of rushes.
Tormentil (potentilla erecta) coming into flower on Adel Bog
We focused on clearing saplings and brambles from the northern boundary of the bog, and using them to make the northern boundary clearer, and to build up the dead hedge we have constructed on the southern boundary.
Inspecting the job: saplings and brambles on the northern boundary of the bog
The removal of saplings was made much easier by our tree popper purchased with a grant from Alwoodley Parish Council.
As we cleared the saplings we came across two nests from last year – a small one, probably a robin’s nest; and a larger song thrush nest, identifiable by its smooth lining of mud [the larger mistle thrush also uses mud to construct its nest, but lines it with grass].
A robin’s nestA song thrush nest – with a smooth mud lining
We finished work at 12 noon and it was a very satisfying morning’s work.
About 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 