Today the plan was to help David Preston to carry out further work on Adel Bog. Unfortunately, due to a puncture to his van tyre, he was unable to join us, and so, while two of us did some litterpicking, six of us did some path clearing.
The path we chose was the raised path which runs from Adel Pond, along the north side of Adel Bog, towards Stairfoot Lane.
The trees on each side of this path are mainly holly which were creating a dark canopy over the path. We removed a great deal of holly from above the path.
We used the offcuts to create some dead-hedging between the path and Adel Bog.
Looking along the path in the direction of Stairfoot Lane: dead hedging on the left of the pathLooking back towards Adel Pond
Another successful and enjoyable morning in the woods.
We woke this morning to a clear blue sky and a beautiful day. What better way to spend the morning than in Adel Woods?
We had two activities planned for this morning – to work on Adel Pond and to litterpick. Our treasurer, Judith, added a third, namely to go and clear away grass and other vegetation growing around the stone monument marking the Hospice Woodland. And a great job she made of it, as shown by the photograph below. Unfortunately, she was unable to take a photograph showing its state before she began due to the angle of the sun.
The entrance to the Hospice Woodland, Stairfoot Lane, Adel Woods, Leeds.
Only one Friend, Sue, chose to litterpick today, and she picked up two bags of rubbish, mainly around the rugby club and Stairfoot Lane car parks. Thank you Sue!
While Judith and Sue set off on their respective missions, the remaining nine of us made our way with David Preston, our local Parks and Countryside Ranger, to work on Adel Pond.
There were three aspects to our work on the pond. Firstly, to remove small trees and overhanging branches from around the edge of the pond, in order to let more light in and to reduce the number of leaves falling into the pond.
Sizing up small trees and overhanging branches for removal
Secondly, to remove silt from the pond. Thirdly, to clear mud and leaves from the ditches leading into the pond. This involved a lot of digging of mud from the pond and ditches, and removing it to somewhere it will not wash back into the pond.
Clearing silt from Adel Pond
It was hard work, but of course there was time for a bit of nature watching!
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!
A pleasant Spring morning, and an amazing turn out of fourteen Friends and two dogs!
We met in Old Leo’s car park and our tasks for today were litter picking and path clearing. Because we were a large group, we split into three groups: one group litter picking; another group clearing paths in Alwoodley Plantation and around Adel Crag; and the third group working along Crag Lane, and along the stream to Adel Pond.
Your correspondent was in the last group and so this report will focus on their work.
As we left Old Leo’s car park we paused to admire and encourage the work of one of our happy litter pickers.
A happy litter picker!
We made our way along Crag Lane to a point just beyond the picnic area and before the turn off for Adel Crag. This spot is very muddy in wet weather, and a number of years ago, under the leadership of Steve Joul, we put a drainage pipe under the path. Unfortunately, the pipe regularly blocks up with mud and so the first task this morning was to unblock the pipe. One of our party had brought along some drainage rods for this purpose.
Happy drainage engineers! If you are looking at this report on a computer or tablet, you may be able to compare the before and after photos of our work by sliding the white disc in the middle up and down.
While three of us cleared the drainage pipe, and removed a lot of mud from the path, the fourth member of our team went on to the steps leading down from Stairfoot Lane car park to Meanwood Beck, and made a great job of cutting back holly which was encroaching onto the steps.
Having cleared the drainage pipe, the rest of us made our way to the steps. Here we noted that some of the iron rods supporting the steps were protruding and creating a tripping hazard. Using a mattock, we hammered the rods down.
From there the four of us made our way along the stream to Adel Pond, clearing some fallen branches and removing saplings and holly which were encroaching on to the path.
A happy sawyer
By now the morning cloud had cleared and it was becoming rather warm! This part of Meanwood Beck is particularly attractive. This morning there were masses of wood anemones in flower on the opposite bank of the stream, and since the stream is in a valley, the only sounds were the babbling of the stream and birdsong.
Happy Friends at Adel Pond at noon
When we reached Adel Pond, we met up with two litter pickers, and spent a few minutes removing large logs from the pond, so far as they could be reached from the bank.
It was now noon, and we made our way back to Old Leo’s car park via the orchid meadow.
Happy Friends, relaxing after a great morning’s work!
With dire warnings about Storm Eunice, one of the most powerful storms to hit the UK since the Great Storm of 1987, we were not sure what the weather would be like this morning – and if any one would turn up for this morning’s work party! However, it was a fine, calm morning in Adel and Alwoodley, and we had an amazing turn out of fourteen people and three dogs!
We split into two groups, one group litterpicking, and the other path clearing. The path clearers, under the guidance of Rob, set off to the picnic area and made their way down the Meanwood Valley Trail, cutting back holly and other vegetation intruding onto the paths.
The litter pickers set off in pairs in different directions through the woods and gathered many bags of rubbish. One litter picker – ie me – had time to enjoy the sights of nature, including these snowdrops on Buckstone Road.
Snowdrops on Buckstone Road, Leeds
Storm Eunice, and Storm Dudley earlier in the week, had blown over a few trees in Adel Woods, including this large one in Buckstone Road.
At about 11.30 it started to rain quite hard, but we soldiered on till 12.
Friends of Adel Woods: wet but unbowed.
Later on the weather turned a little cooler and we had heavy snowfall over lunchtime.
King Lane, Alwoodley, at 2.15 pm on the 19th February
A chilly morning, but the inch or so of snow which fell yesterday evening had more or less disappeared. So we had a great turn out of ten Friends, including one new Friend, Lily.
While three people went off litter picking, the rest of us set off to work on the paths.
Our first port of call was a low lying branch over Crag Lane – not a problem for walkers, but a problem for horse riders. This branch first started to sag a few months ago and it has been on the “to do” list ever since, but today we were able to put it on the “done” list!
From here we moved on to the path leading from the Stairfoot Lane car park down to the Stairfoot Lane steps and cleared a lot of brambles and bracken which was encroaching on the path.
As we did this, we noticed that a large silver birch had come down on the “middle” path leading from the steps to the pond, obstructing the path. We sawed this into smaller sections and moved it off the path.
We then went down to the bottom of the steps and went towards the pond along the path by the side of the stream. Our first stop was to cut back and remove a tree which had fallen some time ago, partially obstructing the path.
By now it was 11.30 am and Steph left us, heading back to the car park via a rather overgrown path heading up to the “middle” path. This was not a path we had worked on before and so we cleared the branches growing across it.
By now it was 12 noon and so we set off back to the carpark – walking along the path by the stream to the pond.
These bags – seventeen in all each contain hundreds of unused charity bags. What is extraordinary is that someone has gone to so much trouble to hide the bags in the middle of dense holly bushes, a good ten minute walk from the nearest entrance to the woods.
Finishing on a high note, we enjoyed the walk back from the Bog back to the car park. By now the weather had become considerably milder and it was another very pleasant day.
Friends of Adel Woods 