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Sunday, 21st April 2024: litter picking and working on Adel Moor

Posted on April 21, 2024 | Leave a comment

Adel Moor: Friends of Adel Woods, 21st April 2024 — ***Adel Moor on the 21st April 2024***

In our February blog post, I spoke of the promise of Spring; in our March blog post, I said that Spring seemed to be almost here. Today, even though we have had another month of seemingly endless rain, I think that it finally arrived. We had a lovely morning.

We also had a bumper turn out of sixteen volunteers, including four new ones!

We met in Buckstone Road and today we had two tasks: litterpicking; and removing seedlings and saplings from Adel Moor.

Four of our volunteers chose to litterpick, and they gathered two bags of litter, ranging as far as the Stairfoot Lane carpark. One of our seasoned litterpickers commented that when they got there, she had never seen the carpark looking so pristine, so perhaps another group had been out litterpicking recently.

Friends of Adel woods picking up litter on 21st April 2024 in Adel woods — ***Three eager litter pickers raring to go!***

We had twelve volunteers on Adel Moor. This is a special habitat as it is the last piece of heathland in Leeds, and it is home to a small population of viviparous lizards, and green hairstreak butterflies.

Friends of Adel Woods; a viviparous lizard on Adel Moor, Leeds — ***A viviparous lizard photographed on Adel Moor*** ***(archive photograph)***

Without management, the heathland will eventually be taken over by woodland, and so for the last fourteen years Friends of Adel Woods have worked with Leeds City Council rangers to keep the heathland in good condition. One of the tasks is to remove tree seedlings and saplings.

Friends of. Adel woods working on Adel Moor on the 21st April 2024 — ***Taking a breather, while working with the tree popper***

The smallest seedlings can be pulled up by hand. Others can be dug up using a mini-mattock or a mattock. Saplings with a trunk up to about an inch in diameter can be levered out of the ground using our tree popper, an amazing tool which enables us to get the job done a lot faster than with mattocks and spades.

Friends of Adel Woods working on Adel Moor — ***Two long-standing friends of Adel*** ***woods***

Friends of Adel Woods working on Adel Moor on 21st April 2024 — ***A happy team at the end of a morning’s work***

About Friends of Adel woods

Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events. 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, just come along to one of our work parties or get in touch by leaving a comment on this website.

Our next events

On Sunday the 5th May, our committee member and expert naturalist, Steve Joul, will be leading a birdsong walk in Adel Woods, meeting at 6.55 am in the Village Green carpark opposite the shops on King Lane. This event will be from 7 am to 9 am.

Our next work party will be on Saturday the 25th May when we will be litterpicking and doing further work on Adel Moor from 10 am to 12 noon.

Further details are given on our homepage and will be sent out via our mailing list.

Sunday, 10th December 2023: litterpicking and path maintenance

Posted on December 10, 2023 | Leave a comment

Yesterday we had heavy rain all day – not a day to encourage people to come out in the woods today. However, we still had an excellent turn out of eight volunteers (including yours truly) – though two didn’t find us till quarter to twelve!

We met in the Stairfoot Lane car park. Our objective today was to clear paths and we split into two teams. The ladies set off to cut back holly and do some litterpicking as required; the gentlemen set off on some muddier (though probably not much muddier) tasks.

Friends of Adel Woods; path maintenance — ***Working on clearing the drainage pipe on Crag Lane***.

The gentlemen’s first job was to unblock the drainage pipe under Crag Lane, near the picnic area. In all the recent rain, the pipe had become blocked with mud and leaves and there was a large pool across most of the path. It was a matter of a couple of minutes to unblock the pipe so that the pool could drain away. However, it took another twenty minutes or so to clear away all the mud so that it would not block the drain again.

Friends of Adel Woods; path maintenance on Crag Lane, Adel Woods, Leeds — ***Clearing away mud on Crag Lane***.

From there we made our way to the Stairfoot Lane steps which are much used by walkers. On 30th September we had replaced some of the timbers and generally tidied them up. However, since then the Autumn leaves had fallen on them, moles had created a number of mole hills, and the heavy rain of the last few months had washed a lot more mud onto them.

Friends of Adel Woods maintaining the Stairfoot Lane steps in Adel Woods — ***Tidying up the Stairfoot Lane steps – before.***

We cleared away the leaves and levelled the surfaces of the steps and – as can be seen from the photograph below – restored them to a beautiful pristine state. We also cut back some of the holly growing over the steps.

Friends of Adel Woods working on the Stairfoot Lane steps in Adel Woods — ***The Stairfoot Lane steps – after.***

The two work parties met up at 12 noon in the Stairfoot Lane car park. In addition to cutting back holly, the ladies had been road testing two different types of plastic rings for litterpicking – they help keep the mouths of plastic bags open when litterpicking. You can see one of the rings in the photograph below.

Friends of Adel Woods litterpicking — ***Checking out one of the litterpicking rings***.

Unfortunately, the ladies did not take any photographs of any of the paths where they cut back holly, but did supply a number of “after” photographs taken on the 12th December – one of which appears below.

Friends of Adel Woods: a path in Adel Woods — ***Friends of Adel Woods: one of the paths worked on on the 10th December.***

All in all a very successful and satisfying day!

Friends of Adel Woods: litterpicking and path maintenance — ***A happy band of Friends (of Adel Woods)***

Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month at the weekend to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events – such as birdsong walks, bat walks and fungal forays.

Our next events will be on 13th and 14th January when we will be surveying and cleaning the FOAW nest boxes, and on the 20th January when we will be picking up litter and improving paths.

Further details will be published on our home page over the Christmas holidays. In the meantime, the committee of the Friends of Adel Woods wish you a very merry Christmas and all happiness in 2024!