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Sunday, 13th October 2024: another successful morning litterpicking and path clearing

Posted on October 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

An overcast and damp day, but a good turn out of ten Friends met at 10 am in Buck Stone Road by the Slabbering Baby entrance to the woods. Our mission to pick up litter and remove fallen trees and encroaching brambles from paths.

The Litter Pickers

Three of our group chose to pick up litter and made their way up to Crag Lane and along Crag Lane to Adel Crag and Stairfoot Lane carpark.

The bulk of the litter was by Adel Crag where someone seemed to have held some sort of event, leaving a lot of rubbish behind – including wood and large lumps of foam from a bed or settee.

All in all, our valiant litterpickers picked up four full bags of rubbish plus large lumps of foam which wouldn’t fit in them. They were unable to remove the heavy wood. They also spotted a buried bag of rubbish by Stairfoot Lane car park but they were unable to unearth it.

The path clearers

Two of our number set off to Alwoodley Plantation (on the northern side of Crag Lane) with the intention of clearing holly which has grown across the paths there. However, they found that paths were also obstructed by trees and branches which had fallen across them during Storm Lilian on the 22nd August. They had a productive time, but there is still lots to do.

Friends of Adel Woods clearing a fallen tree in Adel Woods after Storm Lilian — ***Clearing a fallen silver birch in Alwoodley Plantation***

At the same time, yours truly and the remaining four path clearers made our way down past the Slabbering Baby to the bridge over Adel (or Meanwood) Beck. From there we followed the path by the side of the beck leading towards Stairfoot Lane.

Storm Lilian on the 22nd August had blown over a number of trees along this path. In addition, the path had been made narrow in various places by encroaching brambles.

Friends of Adel Woods clearing brambles by Adel Beck in Adel Woods — ***Taking a breather after cutting back brambles***

Friends of Adel Woods clearing the path by Adel Beck in Adel Woods — ***Another fallen tree: before….***

We got about three quarters of the way to Stairfoot Cottage before it was time to finish and return to Buck Stone Road. Another great work party in Adel Woods!

Friends of Adel Woods after path clearing — ***Three*** ***happ**y 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, just come along to one of our work parties or 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.

Our next events

Our next educational event is a Fungal Foray with our expert naturalist, Steve Joul, on Sunday 17th November 2024.

Our next work party is on Sunday the 24th November 2024 when we will be litterpicking and working with David Preston, our local countryside ranger, to dredge Adel Pond and clear the ditches feeding it.

For further information, please have a look at our home page.

Friends of Adel Woods: a fungal foray in September 2022 — ***A fungal foray in September 2022***

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!