Frilford Heath Golf Club, 5th December 2015

By Andrew -
An unusually small turn-out this week! We assembled in the car park of Frilford Heath Golf Club and were immediately a man down as session leader, James, was feeling rather under the weather and could not participate.  Sally took the reins instead and in any case, Judy Webb from Natural England was present to boost our numbers from five to six!

 Onwards with a short drive around the corner to the groundkeeper's buildings, where we unloaded the tools and began our trek across the golf course to Boundary House Fen where our work was to be carried out.  A short pause while we waited for some golfers to clear the fairway and we arrived and got underway.

 The reeds had recently been cut over the entire fen area and our job was to take them up and carry and stack them in piles around the perimeter.  There were also a few isolated areas of tree regrowth to cut cut back and some fallen branches to deal with.

 Being somewhat understaffed, we did the best job that we could, but it was soon evident that we would not complete the task today.  Not to worry, we worked steadily and got around half of the raking done, quite respectable!

 During the morning, Judy identified a number of rare plants and fungi and saw evidence of the increase of many fenland species. Very encouraging with regards to our work here.

 Back across the golf course at the end of the session where we were interrogated by an irate golfer who informed us that there was no public footpath in the vicinity! Quite where he thought we were headed with rakes and pitchforks, we had no idea, but he soon apologised when we informed him of his error!  
-Andrew

Unloading of tools at the groundkeeper's buildings
Waiting for golfers as we walk across to the fen
Setting up!
Boundary House Fen at the start of the session
Toadstools
Some of the tall pine trees flanking the fen
Work in progress
Robert pitchforking some of the cut reeds
Sphagnum moss
Ursula in charge of refreshments
Mycelium inside a tree branch
Turkeytail fungus on a fallen tree
One of the ponds within the fen
The raked and stacked reeds from the session
Janet, Robert and Sally with a drag-bag full of raked reeds

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