Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Margaret, Michele and Sally On a fine, but cloudy autumnal morning, thirteen Green Gymmers met Steph from Natural England in Cothill School car park.  We donned wellington boots and transferred the tools from Adrian's car to Steph's trailer and we made our way along String Lane to Cothill Fen NNR.  This is a calcareous or alkaline fen, where the spring-fed water percolates through a layer of chalk, thereby reducing the acidity.  These are extremely rare habitats and we are blessed to have a number in Oxfordshire.   The Natural England monthly volunteer party had worked on the Fen the previous day, so Adrian, our leader for the session, explained that there was some raking for us to do and some scything of reed to finish off.  We were also tasked with digging up holly seedlings from the wood, as if they were allowed to grow, they would block out light from the understorey, which would mean fewer bluebells.  Another task wa...

Blog by Eleanor, photos by Julio and Margaret We had a really good turnout for our work party at Matthew Arnold Field - eighteen volunteers in all.  Official plaque Matthew Arnold Field, like several sites on Boars Hill, is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust. We met at the end of Jarn Way and went into the field. While we were waiting for Rod d'Ayala, who manages the site, Barbara gave us a safety briefing. Safety briefing When Rod arrived, he took us over to the far side of the field and showed us what needed to be done. Briefing by Rod There were brambles and bracken by the fence to be scythed and raked up, so some people stayed to do that. The scythers get their scythes ready The rest of us went through the gate into the wooded area and down into the valley fen. here, there was also scything and raking to be done and a lot of sprouting willow needed to be cut down. It was quite tricky to find our way through the gap in the dead hedge and down into the fen. The upper part has a ...

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Julio and Sally On a fine, but slightly overcast morning, we returned to Boundary House Fen on Frilford Heath Golf Course to continue with the autumn cut and rake, working under the direction of consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala.  Rod briefed the group and set the scythers off to cut the fresh re-growth since we last visited the site, and asked the remainder of the group to rake the cut material from his recent stint at brush-cutting.  We were assisted by one of his colleagues, Sam.  There were 6 scythers among us and 8 rakers. One of the tasks was to cut the growing vegetation from around the main runnel, which had been created to divert water from the stream to re-wet the fen as part of the restoration project.  Some years ago, the stream had been dug out and has acted like a ditch, draining water from the fen.  Other scythers were asked to go to the far side of the fen and continue with the cut of the new growth of reed and rush...