Jarn Mound and Wild Garden, Boars Hill, 17th September 2016

By Andrew -
For our latest session at Jarn Mound and Wild Garden, there was a good turnout of sixteen regular members along with a couple of locals; a mother and son from Boars Hill.  The object of the exercise was to clear the fallen trees, rake away the debris, then to remove some other small trees and vegetation from the dried pond/lake area.  A busy morning ahead!

With the temperature having cooled considerably from the heatwave experienced earlier in the week, the weather conditions were ideal for a good workout!

There were two reasonably large trees that had fallen some time ago but had continued to grow, along with surrounding vegetation that had flourished over the summer and had entwined itself into the trees, plus a few other smaller trees to fell.

We worked in teams - sawing the large branches from the fallen trees then stripping and cutting them to fill drag bags. The larger logs were subsequently stacked in a pile at the side of the pond.  Once the area had been cleared of the fallen trees, we started to tackle the smaller trees.

As we got underway, we worked in our usual efficient manner and by the close of play, we had cleared six large drag bags of debris from the pond along with three further piles of detritus - the same size as the bags if not larger, plus a substantial pile of logs.

The ultimate aim of the morning's task in clearing the pond area, is to increase the size of the wetland habitat to further encourage wildlife here.  We look forward to returning here to see of the results of our endeavours and to continue with the restoration project at this fascinating site.
-Kevin

Enid, Dieuwke and Ursula clearing debris.


Carolyn and Janet chopping smaller branches to fit the bag.

James and Margaret discussing the finer points of Lumberjack instruction whilst the new enthusiastic volunteer makes short work of the job with their expert guidance!


A view from the shelter where we have our coffee break showing the size we needed to clear.
Margaret and the 2 local helpers filling a drag bag.

Finishing off.

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