Jarn Heath, Saturday 14th of January 2023

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This Saturday we were back at Jarn Heath on Boars  Hill to continue the task of opening up areas of woodland to make glades. This would let the sunlight in and encourage flowers to grow, and hopefully to make a habitat for brown hairstreak butterflies.

The morning started wet and windy but the rain eased off. However, we were surprised by a sudden shower, which fortunately didn’t last long.

We needed to clear a lot of brambles, so the scythers set to work on these. Some of us  picked up fallen branches and dead wood and stacked them round the edge of the glade. The cut brambles were laid on top to form a barrier.

After the break there was more work to do. Some people went to cut down dogwood and some of us began raking up leaf litter, especially around the trees and piled them on top of the barriers. It will be interesting to see what plants sprout up now that there will be more sunlight.

The raking proved popular with the local robin and we also saw a tiny shrew diving for cover in the tree roots, too quick for us to take a photo.

We look forward to coming back in the spring and seeing what our work has achieved.

before the scythers got going

Barbara preparing her scythe

removing brambles

lots of chopping going on

well earned tea break

removing dogwood that had become invasive

raking up the cut vegetation

Graham with pitch fork tidying up cut material



Philip adding material to the dead hedge


results of the mornings work







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