Dry Sandford Pit, Saturday 18th March 2023

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 This weeks blog was a joint effort between Eleanor D and Sally


Today we were at Dry Sandford Pit, split into two groups to tackle separate areas on the site.

One of the tasks was to clear scrub from an area in front of one of the cliff faces and from around the fence and gate opposite the cliff face. Adrian and Jim set to work scything the bramble around the gate while the rest of our group worked below the cliff face. The scrub consisted mostly of bramble and blackthorn and fortunately we had a tree popper, which enabled us to uproot some of the blackthorn. We then transferred it to the existing brash piles.

We were working at quite a distance from the fen group but we met up for our tea break. By the end of the morning we had finished most of the cutting, but there always seemed more to do, and we had to remind ourselves to stop in time to transfer the cut material to the brash piles. Then it was back to base camp to meet up with the other group and carry the tools to the car park.

We had also been asked to clear willow scrub from the fen area of the reserve, which if left unchecked would take over the fen and it would eventually become a wet woodland.  If left to grow, the willow would soon shade out the fenland specialist plants and also would lead to the fen drying out in areas.  We were mindful to look out for signs of nesting birds and had been asked to stop working and back away if we came across a nest, but we did not find any.  We did, however, hear a green woodpecker, a wren and a skylark - it was lovely to be serenaded as we worked!

A group of seven green gymmers scrambled over the dry hedge to get into the fen area and we soon got our eyes in as the willow was remarkably hard to find amongst the reed growth at times!  Using loppers, secateurs and bow saws we soon found that we were accumulating bundles.  The cut material was then used to reinforce the dry hedge to act as a deterrent against anyone trying to get onto the fen as it is suffering from being trampled in areas.  Ideally, we would have preferred to have dug up the willow stands, which have been cut successively in recent years and now bear many shoots, but hopefully we have done enough to knock back their growth sufficiently for the fenland plants to thrive and no doubt we will be returning to the site again in the autumn to continue the job.


a view of part of the cliff from the fen




collecting the cut scrub to use in a dead hedge





tea break time






bramble cutting in action!

clearing brambles in front of the cliff face





the reinforced dry hedge at the fen border

section cleared of brambles








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