Boundary House Fen - Saturday 25th May 2024

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 Blog by Kevin, photos by Kevin and Michele, blog posted by Eleanor

They say a picture paints a thousand words, but I'm not sure we can say that about Boundary House Fen, as the Green Gym tasks are the regular controlling of the reed beds to let more flora and fauna spread.

We had six scythers available to cut the new reed shoots, to prevent them from establishing themselves in the fen. The fen, as you would expect, was very boggy, which makes movement a bit arduous when moving the cut reeds, some on to the stream to make the water spread out across the fen and the rest piled on the periphery of the fen.

We were joined by Judy, the resident Biologist, with her net, to catch and log insects on the fen. Judy also spoke at coffee break time on the progress of the plan to dig a quarry nearby to excavate sand. This would have disastrous effects on the fen as it would affect the water table and cause flooding or lack of water as the fen has to have a delicate balance of not too much and not too little water, but without our efforts, the planners would not know of the fen and its SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) status. We hold our breath and keep our fingers crossed that the planned quarry will be turned down.

The weather held and became quite warm and the morning's work went smoothly, apart from the odd golf ball landing on the fen from the Saturday morning golfers, one of whom came over while we were having our coffee to enquire what we were up to and sounded quite surprised at the importance of the site.

Rod d'Ayala, the site manager, who is always there to guide us, was very pleased with our work for the day.

Judy Webb on the fen





   

View of the fen



Adrian with his scythe




Barbara and Susan




Margaret




View of the fen with cut reeds




Acrobatic snails




Orchid




Ragged robin




Lady's smock

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