Spring is sprung

Ah spring, when a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love, but alas as we are mostly greying, old and grumpy (excepting of course the dashing Ranger Dan) we are content to enjoy the sunshine and the crisp cold mornings.

It’s a grand time of the year for us, we’ve seen the last of our hedge laying season and are looking forward to getting our property in good fettle for the rush of springtime visitors, and also we can now catch up on the some of the little jobs which crop up.

Ranger Dan and myself have been busy clearing fallen trees from our woodland paths and felling trees on the edge of our Dunthwaite estate, opening up drainage ditches and generally tidying up the appearance of the roadside woodlands, we took the opportunity there to try out our carving skills…steep learning curve ahead but at least one family who wandered past enjoyed our efforts.. A nice smile from them all.

Not bad for a first effort

 Of course not many of our blogs go by without mention of our regular Thursday Volunteers and last week's adventures certainly bear mentioning. We were joined by David and Phil on the task of repairing some high fell walls alongside the Coffin Road above Holme Wood in Loweswater, a steady steep walk up in glorious sunshine brought us out onto the open fell and tremendous views over the valley.

 Some days walling can be a frustrating challenge but not this day, excellent quality stone certainly makes the job easier and with the sun on our backs, birdsong in the air and a degree of concentration we had two gaps mostly complete by lunchtime.

Phil concentrating perhaps too much?

 Once the walling was finished off and we had ambled gently back down through the woods we had some time on our hands.

In these harsh economic times we are all conscious of making the most of our resources and saving money where we can. We were aware of the need for a rescue boat for Loweswater and our other lakes and had in our spare moments begun designing such a craft, today it was decided was time for a test launch

We're gonna need a bigger boat!!!!

Work in progress I think you’ll agree?

Bonfires and some vanity



Volunteers and Rangers after a long hard but fun day

 

It may seem odd to start with a picture of the end of a job but without the freely given help of our regular Thursday volunteers the end would be a bit away yet. On the Buttermere side of the property we have Jim  ( and Theo) Phil and David, who when he promises to behave is often joined by his much much better half Christine, Borrowdale rangers Andy and Jack are supported by Rod and Robert.

One day a week may not sound a lot to some people but when we get this team together on a busy project a truly astonishing amount of work, and fun results.On this occasion rangers Dan and Paul were in the last throes of a large hedge laying project at Dunthwaite on what turned out to be a very wet and boggy site.

Hedgelaying is a country craft which has been practised for hundreds of years, Caesar described the process of hedgelaying in detail in 57BC in his Gallic War when he encountered laid hedges in the territory of the Nervii in Flanders, but it is just as relevant today as it always has been. As a hedge grows it becomes more tree like and gaps appear,laying the hedge restores this living boundary and provides an effective wildlife corridor allowing small animals and birds a route from field to field unseen by predators.

 



A newly laid hedge and the new growth of the following spring



The downside is that it produces a lot of 'brash' unwanted trees and branches which are removed as part of the process, our preferred method of dealing with this would be to use a mechanical chipper but the wet and boggy conditions prevented this so we reverted to the traditional method, a damn good fire.... or in this case two!

 

Now, you can almost guarantee that if you gather a group of men of a certain age in a field they will all know the 'correct' way to light a fire, some favour diesel and tyres, some like firelighters and some just stick to paper and dry kindling, everyone is correct of course with the proviso that my method is always best, this time we used bags of old jackdaw nests, removed from a barn some months ago and kept for this very purpose.. Forward planning in the NT??? What ever next!

 

We have mentioned the wet and boggy conditions, what we failed to mention was the steepness of the site, as the morning progressed it became evident that the fire at the bottom of the hill was much more popular but after what seemed a rather extended lunch break everyone gathered at the much larger and beautifully constructed fire at the top.

I was doubtful that we would clear the field that day but this is were our merry band excels, driven by an unwillingness to admit defeat and I suppose the enjoyment of showing us 'young'uns' how it's done, they pulled ,dragged pushed and stumbled until they had gathered every piece of brash from the site, a slow trudge down the field dragging bags of firewood and they were off for a well earned pint, no doubt looking forward to the next Thursday's task........................more hedgelaying and burning!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

The Emergence of Ash Dieback at Watendlath

Having witnessed the demise of the English Elm through the 1970’s as tree after tree succumbed to Dutch elm disease I guess it was just a matter of time until we repeated the scenario with another invasive species, after all we spend millions of euros each year moving untold quantities of plant and animal species around Europe and Asia so it should not really come as a surprise. The Lake District with its network of small farms and field systems is more or less dominated by Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and nearly all of the mature trees in the farmed landscape are also ash! Furthermore many of the ashes are ancient pollards with a history of management going back hundreds of years and these very special trees support a wonderful array of wildlife including rare mosses and lichens and an unknown number of insect species. 

Removing and burning ash at Watendlath 

Volunteers kindly gave up their time to help us

The ash pollards form part of ancient wood pastures and in February of 2012 we planted over 600 new ash trees at Watendlath, this small idyllic hamlet is home to several hundred ancient ash trees many over 400 years old. The news of this new disease, Ash Dieback (Chalara Fraxinea) caused concern and having a contact at FERA (Food & Environment Research Agency) I was able to have these newly planted trees tested earlier this month and a few days later received the bad news that they were indeed infected. Following advice from FERA and The Forestry Commission, we took steps to try to save the woodland. The trees had been planted in tubes and fallen leaves were nicely contained within them, one week later and all had been removed and burnt on site to try to save the woodland.

Ancient pollards in Watendlath

Was this successful? Only time will tell and next summer will reveal the true extent of the disease. The area will be closely monitored for any signs of infection by this nasty little Ascomycete and every effort made to reduce its impact on this incredibly ancient landscape that we put so much effort into conserving.

HEDGING TIME AGAIN !

It's that time again on the property to start the hedgelaying programme.





Dan and Craig



Dan our ranger and Craig start laying the first hedge of the year on the Dunthwaite

Estate nr Cockermouth. Craig a local contractor is helping out in place of Paul who is away

for two weeks on Prospect training.



Thought it was going slowly !







One day you're up....the next you're down

(re posted as original mysteriously went away last time)

November has been a month of changing weather and work sites, firstly we carried out the finishing touches to our joint project with the Fish Hotel in Buttermere, there were a few unkind comments about the length of time the project took but overall we’re happy with the results.

Next off, with Ranger Dan back in Borrowdale leading some farm walks at Seatoller farm (a place he knows only too well) I was joined by contractor Craig Shaw and his dog Jamie, our task? To repair- rebuild the boundary fence at the top of Kirkclose Wood by Buttermere, luckily as it was quite a steep walk up to site, the materials had been flown in previously, unluckily they had been dropped a considerable distance away!! So first we were forced to make far too many trips up and down the hill with posts and wire.

We were blessed with magnificent autumn weather, crisp bright and cold with just the odd flurry of snow, and offering some stunning views.

Could you wish for better views?

A classic indication that we were well into autumn was the presence of several hundred fieldfares and redwings, a sure sign of cold weather approaching.

Jamie says "You expect me to carry this?.........."

 Our peace and quiet on site was interrupted occasionally by the sound of chainsaws drifting across the lake, our forestry team were working in Burtness wood and on particularly calm days the sounds of falling trees could be heard, click here to see and hear how fast they work.

Following on from this and after a well earned half term break we re grouped, our usual Thursday volunteer team joined us at Netherhow on the shores of Crummock Water to help us repair a gate and fence which had been repeatedly vandalised over the summer, you have to wonder why given the amount of fallen trees and branches lying around, someone would prefer to burn a gate?

David had promised Christine a romantic picnic by the lake

 Now this was a fairly straightforward task but as we once again had combined work with water and our volunteers and some miserable weather, it was almost guaranteed to turn into yet another Whitehall farce. The end of the fence was deep in the lake, not a problem, we had some waders, Ranger Dan seemed quite pleased to tell me that they didn’t fit him so I did the decent thing and struggled out into the lake looking like a cross between MC Hammer and some demented water based superhero, can’t quite think which one.

Captain Whatever about to enter the abyss

 All was going smoothly with me in the water and the volunteers and Ranger Dan on dry land when suddenly a large piece of wood fell as if from nowhere right into the water beside me causing a large splash and soaking me entirely! Volunteers David ,Christine and Jim told me an enormous bird had flown across and dropped it and of course I had no reason to doubt them.

Just before the splash!!!

Very soon it was lunchtime and the job was completed, a quick tidy up of the site and all the rubbish loaded onto the quad and trailer and we were away again, off to Fletcher Fields to finish  some walling which we’d begun the day before.

Anyone know where this bit goes?