Conservation Report – February 2022

Thank you to all the volunteers who attended on Sunday 13th. Attendance for this session was 11, and we were lucky that the forecasted rain did not arrive until we had almost finished.

WBC are still unable to chip Rhododendron for a while due to soft ground around their access point. This has allowed us to concentrate more effort on clearing the ditches and pathways.

In this session, we dug out a further section of the large ditch running parallel to Dorset Way.

Much effort was also directed at path clearance on the footpath running parallel to Dorset Way.

We have edged the path to encourage walkers to follow the original route which has a hard gravel base. This will allow more plants to thrive along the borders of the footpaths.

Here is the cleared ditch in action.

Clearing the ditches will help to keep the footpaths clear and usable. It will also help to ease the water logging around tree roots and promote a greater diversity of ground level plants. Another possible consequence is that the residents who have a garden backing onto the ditch could find that their garden drainage has improved.

In future sessions, we will continue to clear the drainage channels, restore pathways, and remove Rhododendron.

All the work we carry out is with guidance from WBC.

Stephanie McKay – Voluntary Conservation Officer for FOFH