New woodland.

This last week saw us leave Borrowdale, the best valley, to go over to work in Buttermere where the valley ranger Mark mistakenly thinks he has the best bit!  A group of staff and volunteers made a start on a tree-planting scheme.  We recently clear-felled a commercial plantation and are replanting it with mixed hard-woods.  These new trees will very quickly become ecologically richer than a commercial soft wood plantation. 

There were 13 staff and volunteers who first improved access to the site by collecting and burning the brash from the earlier felling.  

We then planted 2000 trees. If you have seen them, you might wonder why we plant them in tubes.  These tubes give the new plantings protection from sheep and deer until they are established.  They are also corrugated inside so morning dew will run down and water them. 

It was a good day with a lot to show for the hard work. 

I’ve also been working with some rangers and volunteers on the Catbells terrace path.  We have had a lot of rain in recent months and we try to keep up with routine maintenance of the path drains and of the graded sections where they are designed to shed water.  

The fact that we have kept on top of the routine maintenance in the past has minimised the damage.  Little jobs done now save big jobs in future.

Hi, Daisy here.  

                             

I’ve been tree planting with lots of people.  It was great. There were lots of sticks. I ran around all day.  It was fantastic.