On Sunday 2nd January 2022, volunteers from GVCV braved the muddy and wet conditions at Hempsted to help continue tree clearance around the lakes. This work helps to create new habitats around the pond edges benefiting ground plant species, small mammals and waterfowl.
The group also built new log piles which are great for nurturing fungi species found onsite such as polypore (photo).
The log piles serve a purpose but there is a vast amount of associated brash created which serves no purpose and this needs to be disposed of. The practical solution to this is to burn the material – not ideal in environmental terms but a necessary to maintain access. We burned a proportion of the brash accumulated from previous tasks but the heavens opened after lunch and dampened our fire as well as our enthusiasm.
This has been an ongoing task as we clear around the perimeter of the pond in bite sized stages but now we can see an end to the work in this section – you can see from the photograph below how pleased our volunteers are to hear that.
