All posts by Jon Wallis

Grangemoor Park (13 December 2023)

Nine volunteers spent a very pleasant morning in Grangemoor Park.
Some of them did a litter-pick — something’s that’s sadly always needed, given the proximity of shops & fast food outlets.

Others continued with the task of ‘reclaiming’ an area of what’s supposed to be grassy meadow by cutting down bramble, dogwood & willow. This was our fourth session there this year and we’re definitely making good progress!

The brash (the cut-down material) was added to the dead-hedge we started on our first session here, back in March. Whilst it’s got no practical purpose — it’s not keeping anything in or out — it will provide terrific habitat for all manner of insects and fungi as it all decays.

 

Hendre Lake Island… again (8 December 2023)

The awful weather didn’t deter the stalwart CRG volunteers this morning. They braved heavy rain to carry on with the habitat management work on Hendre Lake island that we started last Saturday.

A large area has now been cleared of bramble, with the aim of maintaining it as muddy scrape, which will really suit some of the birds at Hendre, like snipe and moorhen.

Indeed, even before we’d left the island, a moorhen was looking for food in what had been 2m high bramble this time last week. (There’s a photo attached — the moorhen was quite far away, so is a bit blurry!)

Hendre Lake Island (2 December 2023)

The CRG ferry was in operation this morning, taking people over to the island in Hendre Lake for a couple of hours of heavy-duty habitat management — reclaiming the interior of the island from the vegetation that’s taken it over in recent years; mostly bramble, but also a lot of self-seeded willow.

One thing we haven’t contended with before when using the boat is ice. The lake was completely frozen over, and it was a thicker layer than you might think. We’re very grateful to the Rangers for going across in their boat first, and fulfilling the role of an ice-breaker.

 

Once across, a line was rigged up across the water, so people could pull themselves across in the boat, without having to mess around with oars.

And whilst one group of volunteers undertook the habitat management, another group litter-picked the park, which is, sadly, always a much-needed activity.

Many thanks to everyone who braved the freezing conditions!

Whitchurch Brook (29 November 2023)

It was a bracingly cold morning’s work for the 13 volunteers who cut down loads of brambly overgrowth from the banks of Whitchurch Brook, where it passes under Heol Gabriel.


They also removed miscellaneous items from the brook itself, including about a dozen balls (foot and rugby), a huge piece of perforated metal…

… and a toilet seat.

 

Snowden Road (25 November 2023)

20 volunteers from CRG, working in partnership with the Council’s Community & Urban Park Rangers, spent a gloriously sunny morning tacking some horrendous domestic fly-tipping in what could be a beautiful green space behind Snowden Road & Caerwent Road, Ely.

First order of the day was cutting through all the bramble and other vegetation to actually get to the rubbish — huge thanks to the Rangers for wielding brushcutters and hedgetrimmers.


Then it was a matter of everyone picking up what was clearly years’ worth of fly-tipping, with the best-before dates on the crisp packets and drinks cans accurately recording when the many layers had been deposited.

 


And it wasn’t just “litter” — it included two fridge-freezers, half-a-dozen mattresses, several now-deflated paddling pools, three armchairs, five TVs, two vacuum cleaners, lots of children’s toys, and
bags full of disposable nappies.

Everything had to be carried over very uneven ground, negotiated past assorted metal structures intended to keep bikes out, and thenmoved down a 30m long 1m wide alleyway before it could be loaded onto vehicles.


We have no idea how many bags we filled with rubbish — there were just far too many to keep a count of — but all-in-all the morning’s haul filled five tipper trucks, with about half-a-trailer-load of scrap metal.


Obviously, we could only clear so much in two hours and, sadly, there is still at least the same amount again still to remove. And that’s only what was visible — the dense vegetation covering most of the rest of the area no doubt hides lots more.


What’s truly baffling is why anyone chose to throw it over a back fence* — most of it would have been taken away for free in regular general waste or recycling collections.

*given how inaccessible the area is, there’s really no other plausible explanation for how it all got there.

Parc Tredelerch (17 November 2023)

There were just half-a-dozen of us at Parc Tredelerch, on what turned into a beautiful late-autumn morning, but we managed to finish off the reed cutting by the boardwalk.


This will help to prevent the reeds completely blocking the channel, and creates a mixture of habitats, which will suit various different species.

Despite their usual nesting season still being about 3 months away, some coots had decided to build a couple of nests, one on either side of the reed beds, so we made sure to work well away from them — and they were straight back onto them as soon as we were out of the water, so we were happy that we hadn’t deterred their head start.

(That said, once they realise that the start of winter is not really the best time to have a clutch of chicks, they’ll probably abandon the nests and start again nearer spring.)

St Mellons Business Park (12 November 2023)

Another very-wet-but-worthwhile morning at St Mellons Business Park for 16 volunteers, plus Jess from the Park Rangers (and Rhod, too, at the beginning & end).


Many of them were tackling a pond that has become stagnant and covered in algae because of being shaded by some very overgrown trees (predominantly willow, plus some dogwood) around the edge.

Removing selected trees will let some much-needed light back in and the pond should recover, once enough oxygenating plants get re-established. The cut-down trees will be chipped, and the woodchip used for mulch.

Others did a litter-pick of the surrounding area and collected 22 bags of rubbish…

plus around 60 large NOx canisters, which were added to the 200+ that were dropped off by people who’d collected them during their own litter-picks elsewhere.

Many thanks to Ben from the council’s waste management team for collecting all the rubbish at the end of event.

Grangemoor Park (8 November 2023)

Nine volunteers carried out some scrub clearance at Grangemoor Park this morning, as part of the Park Rangers’ long-term management of the park as a mosaic of habitats, to maximize biodiversity.

They removed self-seeded dogwood, alder, hawthorn, willow and other shrubs & trees from an area that will be maintained as rough grassland. The brash was used to continue building a dead hedge along the lower edge of the cleared area.

And, after all the rain we’ve had recently, one of the previously dried-up ponds had water in! (Sadly, it also had a lot of litter in it, too, but that’s a job for another day.)


We aim to return to Grangemoor Park regularly over the next few months., to get as much work done as we can before spring arrives.

Cath Cobb Woodlands (4 November 2023)

24 volunteers from CRG & St Mellons Clean Up spent an extremely wet morning tackling Cath Cobb Woodlands — litter-picking the woodlands and grassy areas, and removing rubbish from the stream.

They were, at least, rewarded by some sunshine and a rainbow just as they finished, plus some welcome refreshments, thanks to Paula Morgan, Community Champion at Tesco St Mellons.

They collected 75 bags of miscellaneous rubbish — mainly the usual suspects of drinks cans/bottles, crisp & confectionary packets, plastic bags, and food containers (jars, packets & hateful polystyrene). There were some drinks cans that dated back to the late 80s/early 90s!

They also found 40 large NOx canisters, which were added to the approx. 200 dropped off by people who’d collected them on their own litter-picks. These will be made safe for recycling and weighed in as scrap.

More photos on Flickr.