Diary Reports - 2004
4 January 2004
We started work on the only dry (or relatively dry) piece of the EHDC land at the eastern end of the site, behind the chestnut and poplars. We thinned brambles, cleared scrub and cut out a lot of willow to let light through to the ground vegetation (snowdrops and ragged robin are present). We built a dead hedge for the arisings.
7 February 2004
We thinned brambles along river bank in Central Meadow in deep scallops, to facilitate removal of Himalayan Balsam this year, and give walkers more views of the river. We coppiced a large hazel - arisings to be used next time to build a fence across the path to divert it - and we took out 4 oaks in the copse across the footbridge to allow the other oaks room to grow, and left habitat piles. We re-laid wood chippings on the path either side of footbridge. We got a lot of work done before the heavens opened at 12:15! We did see that there was frog spawn in the pools in the meadow.
21 February 2004
Because we were few in number, we concentrated on one job - creating a diversion away from the slump in the river bank in the Central Meadow. Dominic supervised the building of a very attractive fence, using the hazel which we had previously coppiced and oak that was also cut down at the previous workparty. We checked for signs of otters - but found none - though we did spot a weasel on the opposite bank of the river. We also moved some frog spawn from the drying out pools in the meadow and put it in the shallow part of the pond.
7 March 2004
We cleared a lot of garden rubbish which had been thrown over the fence from Pulens Crescent - a build up over many years. We also removed a tree by the turning area next to the pumping station, to allow a truck to bring in hoggin for paths later in the year. We burnt a lot of the rubbish, but then it rained so we had to leave a pile for burning later in the year.
21 March 2004
We extended the railway sleeper bridge in the Eastern Meadow, after first moving the original sleepers to square them up across the ditch. Julian supervised, and it was a very professional job, but hard work. Some of the team cleared brambles and scrub on the river bank and put this into the existing dead hedge.
3 April 2004
Only five people attended, but we were able to fill in the holes made by BMX bikers in the bluebell wood. Over the weekend, in spite of the wind and heavy showers, volunteers conducted a visitor survey and completed 42 visitor questionnaires. The interviewers also burnt off two grass bales and some oak logs in their spare time.
2 May 2004
We had another go at burning garden rubbish near the pumping station. The Town Council are going to leaflet the houses in Pulens Crescent to discourage them from fly tipping.
5 June 2004
Jane Noble from Hampshire Paths Partnership organised us all, and bought all the equipment and materials. Ben Spraggon brought his mini excavator, and Jane had a mechanical wheelbarrow - without both we would not have been able to shift 16 tonnes of gravel which was delivered at 9:30 (just in time). We levelled and constructed a path from the PTC entrance down to the dog pool. The we removed the wood chips from three sections of path either side of the footbridge and replaced the wood chips with gravel. Jane also had a whacker plate which compacted the surface to form super paths. It doesn't sound much, but it took us until 6:00 pm - a long, hard day, but very satisfying. An added bonus was the tremendous amount of Himalayan Balsam pulled up by anyone who didn't have an immediate job on the paths. Good news all round.
22 June 2004
John Blamire led a walk by the river in Rotherlands, looking at the wildlife and habitat management.
4 July 2004
We cleared all the balsam in the glade at the far eastern end of the EHDC land. It’s looking good - we found a variety of flowers including ragged robin and foxgloves. There are some branches we can remove over the winter to allow in more light.
9 July 2004
A group doing community service strimmed Himalayan Balsam in the Central Meadow along the river, and balsam and docks in the Western Meadow. They also mowed the long grass to make a clearing for our moth trapping evening.
17 July 2004
Ron Allen led a walk for EHDC, to celebrate our Local Nature Reserve status. About 30 people attended, 17 of whom were RCG members or their friends. Ron was able to point out some of the special plant and animal species on the reserve. Later the same evening Tim Norris from Butterfly Conservation came with three moth traps. The warm, still and humid conditions were perfect and Tim was able to identify 125 moth species.
7 August 2004
Jane Noble (of Hampshire Paths Partnership) and Ben Spraggon helped us lay paths again. Their invaluable machines helped us move 8 tonnes of gravel on a very hot day. We removed wood chips from the path at the pumping station, the path diversion by the Tilmore Brook, and the path down from the Western Meadow. Then we laid gravel on each section. We cleared scrub from the path beside Barnfield Road and laid some more gravel there. It took us until 2:45 because we had to transport the gravel so far along the Tilmore Brook path.
5 September 2004
We erected our three new notice boards. We used a manual post hole borer and six bags of 'postcrete' The end result looks really good - thanks to Living Spaces for the funds required.
2 October 2004
Various tasks needed doing after the meadows had been mowed. The tractors had broken a concrete slab where the path from the rugby club crossed the ditch, so we repaired the path using two spare railway sleepers. However we couldn't move the grass bales in the Western Meadow into the undergrowth because they were too heavy. Instead we cleared some path edges and pruned some overhanging trees, until the frequent showers got the better of us.
20 October 2004
Two of our members were able to collect EHDC's 2004 Conservation and Design Award in the Natural Environment category.
4 December 2004
More tree work this time, led by Jill. We removed the lower branches of trees to encourage plants under the tree canopy and to keep the path access clear.
