Working in the copse

On a bright sunny Saturday in the middle of May, an impressive group of 13 volunteers assembled in Three Cornered Copse for our latest work day.

Our May volunteer group - thank you

Confined to the north end of the woods, the main work of the day was to provide a bit of maintenance to the large population of young trees that had been planted in recent weeks by the council's contractors and their volunteer team. Some of the stakes and collars had been loosened by the weather and the traffic passing through the woodland, so we checked each of the ones we could see, and hammered the stakes in firmly, and checked on the health of the saplings. Remarkably, there were very few failures, thanks largely to the recent wet weather that had watered them regularly through March and April.

We found that most of the trees were healthy and thriving, which was very encouraging. They had been planted in the spaces on the woodland floor, but many had been subsumed by the cow parsley (and nettles), which have also been flourishing in the wet Spring. We also cleared the benches and the steps which had been covered by the vegetation, and of course filled a couple of bags with the ever-present Litter. A big thank you to all the volunteers who came along.

The latest from the council on the Ash Dieback project is that the contractors will return to the copse later in the summer, after the nesting season, to clear the laying timber logs, and take away the signs kindly warning us of their presence. In this way the project hopes to minimise damage to the ecology and the grassland. Meanwhile, some of the ash stumps that remained after the first felling are sprouting and growing high into the woodland canopy. Also doing well are the saplings the Friends planted some four years ago. There is now a thick barrier of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and others along the edge of Dyke Road Avenue, hopefully muffling the traffic from the copse visitors, not to mention creating habitats for the insects we need to encourage.

No more work days are planned, as Summer gets under way. The woodland needs to be left alone to its own devices without too much disturbance. The next meeting we have planned is the AGM; keep an eye on our Facebook page or website (www.threecorneredcopse.org.uk) for details of venue and timings when they are announced.

Simon Baxendale