BEES Nature Reserve

BEES Conservation Volunteers
BEES Urban Nature Reserve - the good and the bad.

The nature reserve is full of life, though it looks a bit unloved at the moment. I think the increase of bindwind might be due to lack of management around the pond edges, and it would be nice not to be tickled by nettles when sitting on the bench. The bog bean in the top pond seems to have increased massively, and we will probably need to remove some this autumn before the pond becomes a marsh. The marsh cinque foil from Howard's garden is in flower and looks lovely - as do the lilies. We saw a brown hawker dragonfly in flight and one on a leaf over the pond. Although we could not see the larval case we think this had just emerged as it was in the same position for a couple of hours. Brown Hawkers should be emerging for the next coupl eof weeks. Loads of damselflies and birds drinking from the ponds.
However not all is rosy. As some people will know the university has been trying to sell the land adjacent and including some of the reserve. The offer they are accepting will not tolerate a sitting tenant so our boundaries are threatened. The plan is to withdraw the reserve back to the old medlar tree, with the potential of officially including the area where we are struggling to control the giant hogweed. The university were not willing to preserve the reserve in it's current shape as the sale of the land is earmarked to fund specific projects (not sure what but a bit ironic if it's anything to do with their eco- versity status)so wanted to maximise their income. Apart from losing the ares of wild flowers we will also lose the only significant bit of land, however small, away from the pond which will affect our educational work with groups. The area over the fence has been fairly secluded over recent years which has created good nesting zone. A new management plan will have to be devised and funding sought to enable us to deliver the changes. sorry i wasn't able to excert more influnce on the university. They have said they will send be plans with the new boundary, and give bees number to the developers. Then we need to keep our eyes open for the planning application.

Charcoal Update

BEES Conservation Volunteers
charcoal update
Keen to try and manufacture more drawing charcoal we finished loading the kilns on friday evening, and in an attempt to introduce some time efficiencies into thhis labour intensive process, we thought it would be good to light the kilns then, and close down in the morning. Maybe it was the wind - or lack of it - or a difference in the way the air sinks in the evening (well about 10pm once we had prepared our willow sticks in their bake bean cans) but the valley seemed to be filled with smoke within minutes. Hope we didn't spoli anyone's evening! Jack and Annie helped out again - initally thinking it would be a good opportunity to spot wildlife but probably more motivated by the excuse for a late night.
The kilns still need unloading - jonathan did a bit on sunday morning but i opted out. We have enough timber left for one more burn at most. I have sold some of the charcoal - £5 a bag of more or less 5Kg.