Pond Platform part 2.

On Friday we finished off the dipping platform in fantastic weather. It was hard work but we are really pleased with the results. The platform juts out into the pond so that the edge is already in quite deep water. Once we stopped concentrating on work and began to look into the water at the edge of the platform we were immediately amazed at the amount of extra wildlife activity you can see. Newts pop up regularly to grab air and there are loads of pond snails which crawl over the pond weed. Previously, children had to scoop the snails out with nets to see them at which point the creatures would hide in their shells and stay there. Now you can see them in the clear water as they move about.

We were helped by University of Bradford students who were taking part in national volunteers week. They got loads of vegetation cleared so that access to the wooded area is massively improved. Hope to see you next week too, guys! For the second week running the Telegraph and Argus photographed our efforts. If anyone spots us in the paper, please let us know and keep us a copy!

Urban Nature Reserve pond platform pt.1

Great task yesterday! We embarked on a dipping platform at the BEES Urban Nature Reserve on the Laisteridge Lane University Campus. We got 6 solid posts in ready to take the joists and tread boards. We hope to finish it next week and the result will enable children to pond dip more safely. We saw newts which I always find exciting!

Others worked at eradicating the invasive species Giant Hogweed from the site. Due to our efforts in the past, the amount coming up this year has been greatly reduced.

The press turned up to photograph the work going on and I'll be rushing out to see ourselves in the T&A today!

I have recently been on a bushcraft course and Guille, from Spain on a European volunteer scheme requested a fire by friction tutorial. We made a bow drill set and back at home, managed to produce fire with it!