Thursday 22nd October 2026 - There was a sigh of relief from the volunteers who had been out on Tuesdays taskday, as the skies were clear, blue and Autumn sun penetrated the untamed woods at Queen Marys Woodland.
With another bumper turnout of a team today the main activity revolved around thinning out a couple of meters of a buffer strip adjacent to the North-East of the woodland fenceline, pushing back tangles of Bramble and fence leaning trees and using the materials to build a brand new dead-hedge.
As the team was awash with volunteers a small division also quickly set off to Oak's Park to clear arisings from the cut Butterfly Bank and chalk scrapes, the stolen trailer was definitely missed on this occasion with the rear compartment of the mini-bus acting as a substitute to get the mass of material moved!
Wednesday 21st October - Today's team braved a rather wet morning to prepare the Ecology Centre for next weeks Halloween events and make way for the arisings from future months pond maintenance work.
Sunday 18th October - It was a fine sunny autumn morning as a super-sized team assembled at Cuddington Rec, near Worcester Park to cut back bramble encroaching on areas of species rich grassland.
If you are interested in joining us next month please get in touch with Mark at biodiversity@sutton.gov.uk.
Tuesday 20th October 2026 - Foreboding grey skies were overhead and there was a constant barrage of spitting rain at differing intensities throughout the day as a large contingent of volunteers got stuck into work at Back Green.
With larger scale cutting than previously completed on this site having been carried last week the team spent a grueling day raking finely chopped moisture rich rushes from this flood alleviation plain up some less than user friendly banks to all to quickly filling compost heaps!
Thursday 15th October 2026 - Another large team were joined by a corporate volunteer for today escapades divided between Carraway Place and Wandle Edge.
Meeting at Carraway Place, a smaller division of the team were soon off to Wandle Edge for a quick clear up of pre-cut arisings at that location allowing the more static team the chance to build up a head of steam.
As brush-cutting began on the two main areas of grassland the rest of the squad set about coppicing Hazel and Willow from the pond edge, popping out suckering Poplar regrowth, re-feeding dead hedges and rationalising the compost heap ready for a re-stacking with all the new material.
