Thursday 9th April 2026 - The team numbers may have been a little lower than normal, but a number of tasks got completed across Roundshaw Downs anyway.
Starting the day and the majority of the works at the Northern Meadow of the playing fields area, the team managed to get the whole area cut (so much easier when you have the tractors flail collector mower back in operation after last years absence!), a disease resistant Elm tree planted in some very chalky ground, cleared out self seeded Cherry saplings and trailing Bramble from the site edges, exposed a few patches of bare soil on the grassland after removing residual grass thatch build-up and weeded out some of the Butterfly Bank.
The final mission saw a move to the Southern Butterfly Bank where a brief mow around the bank was carried out, some more weeding of undesirables on the bank was undertaken and marker posts were added to the area boundary keep the rewilded grass from getting the same constant mowing as the remainder of the playing fields.
Tuesday 7th April 2026 - A resplendent sunny Spring day and a fair turnout of volunteers allowed four sites to be visited (albeit only three received the teams dedicated handiwork) Devonshire Avenue Nature Area, The Avenue Primary Academy, The Warren and Wellfield North.
Starting out with a wide dividing up of the team, as one division headed to The Avenue with brushcutters ready for a grassland cut the remaining force stayed at DANA to tackle concentrated sprouting's of Snowberry, clearing off of leaf litter in the chalk scrapes and thinning out of self seeded Sycamore.
A look in at The Warren was the teams next stop but hard work of years gone by must have paid off, with no vegetation work needed the squad just picked up one dislodged picket from the fencing before moving to Wellfield North and Queen Mary's Woodland's shared boundary buffer strip for Bramble lopping and Nettle clearance.
Saturday 4th April - The local community were out in force at Belmont Pastures this morning. The fine spring weather was just the ticket as we planted over 150 wildflower plants to continue the work to enhance the site's grassland.
Thanks to Veolia's Sustainability Fund, our mornings efforts will benefit local wildlife and the people that visit.
If you want to help with future work take a look at our previous posts, or visit sncv.org.uk
Thursday 2nd April 2026 - A sizeable turnout of volunteers allowed three sites to be visited and have works completed to full on all of them.
Stop one saw the team at Kimpton Balancing Ponds with the team dividing in a couple of ways to complete works such as brushcutting areas of grassland, Bramble control along the buffer strip, compost heap rationalising duties, broken post and wire fencing retrieval, a light spot of seeding to bare areas on the grassland and a thorough gathering up of strewn litter.
As the Sun started to shine harder the volunteers then made a move to the nearby Anton Crescent Wetland teasing out more Bramble from the edges of the Reed bed whilst the brushcutter concentrated on areas of grass on the steep banks and amid the peppering of emerging Cow Slips.
The days final mission was implemented at Rosehill Park East where some thankfully soft soil allowed two areas of the grassland to be staked up with more SFI marker posts.
Tuesday 31st March 2026 - It was a small and compact team of volunteers out for todays activities which where divided over the connected sites of Carew Manor Wetlands and Beddington Park.
Beginning at C.M.W the volunteers concentrated on a spot of light Bramble control and sagging branch removal on the main body of the site as the tractor made rounds on cutting the grassland, whilst a hop over on the island a concentrated blitz was implemented, digging and pulling out undesirables and invasives like Hog Weed, Nettles, Cleavers and the minutest of emerging Himalayan Balsam.
The afternoon activities were confined to Beddington Parks tall grass area and saw more grass cutting being completed whilst the volunteers set about liberating some scrub island trees from Bramble and fixing up this areas SFI marker posts.
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