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.
Thursday 26th March 2026 - With a bumper sized team, a healthy showing of Sun and a slight bite to the wind todays activities took in Roundshaw Woods and the Western extremities of Roundshaw Downs.
As the tractor performed spring cuts to selected areas of grassland the volunteers occupied themselves with Bramble and Snowberry clearance in the woods.
Moving on to the Downs the team then took on the moving of the Sunday volunteers Bramble stockpile to a neatened up compost heap, liberating nearby Blackthorn from their own Bramble encasement and letting the work experience students make their own mark for the future by planting a tree on site.
Tuesday 24th March 2026 - A pair of work experience students bolstered the fairly large team today meaning that the two site visit planned was easily completed.
Starting the escapades at Belmont Pastures as the tractor and flail collector set off on its rounds to carry out a grass cut which will aid the forthcoming planting days, the remainder of the squad took to a thorough litter pick to rubbish dumped and strewn in one of the most inconvenient spots to get to, rationalised compost heaps and clipped back arching Bramble from invading the grassland and the fledgling trees planted in recent years.
Heading from the South of the Borough to near enough the Northern boundary the team finished up the day at Sutton Common where more Bramble was tackled, a sizeable portion of the grassland got cut and a brand new interpretation board was installed.
