This week saw the Green Gym at Millenium Green - which is a local community project. The Green was once grazed meadowland, but no grazing has taken place since about 1980; this has allowed the germination of acorns and undisturbed growth, resulting in an unusual area of naturally regenerating oak woodland. The clay soil and rich humus deposit provide an ideal environment for these young trees, and good woodland management is needed to ensure the correct selection of trees for thinning takes place in the future. The Butterfly meadow has a large variety of wild flowers in Spring and Summer, which have been helped by The Green Gym’s previous clearance of brambles. The Green and surrounding fields support a rich birdlife, and a survey in the 1990’s revealed over thirty species of bird. In August 2009 a local dragonfly expert visited the pond, and counted 17 Migrant Hawker dragonflies, as well as a lone male Southern Hawker defending his territory - an indication the pond area is providing the right habitat for these species to thrive.
Our tasks were to put in some more steps, and cut back a very large area which has been taken over - literally - by horsetails. Once we had cut them back it was amazing how much wildlife there was underneath - we found yellow and black beetles, several different types of spider including harvestmen, several crickets and butterflies. We also went to look at the flower meadow where we have worked on previous visits, and now all the bramble has been cleared it is just amazing how the wildflowers have re-generated, and how many bees and butteflies it has attracted this summer.
Many thanks to Carrie for the text and photographs.
Sorry that the blog was published a bit late this week - Bob the Blog was away getting repaired..!!
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