Hi all, this past week we rented out a woodchipper and have mostly been clearing up lots of pollarded willow. It’s pretty tiring work, with lots of walking and dragging heavy branches, and we have to get through a lot of it quickly since we only have access to the chipper for a limited time. It’s been fun to use, but the novelty does wear off after a while! The chipper we rented has tracks on it that you can use to manoeuvre, but it drives slower than walking pace, so getting around can be quite a chore! It’s something I’ve never done before though and was great to be learning something new.
RSPB Staff
The willow itself often encroaches onto the reserve and if left unchecked could spoil the wet grassland habitat here at West Sedgemoor and Greylake, so it’s important we stay on top of it. The woodchip created is used in our biomass boiler that we use to heat water around the farm; and this week we also spread some of it over a couple of the muddier paths around Greylake, as you can see below.
While Ashley and I have been chipping, Paul and James have been working hard clearing our second hedge for laying, and we’ll be back focusing on that next week as well. On Friday, also, I headed back up to Greylake to do some odd jobs, strimming the grass around the picnic area and leaf-blowing the walkways.
That’s all for this week, see you next time.
Luke
West Sedgemoor Residential Volunteering team