Guest blog by Lucy Hickman, young wardens group member
Saturday 21 February
This month we learnt lots about trees and how the reserve wardens manage the forests. We learnt things like fallen down, old, rotted trees can often support more insect life in them than the healthy growing ones.
We started off by collecting all of the tools and learnt how to use them. Here are pictures of the bow saws and loppers. We used these to cut down trees. We used the bow saw for cutting down trees bigger than my thumb and the loppers for twigs smaller than my thumb.
We learnt why they cut down trees and how to cut them down safely. Here are the steps we used
Step 1. Choose your tree and what way you want it to fall.
Step 2. Saw a bird’s mouth (a small v-shaped cut) into the trunk as close to the ground as possible and on the side of the tree where you want it to fall.
Step 3. On the other side of the trunk saw across the tree towards the birds mouth so that you end up slightly above it.
Step 4. When nearly at the bird’s mouth, make sure the area where the tree will fall is clear so nothing could get hurt.
Step 5. Keep sawing until the tree falls
After we had finished that we went to repair a broken fence using the skills we picked up last week. We were able to show the new members what to do.
Above is a picture of the fence that I had to mend before I started. The picture below shows it when I had finished.
It was really nice to be able to show my Mum the fence as we drove away from the reserve. It made the day really worthwhile and is great to think I have made something to last for a long time and done something useful.
I can’t wait to see what we will do next month!
By Lucy Hickman
Ed - Minsmere’s Young Warden’s group is aimed at young people with an enthusiasm for wildlife and the environment. The sessions will consist of lots of practical, hands-on activities, opportunities for young people to increase their skills in conservation management and wildlife knowledge and make new like minded friends.