At Saltholme we have many services over and under our various landholdings and regular access and maintenance is required to these by the different utilities companies. One pipeline owned by National Gas runs under Saltholme East and Dorman’s Pool.
We worked with National Gas advising on how they can, as comfortably as possible, walk a route over their pipeline, some of which is under a reedbed, complete with a foot of water and eight-foot-high reeds.
Fortunately, we have recent experience with a couple of machines that are able to work in wet conditions; a Softrak and a Truxor. The Softrak can work in shallow water, cutting and collecting vegetation including common reed, whilst the Truxor is an amphibious machine that works in deeper water and is able to cut reed below the surface and collect it into piles.
With being a SSSI and a SPA, permission is required from Natural England for such activities but when that was in place, the work could go ahead. It turned out that the cut and collect work over the pipeline took less time than National Gas expected, and they kindly covered the costs of the machines on our site for a few days. We topped the time up a little using our own budget and had the machines for the rest of the week.
The Softrak emptying its last load at Dorman's Pool
The route of the pipeline after the cut
We used the Truxor at the Haverton Hole reedbed to continue work that we started last winter. Rides through the reeds were cut to enable new and different views from the different viewpoints around site. The cutting also increased the amount of reed to water interface which is a useful part of a reedbed as it is where a lot of birds, including bittern, often feed. The removal of material will also assist with the movement of fish populations around the pool and beyond. The reed that was cut was piled up into habitat piles that will provide a habitat for a number of invertebrate species; piling freshly cut reed onto the old piles will lead to differing stages of decomposition within, and will provide for an even greater diversity.
A truxor working at Haverton Hole in 2016
The Softrak helped us with some of our path edge maintenance and enabled us to take a cut off areas that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to, including the Jubilee Mound, which, I was once told, was sown with wildflower seed. If we manage to take a few cuts off the area, I am hoping a bit more floral diversity will creep in bringing benefits to a variety of invertebrates and it should also add a little more colour in summer. Other grassland areas were also cut. When the site was created a lot of areas were left with a clay substrate and little or no top soil, as succession occurs and nutrients start to build up, removing the vegetation will remove some nutrient and help less robust species to thrive. Lastly we used it to cut areas of reed on the wet grassland because it is starting to get away and we cut a small area of the Top Tank edge providing a view in from the Jubilee Mound, and a feeding area for species like Snipe.
It goes to show what positive outcomes can come when we work with out industry neighbours.