The Ouse Washes have seen some of the deepest and most sustained flooding, with a 3.7m depth recorded on three occasions - this may however benefit the washes by scouring the river bed and reducing the risk of summer flooding of ground nesting birds.

Another flooding issue has arisen at Dogsthorpe Star Pit, where unfortunately once again our pump has failed, and the pit floor lake has expanded flooding into the grassland and some ponds. The water levels are now so high that an additional larger pump needs to be hired in before we can install a replacement pump.

Coppicing work continued at Brampton Wood during the winter months, including some wood extraction. Extraction work is to continue once the ground has dried out.

Grants  

Two funded projects at Wistow wood are almost complete, supporting woodland management, coppicing, tree pollarding, fencing, and diversity tree planting related to Ash Die Back effects and access improvements. 

Following our recent acquisition of Fleam Dyke south of Cambridge, a £22.5K landfill grant has been secured, This will fund grassland restoration works and stock fencing, concentrating on the southern Mutlow Hill section where remnants of chalk grassland survive.

A two year £40K grant has been secured at Fulbourn Fen to fund management and monitoring works including fencing, tree works, people and water level monitoring. 

Reserve changes

We no longer manage Buff Wood in the west Cambs Hundreds. The Trust are no longer managing the southern part of Fordham wood owned by the Parish Council. Our volunteers will continue to be active across the whole woodland including the Trust owned northern part. 

East Cambridgeshire Reserves Highlights

Mark Ricketts, Reserves Manager (East Cambs)

This year we have closed our woodlands and a section of Fulbourn Fen, to limit the damage to the paths - if the paths are left open the surrounding vegetation becomes trampled when people try to avoid the puddles and mud. Encouragingly it seems people are starting to accept the closures and even starting to understand why we are doing it.

This winter a large proportion of our time has been spent in Cambourne dealing with trees which have been highlighted, during our tree safety assessments.

Many of these trees overhang 60mph roads and houses. It was not helped by the developers not informing us they had given us back access to a wood, with many sizable poor condition ash overhanging houses and parking areas. A a number of these trees had to be dealt with by tree surgeons.

An issue we have been faced with this winter is dealing with dangerous wind blown trees, many of these hanging up over paths or falling on fence lines.

The pictures above are just a sample of some of the trees we have tackled. We are finding that this issue is only increasing as Ash Dieback takes more of a toll on the woodlands.

Due to this problem, we are making the decision to close a number of paths in the woods, as they will soon not be safe for the public.