Summer team work

From maintenance work to surveys, a snapshot of our west Cambridgeshire reserves team and volunteers hard at work at sites in the west of the county

A large area of the southern part of Lattersey nature reserve, near Peterborough, is wetland habitat: a wooden boardwalk provides access for visitors to more of these wet areas which flood in winter, and can also remain wet through summer. This boardwalk requires maintenance annually, focusing on the parts most in need of renewal: recently the reserves team spent two days with two groups of Trust volunteers dismantling a section which was rotten and breaking apart, then reassembling with new boards. Being substantial in size, help was needed from eight volunteers and four staff to tackle a section at a time.

Lattersey boardwalk repair Eamonn Lawlor

Lattersey boardwalk repairs Eamonn Lawlor

At Brampton Wood different sections of trees are felled on rotation which can produce large amounts of wood (some may be removal of non native conifer, some have been coppiced). Dead wood is important for many forms of life in a woodland but it can also be used for producing firewood and charcoal. With the help of volunteer site wardens the reserves team used machinery to pull the logs onto paths for easier access, before transporting them to our wood yard for later collection.

Logging at Brampton Wood Eamonn Lawlor

Logging Brampton Wood Eamonn Lawlor

Helping the Monitoring and Research team carry out grassland surveys, the last site survey of the season took place at Wansford Pasture. The resulting report produced by the M&R team provides useful feedback on the management of these sites and helps reserves teams assess site conditions, indicating how management is working. Despite warm conditions, 40 quadrats were successfully completed, with time for a spot of lunch beneath the shade of a tall tree.