Nature Near London: March 2013

Jubilee Wood, Bat Roost Repair, Sunday March 24th

The project to restore the bat roost and improve the wildflower meadow at Jubilee Wood Local Nature Reserve has been made possible thanks to local people voting for the project in the 'Your Money, You Decide' scheme. The Environment Trust has teamed up with the Lower Mole Countryside Project to improve the reserve for wildlife and local people. The award of funding from Kingston Council allowed a new metal door to be installed to prevent a repeat of the previous vandalism and anti-social activities. The roost is located inside a World War II pill-box. The gun-slits are bricked up, leaving a small entrance for common pipistrelle bats to enter. Reclaimed roofing tiles attached to the internal walls, will provide a humid and safe environment for the bats to roost. All bats are protected by law, which includes their roosts. (UK bat legislation).
A new sign was also fitted to the gate of the reserve on Fairoak Lane, as even some local people are not aware of the existence of the reserve. New benches will be located near to the ponds, a tawny owl box, made at the nearby Headley Court Defence Medical Rehabilitation Unit, will be put up in a tree, and a new interpretation board will be installed at the reserve entrance.
Other tasks include: improving the wildflower meadow by seeding, plug planting and reinstating a more traditional mowing regime to lower the fertility of the soil and improve conditions for native wildflowers. Later in the year, the reed-beds will be cut back and a second pond, now largely overgrown, will be opened up again.
Our first session at Jubilee Wood was regrettably cut short by the freezing temperature, leaving even more to complete at our next event at the reserve just after Easter on Tuesday April 2nd. Why not join us and work off that Easter egg while improving a local nature reserve.

The Jubilee Wood pill-box

Gun slits with remains of old bricks

Elliot cleans away old bricks in preparation for ...

...Pamela to add bricks.

Not bad for a first try, including small gap for pipistrelle bats to enter.

Pamela cleans out the inside of the pill-box - not a pleasant job.

Meanwhile, Ted prepares the entrance for a new sign, as Connor and Reuben supervise.

The new sign in place.

The pond at Jubilee Wood Local Nature Reserve.

This is how it looked in 1996.

The meadow.

And, in 1996.

Connor assembles the tawny owl box.

The wet woodland is home to interesting plants, such as marsh marigold.

And, yellow flag iris.

Tree planting, Churchfields Recreation Ground, Chessington. Sunday March 17th

This was the second visit to Churchfields Recreation Ground this month by the Environment Trust's Kingston Greenspace Volunteers. Thanks to a community tree pack awarded by the Woodland Trust, our volunteers spent the day planting over 200 saplings (oak, rowan, silver birch, hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, dog wood) to supplement existing areas of young woodland. The new areas of woodland, will also hopefully serve as a buffer to improve and safeguard more mature areas of woodland.
An invitation to join the planting was extended to Kingston's Lord Mayor Councillor Mary Heathcote OBE, who planted an English oak sapling grown from an acorn collected on the Queen's estate. Before planting the oak, the Mayor, together with her consort and husband, Dr. Roger Heathcote, chatted with volunteers and congratulated them on their dedication to improving Kingston's environment. Despite the seemingly relentless rain, the volunteers, clearly inspired by the mayor's words of encouragement, continued planting until 3pm.
A number of new volunteers joined the group, including several locals, who it is hoped will help keep an eye on the young trees. Unfortunately, experience elsewhere (Wormwood Scrubs and Tokyngton Park, Brent) shows that tree planting is not universally welcomed, with some residents preferring mown grass. Young trees in these other areas have sadly suffered from vandalism as well as theft of tree guards. While the intention is not to turn such areas into forests, hopefully our new local volunteers will convince their neighbours of the value of woodland in terms of improvements to their quality of life, and to the air we all breathe, as well as to improved property values, reduced crime, and a better environment in which to raise children, not to mention the benefits for wildlife. It is also hoped that a formal 'Friends of Churchfields' might be inspired to work together on a regular basis to bring further improvements to this valuable green space on the edge of London.

Kingston's Lord Mayor Councillor Mary Heathcote and her consort and husband, Dr. Roger Heathcote, greet volunteers at Churchfields Recreation Ground.

The mayor plants a Jubilee Oak.

Kingston's mayor and her consort, chat with Patrick and Angela.

Maeve and Lucia from Marymount International School plant yet another tree.

D of E volunteers Reuben and Ted gaining 'brownie points'.

Ryan and Gemma work as a team.

The young trees, hopefully protected against all 'elements'.

A small patch of woodland was also extended to provide more wildlife habitat.

Update - August 2013

During the hot weather in July extra watering was needed to ensure the new trees survived their first summer. Some trees have inevitably died, but most have survived, although a number of tree guards have been removed, and now replaced. It is hoped that further planting will take place in November 2013, as well as the creation of additional long-grass buffer strips from March 2014.

Not much to see yet, but the trees are still alive.

A comma butterfly rests on one of the young hazel trees planted in November 2012.

A gatekeeper butterfly...

...and a speckled wood, show the value of Churchfields rec as butterfly habitat.

Pevensey Road Nature Reserve, Sunday March 10th 2013

Teaming up with the Friends of the River Crane (FORCE) and The Conservation Volunteers, today's Environment Trust task took place just inside Hounslow at the Pevensey Road Nature Reserve. On the banks of the River Crane, a series of new ponds have been created to provide additional habitat for plants and animals to colonise. The site is rather unloved and suffers from invasion by invasive species, such as Himalayan balsam and giant hogweed, and is badly littered with rubbish. Today's event, the first by local volunteer groups, was hopefully the start of sustained management of this important wildlife corridor linking Hounslow Heath and Crane Park. Tasks today included planting up the pond and woodland edges with native wildflowers, laying a woodchip path and picking up litter. Another issue on the site is the use of the area by young lads on dirt bikes. It's understood that the area has been used for this purpose since the 1930s. Naturally, there are differences of opinion about the issue among local residents.

The River Crane gently rolls through Pevensey Road Nature Reserve, Hounslow

The planting team heads off through the mud ...

... and gets planting in one of the newly created ponds alongside the River Crane.

A wonderful wetland awaits colonisation by plants and animals, such as water voles.

The new ponds will serve as a refuge for wildlife from pollution events in the River Crane.

But, management will be necessary to ensure the area doesn't become dominated by Himalayan balsam (seedlings emerging), and giant hogweed, which is out of control upstream.

Giant hogweed photographed upstream near Cranford Park in May 2012.

Hazel coppicing, Churchfields Recreation Ground, Chessington. Tuesday March 5th, 2013

Supposedly, this was the warmest day of the year so far, and it certainly felt like it. Today, as part of Climate Week, the Environment Trust's Kingston Greenspace Volunteers were working at Churchfields Recreation Ground for the first time.
There are some attractive patches of young woodland scattered around the rec., with a few well-developed stands of hazel that are about ready for a spot of coppicing. Coppicing is a traditional method of sustainably managing woodlands to provide wood products, that also has benefits for wildlife in terms of creating a greater diversity of habitats to support a greater diversity of species. Coppicing may seem rather brutal, as it involves cutting trees almost to the ground, but done in rotation on a 7-10 year cycle it can provide a range of woodland products. It also allows light to penetrate the tree canopy which in turn encourages a greater diversity of ground flora to thrive, and will also prolong the life of hazel trees, which quickly regenerate from the cut stems.
Once we started to coppice the hazel, it became clear that the current growth is about ten years old, meaning that our timing was perfect. In preparation for a community tree planting event at the other end of the rec. on Sunday March 17th (10-3), at which Kingston's mayor (The Worshipful the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Councillor Mary Heathcote OBE) is due to be in attendance, we decided to harvest some of the hazel for use as supports for the new trees. After a day's coppicing, although we had only coppiced a couple of the larger hazel trees, we produced over 100 tree supports, and a variety of other wood products, such as bean poles out of the long straight pieces, and firewood from some of the larger pieces. This is the last coppicing event this year, as bird nesting will begin soon, but there is plenty left for next autumn/winter.
Once the larger of the two hazels had been coppiced, it was remarkable to watch as hundreds of tiny spiders frantically began weaving their webs across the freshly cut tree stumps. A myriad of other insects also emerged into the sunlight, including a native cream-streaked ladybird and a green shield bug.
Another bonus for the day, was the group being interviewed by Kingston Green Radio as part of Kingston's Paint the Town Green festival.

Philip and Gerrard shoot the breeze at a sun-drenched Churchfields Rec.

The hazel after coppicing.

A cream-streaked ladybird emerges from the leaf-litter.

And, spiders take advantage of newly-created habitat.

Although not strictly a native species, a beautiful crocus makes the most of the sunny weather.

Ditto with snowdrops, although they certainly brightened a chilly and damp site visit to the rec a few weeks ago.

Willow Spiling, Kew, Saturday 2nd March, 2013

Back by popular demand, willow spiling is a traditional method of protecting river banks from erosion. The aim here, is to reduce the impact of the tide and wake from passing boats on the river bank, which threaten to wash away the well-used and popular tow path. The project has been running for several years now, so the live willow posts are now quite well established, although the weaving needs to be replenished and any dead post need to be replaced every year.
There's no better place to be than by the mighty Thames on a mild March morning, and even the sun made an appearance. Thanks everyone for a great morning's work - as ever.