Hello Conservation Volunteers
Thank you to all of the 16 volunteers who attended our final work morning of 2021 at Forge Dam on what turned out to be another dry morning. We do seem to have been lucky this year and not had too many wet work mornings!
We had a team led by John removing more brambles and wild raspberries on the steep bank above the dam. The sessions on here by the volunteers over the last few weeks have made a tremendous improvement to the look of the bank.
A small team went along the goit again removing build ups of silt and debris to ensure we do not have any blockages.
Ann did some dead heading of the plants which had been planted during this year.
Our Ranger, Matt, led a team up the valley looking for potential sites to create leaky dams which will reduce the flow of the Porter when it is in spate (as it has been these last few days), which in turn will hopefully reduce the erosion and hence silt washing downstream. It was certainly a good day for the exploratory survey, for as well as finding a number of potential sites we also found a number of blocked culverts and drainage channels which are creating flooding and erosion on the footpath which need attention, plus a broken fence, so we will have a full task list in the New Year! ("what3words" came in handy to record the location of the leaky dam sites as well as the culverts and drains which need to be cleared).
You may have noticed the wooden stake and rope fence which appeared opposite the playground to replace the temporary blue plastic fence. A group of volunteers installed this last week using a natural rope instead of plastic rope, which at the time was nicely looped, however with all the rain it has shrunk and gone tight! We will be installing more of the same rope fencing along this entire length.
The next work morning is on Thursday 13th January 2022. The usual email will be sent out nearer the time requesting volunteers.
Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, we hope to see you all again in 2022.
Lyndon.
A Selection of photos from the work morning
Newly installed wooden stake and rope fence
Raspberry and bramble clearing above the dam
At the end of the morning session
On the photos below the "what3words" location is shown in red if you wish to see where they are located. Here is a small selection from the morning.
Potential site for 3 leaky dams at "plank.begun.number" - Peter, Matt, Nick, Rob
Nick, Matt, Lyndon, Rob
Potential Dam 1
Potential Dam 2
Potential Dam 3
Blocked drainage pipe causing the path to be eroded at "exists.repair.richer"
Blocked and leaky drainage ditch eroding the path at "print.tour.loads"
