Firewood, Rabbit-fencing and Sweet Chestnut Leaf Mulch
Hog ring pliers - essential tool for fixing rabbit-fencing in place
So what conservation tasks are required today? The conservation volunteering gang are focused on cutting and stacking wood. It should not surprise you that wood is the go to energy source here at Wilderness Wood. Several thousand trees swallow up a lot of carbon dioxide as they grow.
I recall the formula for photosynthesis from my secondary school biology days
CO2+H2O = C6H12O6
Carbon dioxide and water combine to make sugars and other materials used for growth and to create woody tissue.
Perhaps a little oversimplified but good enough for a 12 year old to pass his end of year exams. Basically the reverse happens when you burn the wood for cooking and heating purposes, so our wood fuel is carbon neutral. There isn't even any CO2 entering the atmosphere due to its transportation. So that beats the wood pellets burnt in the controversial Drax power station!
Meanwhile this old man goes off to do some light work adding rabbit-proof fencing around the grassland at Bat Park. I had a fall a couple of weeks ago, not doing conservation I should add, but measuring distance in smooth soled basketball boots on a wet grassy slope in my garden. I confess It never occurred to me that even measuring requires a risk assessment. Needless to say, the resultant near instantaneous shift from the vertical to the horizontal had consequences.
Light duties only for me then!
I'll spare you the details of rabbit fencing since it is not the most exciting of past times, but the grass at Bat Park will thank me for it, even if the rabbits won't. With luck we'll get a surge in wildflower growth once it is finished. The challenge then will be managing the balance between limiting the grazing by rabbits, but keeping the benefit derived from their poo. Our resident population of Minotaur beetles just can't get enough of it.
A low grassy mound affords rabbits a good view of any predators - and to leave a few free gifts for the Minotaurs
An hour and a half of rabbit fencing (only 44 metres left to do) and I still have 30 minutes to try collecting together several wheelbarrow loads of chestnut leaves to sprinkle on the ground at the foot of Big Beech. Thirty minutes of this every Wednesday should give us a nice moist mulch to help retain this monster tree’s soil moisture throughout the summer months.
That's if all that bending hasn't buggered up my back in the meantime!
David Horne - author ‘A Year in the Wilderness (Conservation at Wilderness Wood 2023-24)