Dean Green Team

Wildlife Conservation Group in the

Forest of Dean

Gloucestershire

6 September 2016

Ridley Bottom GWT Reserve

Grid Ref SO563985

Ridley Bottom is a collection of three small fields which are a beautiful wild flower reserve. Every year, once the flowers have seeded and died down, the fields are cut and rows of hay are left. These rows need collecting up - sometimes, the hay is dry and light to move but sometimes, it is very soggy, wet and heavy - oh dear! - we had the soggy hay this year! In fact, this was made worse by the need to drag it up the hill to the trailer for dispersal as the ground was too slippery to get the trailer right down to the fields. On top of this, the weather was very muggy and hot (24 degrees) so we became a very sweaty crew!

The satisfaction of completing the task is worthwhile though!

We used old builder's sacks to drag the hay out of the fields and up the track.

The lines of hay were raked into small stacks prior to removal.

We also used a large tarpaulin which could carry more of the load.