DEAN GREEN TEAM Wildlife Conservation Group in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire |
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Lower Wye Valley Volunteers - November 2024
Greathough Brook Beavers - November 2024
Perry Hay Brook beaver fence checking - October 2024
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust staff at Woorgreen - October 2024
Perry Hay Brook beaver release - May 2024
Lower Wye Valley Volunteers - November 2024
The Wye Valley Volunteer Group has been working on Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust reserves for three years. Our ongoing focus has been on The Park Nature Reserve in Tidenham Chase, a stunning site undergoing large-scale heathland restoration. We're creating open heathland and grassland habitats to support species like the stonechat, nightjar, and a variety of reptiles.
Our small, friendly group is always looking to welcome new volunteers, whether you're a seasoned conservationist or a complete beginner. All you need is a willingness to get stuck in!
Hand tools for scrub removal and gloves will be provided. Our goal is to remove scrub to create space for wildlife and prevent it from regrowing. Stumps will be spot-treated with herbicide by staff to ensure our work has lasting impact, while any cleared scrub will be burned or used to create small habitat piles. Volunteers are also welcome to take some cut timber home at the end of the day.
We'll be meeting at Tidenham Chase car park at 10:00 AM. The workday runs from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with a 30-minute tea break and a 45-minute lunch break. There is no pressure to stay for the whole day, just give as much time as you're comfortable with. Tea, coffee, and hot chocolate will be provided.
What should you bring? Just some lunch, plenty of water, and clothing you don't mind getting a bit scuffed or singed. Sturdy boots are also recommended. Depending on the weather, wet weather gear or extra warm layers are all a good idea. Come and be part of an effort to restore a vital habitat, learn new skills, and meet like minded people.
If you are interested in taking part, please email me at: tom.cover@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk
Our meeting point for the volunteer work is:
Tidenham Chase Car Park
Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/kbAQT5MRKKatLX9f7
What 3 words: ///deploying.appraised.denser
Grid Ref: ST 55853 99280
Greathough Brook Beavers - November 2024
Photos of the beavers in Greathough Brook. The rangers regularly put out apples as a treat for the beavers. The valley has become a swamp of boggy water now which is what we expected. The bottom photo shows this and the cage is there for when we need to catch a beaver.
Perry Hay Brook beaver fence checking - October 2024
We have two volunteers going round the fencing twice a week to make sure that there are no problems with the fencing. Recently, there has been a great deal of wet, rainy weather which has caused flooding in many areas of the Forest of Dean. Perry Hay Brook can cope with this especially as the beavers have been busy building dams to slow the water flow down.
However, all the little streams flowing into the brook are getting deeper which makes walking round the fencing slightly precarious and we sometimes have to divert back to the main hard tracks. We will persevere!
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust staff at Woorgreen - October 2024
Last week on the 1st October the Dean Green Team were at the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Reserve at Woorgreen where we were clearing small birch. THIS week about 50 staff from GWT came out to Woorgreen to carry on with the birch clearance - it is a very large reserve!
Perry Hay Brook beaver release - May 2024
We have two new beavers in the Forest!
Beavers were once widespread throughout Britain but were hunted to extinction by the 16th Century. Today, they are a protected species and this is the second enclosure in the Forest of Dean to welcome them in six years.The male and female quietly slipped into different spots of their new 12-hectare home.
In the forest we have the King Yew which is one of the largest and oldest of Yews in our country. Ian Standing in his article on "interesting and notable trees of Dean" New Regard 2019 lists this and says " probably several hundred years old" but quotes Mitchell's (1974) formula for dating Yews - that with a girth of 20ft.+ a tree may be 800 -1,000 years old. He states that at 22ft. girth the King Yew is the stoutest yew in west Gloucestershire.
The Yew Map Register has more information and speculates that this yew may be the boundary yew mentioned in the "boundary clause attached to a pre-Conquest charter of Tidenham, Gloucestershire, in which King Eadwig granted land there to the abbey of Bath in AD 956, notes as a landmark on the northern boundary of the estate iwdene i.e. yew valley "