As mentioned in a previous post I joined BTCV as a Volunteer Officer in August 2010. This was an 8 month voluntary placement which I finished in March 2011. During this time I completed a Level 2 Diploma in Work Based Environmental Conservation and one of the units required me to write a log of the practical work that I carried out. These were completed in Word document which I will be posting on here over the next few weeks with relevant links and further information.
September 2010
14.09.10
The land is privately owned and the owner is eventually going to build eco-underground offices. The site needed clearing ready for building on and to salvage any materials. The other side of the land is an empty field with a stable nearby. The owner wanted BTCV to use it for projects and so the stable is being weatherproofed and secured so BTCV can use it to store equipment and materials for the empty field which will be used for horticultural purposes such as allotments.
BTCV have been donated some land by Mr Kingsley who owns Kingsley Village in Cornwall. The land is a windy field in-between two busy roads and next to a business park owned by Mr Kingsley. The aim of this project is to use the site in the future for horticultural skills, to enhance wildlife and grow produce. People can come along to learn and improve their horticultural skills and mingle with like-minded people.
Today we concentrated on tidying up the site- and carrying out maintenance on an old stable on the site which will eventually be used to store equipment. This included wind and rain-proofing the stable. We used, cut to size and fitted corrugated plastic to the open side of the stables and made a thief-proof door for the stables with bought timber and hinges/ nails etc. it was massive! The site had a lot of old wood that needed clearing and nails removing (which we will be re-using if the nails are not bent and the wood not rotten!)
21.09.10 and 24.09.10 Tresevean, Lanner. Squeeze stile and post and rail fence for undesignated footpath.
This task was about blocking off an undesignated footpath to horse-riders at the request of the Parish Council. There was concern over the safety of the horses and horse riders about the use of this shortcut as it was down a steep, rocky bank from a designated footpath into a road. The road was a fairly rural road but the ‘path’ ended up being just past a bridge that was on a bend causing bad visibility to drivers to any people/animals emerging from this ‘made-up path/bridleway’. I won’t go into the controversy that this caused between horse-riders, members of the public, dog-walkers and the Parish Council but in the end our work was un-done due to a public consultation where the local people voted against blocking off this shortcut.
We were working just to the right of this bridge.
So to allow walkers and cyclists to continue using the undesignated path, but stop horses gaining access to the path we constructed a squeeze style fence at the top of the path, and a post and rail fence along the steep bank and in the gap along the designated path next to the squeeze style for safety. The bottom of the fence was staggered so that people would not go straight into the road.
This task required precise measurements and patience working down a rocky, steep bank but needing a straight graduated fence at the same time!
Firstly the holes for the posts of the fence were dug using mattocks, spades, shovolers, iron bars, measuring tape, brute force and yes a winch to remove huge boulders so we could get the posts in the right place. Once the hole was dug and posts placed in the hole, the dug up earth was tampered back in with some pebbles as well and some cement was added into the hole to set the posts in place.
28.09.10: Fellover Brake, Bodmin.
This was a beautiful area.
Vegetation was removed from a pathway clearing around 1 metre from each side. A slasher with no gloves was used to get through brambles and weeds keeping at least three slasher lengths apart from the next person, while loppers were used to cut larger but not bigger then thumb-width sized plants. A pitchfork was used to pick up all of the vegetation cut down to remove it from the pathway.
The pathway was opened up to allow more light to come through in order for violets to grow through which is a favourite plant of the Pearl-Bordered Fritillary butterfly as they have been known to be in that area and are a BAP species. The land is privately owned by some very environmentally aware people and Cornwall Butterfly Conservation have been focusing there efforts here. See here for their newsletter.
