16/11/16 - Recent works

Over the last two weeks our keen band of volunteers have been working hard helping us with a variety of tasks, including fencing repairs and burning willow scrub at North Duffield Carrs, as well as putting the finishing touches to the decoy and spraying pirri-pirri on Skipwith Common NNR. With the river fairly high and the valley now starting to flood we’re busy trying to finish all the jobs which could soon be underwater until after the New Year! However there’s no danger of us running out of jobs to do when it floods – each year when the Ings goes under we switch our attention to Skipwith Common and Forge Valley Woods NNR near Scarborough – which will definitely suit our East Coast based volunteers and save them the 80 mile round trip! Thanks as always to the team for their efforts of late.

On Tuesday this week, the team were hard at work on Wheldrake Ings, busy finishing the last of the scrub clearance before the site floods. With the main work already done due to many days spent on there in August/September, there were just a few small areas left to finish. The ditches at the back of Pool Hide are now willow-free, and all the cuttings were burnt. Whilst the fire did a great job of getting rid of all the newly cut willows, it also kept everyone warm and took care of lunch for the team – although one of the potatoes had seen better days! Thanks as always to the team for their hard work and good humour.

We're not the only ones who have been busy on the Ings lately, over the last few weeks the local birders may have noticed the heavy machinery working on the Ings as the annual ditching programme is undertaken. Ditch clearance is carried out on a rotational basis in order to keep the extensive network functioning (i.e moving water on and off the Ings as river levels fluctuate, whilst helping to maintain the valley’s wildlife interest as well as maximising the natural flood management role of the site (the storage of water during the winter floods). Keeping the ditches open and free from a build-up of silt and vegetation also helps maintain their suitability for some of our breeding ducks, small mammals (Water Voles), dragonflies and other invertebrates and scarce plants such as Greater Water Parsnip. The work has been taking place on North Duffield Carrs, Thornton, Aughton, Wheldrake Ings and Bank Island, at the latter site we have also been busy carrying out improvements to the scrapes making the site look better than ever.