Bucking the Trend with the NENCV

On October 23rd, three of Felbeck Trust’s Trustees were joined by 12 volunteers from the North East Norfolk Conservation Volunteers for an afternoon’s work at Stow Heath. Trevor welcomed the NENCV volunteers and explained the tasks for the day, along with providing a safety briefing.

The majority of the group set off to clear and create a pathway round the perimeter of the site. This involved lopping and sawing through the undergrowth. One area was really boggy and so logs, which had been prepared earlier in the day by Trevor John and our Tree Surgeon Ed, were carted to the location and laid to create a raised solid surface.

The remainder of the small Sycamores that have been felled that morning to create light and space around the Oaks were dismembered; apparently the correct term for this is ‘bucking’. Some of the offcuts were used to create log piles, while long poles were employed to demarcate the edges of the path, and the brush was utilised to create dead hedging.

Meanwhile, four volunteers planted 50 hedging whips and about a dozen specimen trees – Oak, Sycamore, and Horse Chestnut, which had been donated by two of Felbeck Trust’s long-term supporters, Nick and Julia. A number of small Holly bushes were harvested from the woodland and replanted in the new hedge.

The mid-afternoon break for tea and biscuits enabled us all to have a good chat. 

A big thank you to the NENCV volunteers for their hard work transforming the site and improving access so that we can carry out species surveying and further habitat management work.