Greensand Trust Quarterly Report:  October to December 2024

The financial impact of the Autumn Government budget, and the knock-on effects this will have on the cost of goods and services, presents significant financial challenges to the Trust.  We’ve been in similar situations before and know that by pulling together, making savings and efficiencies wherever possible and seeking out all possible sources of funding, we can get through this and ensure that the vital role the Trust plays for our local environment and in our communities continues, and that we emerge a more sustainable organisation.  Our greatest assets are our staff and volunteers and by working as a Team we can achieve so much. 

Education

Our Education Team had contact with 354 young people during the end part of 2024.  As always, we have been helpfully supported by our dedicated education volunteers giving 40 hours of their time to help plan and deliver a variety of work we do to raise awareness.

Students from Central Bedfordshire College visited Rushmere to learn about heathland habitats and threatened species in November and then carried out valuable practical conservation work with us. They are returning regularly in smaller groups over the next few months to continue the conservation tasks.

Our new Youth Ranger recruits have been busy getting to know each other and Rushmere Country Park, with a variety of skills and practical sessions exploring the heathland, learning about and monitoring small mammals and wood working with woodland crafts specialists.

 

The education team delivered a community event at Knolls Wood in Leighton Buzzard during October Half term at which children and their families explored the site with a bat themed trail and activity and we also supported the Feed the Birds event at Rushmere making bird crafts and badges alongside some of our keen Youth Rangers. Two Youth Rangers also helped at our successful festive craft sessions in November.

We enjoyed leading festive Christmas walks with 6 classes children from Brooklands Farm Primary School in Milton Keynes and welcomed the return of pupils from Maulden Lower to Maulden Heath.

Our WISE Wood programme goes from strength to strength and a group of 10 invited pupils from Henlow Academy joined us for the 5-week programme aiming to build pupil confidence and offer an experience of woodland and its benefits. Feedback from the deputy head was very positive: 

The students and staff enjoyed it so much and came back each week to tell me about the sessions. It was lovely to see the students developing in confidence and they have clearly gained so much by attending the programme so thank you.

 

Partnerships & Development Projects

The Trust’s Putting Peat on the Map project, being delivered in partnership with the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, is nearing completion.  The project aims to raise awareness of, and better understand, our precious but little known peat resource here in the Flit Valley.  Soil surveys have been carried out across the main ‘hotspots’ where it is thought the majority of peat remains, and there are still significant areas of quite deep peaty soils in place – good news for wildlife, reducing flooding and storing carbon. 

We also hosted a tour of the Flit Valley with officers from the Environment Agency and Defra who have funded and supported us through the Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot.  The project is due to complete at the end of January, with a landowner presentation evening taking place, but we’re already thinking about how we can progress this work.  Now we know more about the remaining peat resource, we need to start planning projects that help protect it and ensure it continues to provide these benefits.  We’d also like to do more to continue to raise public awareness.

   

Sites we maintain

Linslade Wood

Three official action days took place this quarter – all included clearing mature dogwood and hazel on the Eastern side of the picnic area. Work has progressed on the parcel of land beyond the picnic triangle, now almost totally cleared of brash, dead briar and self-seeded saplings with some mature standards left to thrive.

The area at the western end of the wood continues to be cleared with the glade area now reopened to its original expanse – we thinned the self-seeded larch and other saplings to allow more light in which will hopefully aid in drying out the area. A meeting with CBC senior tree officer took place in November to ensure all work being carried out by the vols and GST is being done to a satisfactory.

The Friends of Linslade Wood volunteers installed two new waymark posts to assist site users in finding their way around, funded by Leighton-Linslade Town Council. Greensand Trust Rangers cut back bramble to encourage bluebell growth in the old wood. Strong winds brought a couple of trees down across the main ride but nothing of note.  Regular volunteer warden site patrols are taking place weekly to alert us to any issues of urgency but they also do a sterling job litter-picking and keeping the site tidy.

Studham Common

There was one action day this quarter as the October task was cancelled due to torrential rain. November’s task involved clearance of bramble along the southern boundary fence of Middle Common to try and cut back this year’s regrowth. The bench at the former bus stop had become unsafe due to excess rot and has been removed.

For a number of years a third sleeper bridge has featured on the site checks for Middle Common but had not been found, however, during the last site patrol of the year a third bridge was found behind the bench on East Common, though this is currently inaccessible due to tree and scrub growth.

Tiddenfoot Waterside Park

Aside from the weekly site patrols, three action days took place this quarter, the first in October involved path clearance along the Sands of Time path and installation of hazel hurdles along the canal side of this path, a couple were also installed around the acid grassland areas to block off paths created by anglers. November’s action day involved a major litter pick and site tidy up along with transplanting hawthorn from alongside the green bridge to along the site boundary bordering the boat yard at the southern end of the site. December’s action day involved the annual Christmas lunch featuring jacket potatoes. Sadly, litter has increased at the site over the Christmas period and thanks have been conveyed to the site wardens who patrol the site on a weekly basis keeping it presentable to the best of their abilities. Unfortunately, due to high water levels, not all throwlines have been checked as regularly as they should be.

Clipstone Brook

Three site patrols have taken place this quarter ensuring the watercourses remained free from obstruction and all furniture is present (when it has been safe to do so).

Heath Wood and Meadow

Three site visits this quarter.  ‘No Cycling’ signs have been removed by site users and need to be replaced. High winds have caused a number of trees to fall, some causing damage to neighbouring properties. No volunteer tasks have taken place - volunteer site wardens continue to patrol the site weekly.

Riverside Walk (formerly King Street and Millbank)

No volunteer tasks this quarter - river levels have remained consistently high meaning that debris has collected along this stretch. Fortnightly patrols continue on the site. Averys boundary hedge was cut to shoulder height after complaints from residents.

Rushmere

Volunteer tasks for the past three months have focussed on heathland restoration, rhododendron clearance, installing a new kissing gate leading into Kings Wood, removing multiple birch trees next to the Legion on Thrift Road and lots more. To thank and celebrate our volunteers’ hard work, we held a Christmas gathering with jacket potatoes on the fire and mince pies!

We’ve had lots of trees come down throughout the park during this quarter due to high winds, which has kept the rangers very busy, and in some cases, we’ve had to close the park to ensure the safety of our visitors. Not only have we had high winds, but also lots of rain, which has caused some of the access points in the park to flood. However, the park remained open during times of high water levels.

We had a very successful year of Christmas tree sales, with help from volunteers - we only had 2 trees left by the weekend before Christmas and we are looking to see how we can increase sales for Christmas 2025.

Eastern Sites

In October the volunteers undertook reedmace and sedge control in the ponds at Sandy Smith NR and Duck End NR.  They also started on scrub control at Maulden Heath, pushed back an extremely large bramble patch at DENR and undertook some gorse control at Ampthill Park.  The Thursday vols continued with fencing and gate installations at Clophill Lakes.

November saw the volunteers continue with gorse control at Ampthill Park and they also cleared the south side of a pond at CHL to let light back onto the water, which had been completely shaded out by the surrounding trees, and did further scrub reduction at Maulden Heath.  The Thursday group continued with the tree clearance at the CHL pond (pictured) and also continued with the never-ending fencing works.

In December we did some extra tasks at Maulden Heath to try and get the broom under control, as it is proving difficult to manage and is swamping the grassland.  We had our annual Xmas task at Flitton Moor, which was a great success, and completed woodland and pond work for CBC there.  The Thursday vols coppiced the alder regrowth around one of the Lakes at Clophill and started on fencing works in Cainhoe Field.

• Former Haulage Yard, Potton
• Land at Castle Dairy Farm, Bedford
• Barns at Roundhill Farm, Stagsden
• Warren Farm, Sutton
• Stable Block at Dean Road, Stewkley

Our Senior Ecologist Phil attended the Heathland Restoration Forum at Stockgrove in November celebrating 30 years of heathland restoration on Rammamere Heath. Back in 1994, when the initiative began, The Greensand Trust’s predecessor body, the Greensand Project, part of The Wildlife Trust, held volunteer tasks locally, providing opportunities for local people to get involved and were supervised by Phil.  One of those volunteers present at the very beginning, Rosemary, still volunteers with the Trust and was also present at the event.

The metric to register Clophill Lakes as a donor site to receive Biodiversity Net Gain funding was also completed.

Rushmere Country Park

Visitor numbers for Q3 Approx 57,944 people (11% increase on Q3 2023) despite numerous days of closure (5) due to high winds

Rushmere & Stockgrove Visitor Centres

Tree Tops Café continued to offer a range of food and drink options introducing seasonal choices. Sales have been steady. Occasional staffing availability issues impact on menu availability. Currently looking to train some front of house staff to have kitchen better perform during these times.

The visitor centre continued offering support and advice to visitors with changing displays and retail options.

Events

October Half Term

Imagica Theatre – External Event offering theatre / art experience to SEND children

Feed the Birds – well attended, successful event

Xplorer – CBC event run by GST Vols

Autumn Trail – successful self-led trail, created by GST staff & vols

November/ December

Festive craft ticketed event run by Education team

Festive Trail – successful self-led trail created by GST Staff

Site Development

Heron’s Hangout play area was completed in early November and we did a soft opening so we could monitor the equipment and user impact - unfortunately, we had issues with the structure moving slightly after heavy usage. The contractors have been back in to adjust and weighted the foundations but the issue is not yet resolved and we are exploring different options until we can put it back into use. The rest of the play area is in use and seems to be really popular with our visitors.

The focus for staff and volunteers for the next quarter and beyond is to work together to make cost savings, improve efficiencies and increase revenues. With the financial impact of the recent Governmental budget and the ongoing increase of costs for services and materials it is imperative that we all work together to lessen the impact. A document will be distributed to staff and volunteers to highlight what we all can be doing to tackle these tough times together.

 

Volunteering

The new Volunteering and Community Officer, Kayte, joined the Trust in early November. She has met all staff members with volunteering responsibility and visited several volunteer groups, including practical and conservation groups (East and West), education, river monitoring and livestock wardens.

The volunteer databases and onboarding processes have been reviewed and changes will be implemented in Quarter 4.

New volunteers joined existing volunteers for Christmas Tree sales, which were recruited via social media. A simple volunteering communications plan has been developed to incorporate a regular social media Volunteer Spotlight, a newsletter and a schedule of events to invite volunteers to meet staff members throughout the year.  The December Volunteer Spotlight featured the education team and first edition of the Newsletter was sent in December 2024 with a good open rate.

A volunteer survey has been written, due for distribution in January. She plans, from January, to meet all Friends’ groups representing horse and cycle volunteer groups.  

The Working Woodlands Centre

In October we held our second Woodland Craft Day at The Working Woodlands Centre to raise awareness of traditional woodland management, its biodiversity benefits and woodland products. About 400 people visited during the course of the day, learning about and trying a variety of traditional woodland crafts and techniques such as basket and hurdle weaving, turning bowls on a pole lathe and using a shave horse to work with green wood.  The problems that deer are causing in woodlands were highlighted by staff from Forestry England and Rachael Presky from our ‘Oh Deer’ project.

 

 

 

 Greensand Country

Throughout the Autumn, the Greensand Country Landscape Partnership has been busy supporting the work of the wider Greensand Trust, as well as running its own projects. We supported the Heathland Forum held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the positive management of Rammamere Heath and how heathland managers can work more closely together going forward. We also delivered a session for historic parkland owners and managers based around the upcoming Local Nature Recovery Strategy. As the Greensand Ridge is dotted with historic parkland, it is vital that these important habitats are represented.

We are continuing to work with artist Rachael Presky on our Oh Deer! project, using animation and film to raise awareness of the impact of deer on our woodlands. With Senior Ecologist Sue Raven, we took a trip to Sandy Smith Nature Reserve to visualise the impact the deer are having. 

The weather in half-term was kind enough to permit a led walk, this time Katharine’s Walk around Ampthill and Millbrook, aimed at families. Look out for more short-distance walks this year.

We also continue to support local businesses through our Greensand Country Charter, which gives free marketing and promotion to local businesses and groups. In October we held our annual forum for Charter Members. We heard some inspiring stories about how businesses along the Greensand Ridge had developed, such as Wooden Hill Coffee, and what support packages were available.

Planning had also begun for our eighth annual Greensand Country Festival, which will be held in May. This will include a wide variety of events, including our guided Greensand Ridge Walk. Stay tuned for more information very shortly.