The Greensand Trust Quarterly Report April to June 2024

Education

What is proving to be a very busy summer term for the Education team began after the Easter holidays with Spring themed visits from regular visitors St Leonard’s Lower School. We are pleased to have welcomed all their year groups walking to their ‘local patch’ at Rushmere Country Park recently.

This quarter we have worked with 750 young people across the Trust’s area and have been supported by over 107 hours from our education volunteers.

During April, pupils from Henlow Academy enjoyed a mindfulness walk in Maulden Woods and the Redbourn Rainbows also visited to explore our pond and its residents. Priory Primary School from Bedford unusually brought mixed age members of their schools eco club to the Working Woodlands Centre. The children supported each other on a woodland adventure where they were comparing different habitats together.

Gilbert Inglefield Academy brought their whole year 6 (5 different classes) to Rushmere Country Park for education sessions supporting their science curriculum.

Parkfield’s Middle School students also visited Rushmere, with artist Kremena Dimitrova, as part of a project called ‘Our Natural Blue Spaces’ coordinated through Bedford Creative Arts. The year 8 students learnt about their local blue spaces and on returning to school are creating artwork that will be displayed at this year’s Leighton Linslade Canal festival on 27^th July.

At other venues, we enjoyed spending time at Beaudesert Lower School in Leighton Buzzard exploring their school grounds as potential ‘minibeast gardens’ with their early year’s classes. The children were very creative learning about suitable habitats, discovering ‘who lives where’ and making their very own minibeasts.

Three different groups of Flitwick Beaver Scouts joined us at the beginning of June at Wadelows Nature Reserve to explore their wonderful buttercup meadow and identify different pond creatures.

We were delighted to work with years 1, 2, 3 and 4 from Clophill lower School sharing exciting plans for our nature reserve at Clophill Lakes. We are pleased to be building strong links with this lovely local school and hope they will become more involved, benefit from the site as it develops and have plenty of site visits in the future.

 

Partnerships & Development Projects

The Trust has continued to support the development of the Bedfordshire Nature Recovery Strategy.  It has overseen the production of the ‘Blue Lens’ study, which seeks to ensure the water environment, and the potential opportunities for helping nature recover while reducing pollution and flooding, are fully taken into account.  The study has been successfully completed, with an online workshop in April being organised to provide input from a range of interests.  It will now be used as part of the developing Bedfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) but will also contribute to future national LNRS guidance.

 

Sites we maintain

Ampthill Park

Back in May we had a volunteer day in Ampthill Park. The Vols helped clear some bracken, carried out some crown lifting and pruning work. This important work opened the view down the rear side of the ridge, improving the biodiversity, the view and reinstating the historical aspects of the park.

Grass cutting season began - the majority of the grass is kept long, with pedestrian walkways cut through. This has various benefits for wildlife and nature, offering a diverse array of habitat, displays the variety of species the acid grassland is host to and offers a dramatic and picturesque aesthetic.

Memorial and newly planted tree maintenance. There are many sponsored trees within the park which require regular care and maintenance. This is essential for a variety of reasons, predominantly for the health, vitality and longevity of the tree’s life. It is also important to upkeep these trees as many of the sponsors are regular visitors to the park.

Hole filling is an ongoing task in all areas of the park. Erosion caused by foot traffic, rabbit burrowing and rainfall all have an impact on the parks landscape.

We did grass cutting to support park events including the recent Pride Picnic. The Ranger team also provided support with setting up, providing bins and post event clean up.

Aswell as maintaining Ampthill Great Park, the Ranger team are also responsible for several other sites within Ampthill. We installed two new gates at Everitts Field and Grange Farm allotment sites.

Eastern Sites

In April, Broom control was undertaken at Maulden Heath, where it is getting to be a problem.  Significant fencing maintenance and repairs were also carried out there.  Some task slots weren’t filled due to a lack of available work as the ground at Clophill Lakes was still too soft to get task preparation works completed.  A stock enclosure in Cainhoe Field was reinstated to aid grazing, and the main entrance to Clophill Lakes had post-and-rail fencing installed.

In May, Ranger Jamie had some health issues and a number of tasks (mostly fencing fill-in tasks) were cancelled.  However, some more fencing work was completed at Maulden Heath and the tree enclosures in Sandy Smith Reserve were weeded to give the planted whips a better chance of survival.

June saw the start of Himalayan Balsam control at Clophill Lakes, and fencing works continued at Maulden Heath.  The Roundhouse Field at Maulden Heath has sections of fence that are chicken wire, from the days it was newly planted plantation woodland, which we are now replacing with stock wire.   One task was carried out at Ampthill Park, where they undertook ragwort control at the request of Ampthill Council.  New gate and fence installations at Clophill Lakes also began as the ground has now dried out enough.

Linslade Wood

One official action day took place this quarter - the annual litter pick at the end of April, since then official action days have been put on hold while we’re in nesting season. These will resume at the end of August. Volunteer work has continued elsewhere on site with the installation of two new benches, one just inside the entrance to the old wood and the other being in the pond glade in the new wood. Two more benches have been rebuilt as the tops had rotted considerably and more will follow. The Jubilee copses have been cut back to allow ease of access and prevent disturbing any nesting birds. To try and alleviate the flooding at the Alwins field entrance, two deflectors were installed on the hill from the main ride down to the Alwins field gate by the volunteers and have been extensively tested this Spring.

At the same time a drainage channel has also been dug close to the Knaves Hill entrance as the footpath there was also vulnerable to flooding, both of this and the deflectors have improved ground conditions with some aesthetic improvements left to do on the deflectors to make it easier for pushchairs to navigate. On another positive note, the Hazel and Oak that were coppiced close to the hedgelaying area and had Deer baskets constructed are both showing signs of regrowth. Anti social behaviour has increased with several fires in the new wood including a very well built fire pit and den construction - this has since been demolished. This area is now being closely monitored by GST and volunteer wardens

Studham Common

There were two action days this quarter. GST attended the May task where work concentrated on cutting back encroaching vegetation on the footpaths across the site, tree popping on Middle common also continued where deemed minimum disturbance to nesting birds. A further task took place in May when the Chiltern society visited Studham common and carried out a tree popping session on Middle common, this was very well attended with 20 volunteers on site. Cars have returned to the unofficial car park on Middle common despite notices being asked that they be removed.

Knolls Wood

There has been one volunteer task carried out on the site this quarter, this consisted of cutting and raking the rides and cutting back encroaching vegetation on the side paths where required. Fortnightly patrols have continued to be carried out this quarter.

Tiddenfoot Waterside Park

Two official action days took place this quarter, the first in April involved installing a number of Hazel hurdles along the southern edge of the lake and cutting and raking the acid grassland at the northern and southern ends of the lake, the second action day involved further Hazel hurdle installation around the site. Weekly patrols continue of the site. Weekly litter picking continues on site by volunteer wardens also.

 Clipstone Brook

Three site patrols this quarter ensuring the watercourses have 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, new ‘no cycling’ signs have been installed at various locations where they had previously been maliciously removed. Two trees have fallen obstructing footpaths or landing in gardens and been cut up and cleared accordingly. No volunteer tasks have taken place, volunteer site wardens continue to patrol the site on a weekly basis.

King Street and Millbank Meadow

Fortnightly patrols continue on this site, one volunteer task took place this quarter focussing on the removal of Balsam.

Biodiversity & Heritage

In April we hosted a meeting of the Flora Guardians volunteers prior to the start of the recording season.  Several project species are present at sites the Trust is involved with – the green-winged orchids at Steppingley Hospital had a bad year as most were eaten by slugs, however, one plant continued to flower at Maulden Heath.  None were seen at Clophill Lakes this year.  The greater broomrape was not seen at Maulden Heath or Stockgrove but sulphur clover did well at both Maulden sites this year.