Opening up grass banks

The Glorious Grasslands project returned to finish a restoration of a fine habitat in the middle of a farm. The idea at the beginning of the day was to remove a large bramble patch and tree in the middle of the bank which would open up the whole slope to sunlight.

However, we were only 20 minutes in with the brush cutter when Anna signalled we should stop. An active badger set was discovered in the middle of the bramble, so we couldn’t continue.

So the plan reverted to clearing an edge of the woodland that had hazel and hawthorn encroaching and shadowing over the grass bank. This would not only prevent shading of the open grassland, but would allow it to spread closer to the woodland edge.

There were only a few of us today, and we won’t be returning again this season, so the priority was to make sure everything was cut and the arisings stacked away in a dead hedge.

Overall, the site looked way better when we left that it did when we first arrived last week.