Extending the stock fence

The ongoing winter project with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to protect the riparian habitat along the canal bank continues. The main fence posts are now in place and only the rails need to be attached. This prevents stock from accessing that part of the bank where water voles will be creating burrows in the new vegetation.

The decision has been taken to remove all bramble patches from this part of the canal bank. It prevents encroachment onto the grassland and allows the riparian plants to flourish.

There is still plenty of scrub on the other edges of the site for nesting and invertebrate cover.

I continued to work on those larger patches with the brush cutter. The bank area by Occupation Bridge is now the only accessible part for cattle, so I widened it to allow more and safer access. I did the same on the other side of the dead hedge, just before the new fence line starts.

That just left isolated tufts on each side of the new fence, which were also relatively easy to remove. I scouted the far end with Pete, which will also have some fencing erected in future, but the scrub there is already stock proof, so I won’t remove until that new fence line is ready to start.

The team also finished raking the grass in the penned areas. I cut one with the machine, and the other was scythed. It will be interesting to compare them next summer to see if either management technique produces anything different when the new flora emerge.