Remote bank restoration
It was a long drive today over to Oxfordshire to another new site with Glorious Grasslands. This is a remote corner of the Cotswolds, and just inside the AONB area. The site is stunning – a wide curved, steep bank leading down to a large floodplain next to the River Evenlode.
It’s not been grazed or managed for years and overtaken by scrub, bramble and the grass was very long. As usual for our restoration sites, this was a steep slope to work on.
Given that there was so much grass, I set about brush cutting straight away. I chose a lower slope area to start with because the team were busy clearing trees on the upper slopes.
By tea break, they had cleared the upper part and I could cut the whole area. It was relatively easy to cut though as it hadn’t rained for a few days.
By the time we got to lunch, the main area was clear and mostly raked off. The area to the side had a lot more small trees to be removed which needed to be stacked in a habitat pile on the edge. By the end of the work party, Anna had decided that there’ll be a second trip to this site to do it justice.
There are some bramble patches and further scrub removal that will join up different sections of grassland to make a continuous sweep, and hopefully a species rich habitat.
