Education Training Day

An informative training day was held for Learning Staff and Volunteers by Angela Mann from Preston Montford FSC who gave many ploys to hook visitors into discovering what swims in our stream and prove just how clean it is.  Here pictured with how a tablet can be put to use in our labs she got everyone very focussed in(pun?!). Our afternoon was led by NT ecologist Andy Perry who got us all looking carefully at plantlife almost as small as our water creatures! It was just fascinating to be given such great detail to further everyone's interests in what lives here. A true learning day.

Flood Damage in Carding Mill Valley

With an ever increasing rainfall predicted, erosion by water will become a major project for the National Trust.
A very heavy downpour on the 3rd of October caused the usually peaceful stream in Carding Mill Valley to become a raging torrent, which created areas of devastation throughout the valley. Hundreds of tonnes of earth, rock and anything else that was in the way was picked up by the waters and deposited in large piles along the valley. A large section of the stream bank next to the coach car park was washed away which posed a potential threat to the road and left an oak tree sitting in the middle of the flow. The area was cordoned off, and the next day (when the water level had dropped) work to stabilise the bank and reroute the stream began. This gave the visiting school parties a good view of the power and effects of water as well as the tractor driving skill of Nick the Ranger. The day ended with the replanting of the stranded oak tree in the Wern, Little Stretton on the edge of the Long Mynd where 3 years previously a large veteran oak was lost due to flooding.