Conservation Work

Despite the drizzle on Bank Holiday Sunday some intrepid All Strettoners visited Batch Valley for some conservation work.  First job (photos 1&2 ) to construct with Steve Butler dormouse boxes for our furry little friends recently found at Inwood.  Much talk of the feasibility of constructing and utilising recently planted hedgerows to “corridor” the mice through to Castle Hill and perhaps eventually to Batch Valley woods. 

Then off to research Park Coppice with Dick Ward and Chris Stratton the evidences of water creatures in both the ponds and stream.  A good selection of water invertebrates found.  Stonefly larvae proving a good water quality and dragonfly expert Steve revealed Golden ringed Dragonfly Larvae.  Some helpful discussions all round about how to possibly improve the quality of stream and ponds for these wonderful invertebrates. A successful morning without us noticing our cold damp springtime.

This is part of a series of invites to the village families connecting common interests between local experts, NT and community for looking after our wildlife habitats.

Sheep Count

On Wednesday our ecologist Andy Perry, accompanied by the Rangers and a group of volunteers carried out another sheep count across the property. This involves splitting into small groups, each with a designated route to walk, and marking on a map the number of sheep in each area. This is to help maintain a suitable level of grazing on the hill. Andy joined Dave the ranger in the Landrover and counted the sheep along the plateau. The weather was clear and sunny, which produced some lovely photo opportunities; some sheep even joined one of our Placement Rangers for lunch! (see picture below)

Conservation Work

The National Trust relies on the support of people to help with management of the properties, one of these people at the Long Mynd is Ian Cheeseborough who has done a lot of work for the Trust to help improve the ecology of the property.

Clearing snipe plots at Wildmoor

 Ian works in carrying out practical habitat management on various sites and for a variety of organisations in the county including National Trust, Shropshire Council and Field Studies Council. Work includes footpath maintenance, hedge laying and planting, scrub control and tree work. He also teaches courses on bees, wasps and ants for the Field Studies Council looking at identification and ecology.

The work he has been involved in for the National Trust on the Long Mynd has included pond clearance on Wildmoor and the strimming of various sites to encourage breeding snipe (see previous post). He has also previously helped with hedge planting in Batch Valley and tree planting in the Wern.

Survey wise he has helped on grouse counts for a number of years and provided a baseline survey of the bees and wasps around the Mynd and recorded the breeding dragonflies on ponds around Pole Cottage.

Here at the Shropshire Hills we really appreciate the support of our volunteers, if you would like to get involved feel free to email us at cardingmill@nationaltrust.org.uk