I recieved this email from Derek Turner at CMS asking for volunteers this weekend- anybody interested?
(I replied suggesting that all new styles/ gates should be wheelchair accessible)
From: Derek Turner [mailto:derek.turner@hertscc.gov.uk]
Sent: 14 February 2011 11:59
Subject: Friends of Purwell Valley task next Sunday
To Friends of Purwell Valley, Hitchin councillors
Hi everyone
Your last chance to help with weekend conservation work in Hitchin this winter occurs next Sunday (20th Feb) at Purwell Meadows. I hope that you can come along and join in. The task is to complete the clearance and disposal of scrub begun a month ago when several of you made an excellent start. Since then, CMS Thursday volunteers have also visited and made further progress.
If you'd like to help for an hour or two of exercise doing something useful, please turn up wearing old clothes and strong boots. Tools, gloves and safety gear are provided. The work is on the side of the river nearest North Herts College and access is over a metal stile from the college playing field where the Countryside Management Service Land Rover will be parked. Just turn up on Sunday after 10am. David Cannon will lead this task.
The main College entrance in St Michael's Road is closed on Sundays but the old entrance off Cambridge Road is open. Keep to the left hand side of most of the buildings and the temporary fencing in the playing field. Alternatively, enter the playing field from Chaucer Way by following the path behind the first group of houses on the right and finding the hole through the boundary fence. Head for the right (lower) side of the temporary fencing.
The snow and extreme frosts of December have been followed by very mild weather recently and we are now on course for an early spring with birds becoming very active already. After consulting my colleagues, we have decided that that the third weekend of March will be too late for more conservation work. Hence this Sunday will be the last Sunday task. CMS volunteers will complete the outstanding jobs at Burymead Springs and Walsworth Common on Thursday 24 February and you are welcome to join us then if you're available. Let me know if you'd like to me to send you the details.
In addition to organising our volunteers, I am also compiling a new management plan for Purwell Meadows for the next five years. In a nutshell, it will acknowledge that cattle grazing will continue to be the best way of maintaining the site's wildlife interest, along with involvement by local volunteers where appropriate. Public access to the site will also be maintained and improved. I have a number of specific ideas and several people have made suggestions to me. Here are some of them-
Access
• Replace kissing gates at entrances (the existing gates have been there for 15 years or more and the wooden posts are deteriorating below the ground)
• Replace current vehicular access (which is close to the Walsworth traffic lights and where access out onto Willian Road has limited visibility) with improved access and a new livestock handling facility at the amenity grassland at the Chaucer Way end.
• Replace the field gate currently used for vehicular access with a new kissing gate.
• Make fording point across river to improve vehicular access during site management activities
• Negotiate permanent access from College playing field & install suitable gates (I am meeting the College Estate Manager shortly to discuss this further).
• Install pedestrian bridge(s) across the river to facilitate access to the College side.
• Improve path surface where it crosses wet area near Cambridge Road entrance.
• Install benches.
Interpretation
• Install new site name boards and information panels at entrances, in NHDC 'house style' (i.e. similar to those at Norton Common in Letchworth)
• Produce a site leaflet
Nature conservation
• Replace old fencing around perimeter of site (particularly the College boundary and the posts and railings opposite the Millstream pub, which are in poor condition)
• Coppice tall sections of perimeter hedgerow and plant up gaps with native species
• Create new ponds/scrapes to increase area of standing water for wetland plants and wildlife
• Fence off areas near river to exclude grazing and allow vegetation to grow, providing habitat for water vole and otter
• Install artificial otter holt
• Manage old watercress bed near College as part of the site (so far, I have been unable to establish who owns it)
Do you have any views on these ideas or any other suggestions? I am also consulting various experts and interested parties during February. I intend to complete the plan by the end of March, so please get back to me as soon as possible so I can take into account your views.
Derek Turner
Projects Officer
Countryside Management Service
The Old Dairy, Bedford Rd, Ickleford,
Hitchin, Herts, SG5 3RR
Tel 01462 459395 (Comnet 46820)
Postal point: CHN107
http://www.hertslink.org/cms
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