Monday 2 January 2017

December 2016


It's almost Christmas
Tree décor in the Walled Garden
That’s the thing about Gibside these days – even in December the car park is often full to overflowing. Of course, there have been some very fine days this month, but even on drab days it has been busy. You’d wonder where all those people get to and what damage their footfall might do in what, after all, is largely a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a nature reserve.
Well, The Avenue can take a hammering, with sections of it having to be roped off at this time of year when the grass can’t make good the damage. The Strawberry Castle play area takes a battering too, but that’s as it should be. Elsewhere, people stroll the tracks through West Wood and along the riverside, pop in to the café; some stray to the far reaches of Snipes Dene, but not many. In fact, most of the estate experiences little footfall at all, with some parts being rarely visited even by we Conservation Volunteers.
The team burn some of the rhododendron prunings
This month, we’ve been working in two such places. One is quite close to another spot popular with the public – The Monument, but sees no visitors on its steep banks, amongst its fine trees. We were there (as so often is the case) cutting back encroaching rhododendron; burning some it and building log piles with the bits too big to safely burn.
And, perched above an even steeper bank in an out of the way stretch of Snipes Dene is a fine area of woodland, where we have been thinning out young growth – mainly birch – amid the more mature oak, beech, holly and ash. In doing so, we were attempting to open up a series of woodland glades that will benefit and encourage a wider variety of plant life and animals to go with it. We might even attract the elusive grass snake. In ten years of working here, this is only my second or third visit to this beautiful spot. As for visitor footfall, it’s unlikely to have any – reserved instead for nature.
Before
Hard at work
Pile of brash from prunings
After
A Happy & Healthy New Year to all our readers.

Steve Wootten & Phil Coyne