Undaunted by the rain, 15 of our volunteers spent a happy morning on Peppard Common improving conditions for its large patches of heather and dwarf gorse, both rare plants in Oxfordshire. The layer of clay on this part of the Common provides the right heathland habitat for these plants, but they need open space to thrive. Brambles and trees are moving in round the edges of the open areas, so some of these were cut back by machinery in the days before our session, leaving a lot of debris for us to clear away.
We stacked all the brash within the woodland and then raked up the smaller pieces into large sacks for similar treatment. We also felled a group of small birches, cutting the trunks into 4ft lengths to make neat piles. This brought in a lot more daylight to the area and by baring the ground we have restored the best habitat for heather to germinate.
Stollen and muesli cake fortified us at coffee break.
Julia, 4/1/2015
