Work done by the Friends since last year.

Remember the very hard days of winter

And then came the floods.

So what were the Friends doing during the winter. Planting Oak trees along Oak Walk and Hawthorns around groups of other trees planted earlier. 

We also planted more hawthorns as a hedge along the boundary as well as clearing around young trees planted the year before.

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We even worked when it had snowed overnight.  This time we did some coppicingIn the maple belt.

The aim is to allow light in and create a gladed effect for butterflies.

We also helped with tree planting around the new north entrance.

Whilst planting trees here we dug up some large grubs of the Cockchafer Beetle .

Over the winter period we have also helped to install a number of fine Oak benches throughout the park.

We have also tackled the problem of large clumps of Bramble.  Experimentally, we have tried dividing the clumps to allow light and to increase the 'edge effect'.

We have also tackled the problem of encroaching scrub, both on the park and on the dry meadow.

We also spent some time clearing scrub from around the newly cleared spring area.

In the early part of the year we ran two events. The first was to record the veteran trees on the park. We measured girth and height as well as assessing the general health of the tree and its value to wildlife. We were interested to see that a number of lime trees were  host to lots of mistletoe.

Sadly, some of the older trees had been covered in graffiti. One of our roles as Friends is to tackle problems like this and the graffiti was subsequently removed.

 We also organised Wonderful Worms which was an investigation for younger children.The event was a highly successful and we stopped counting when we had reached 70 children. They all thoroughly enjoyed digging in the earth and finding worms.

The cattle came on to the park at the end of April. This coincided with a working party to chop Thistle's.   Creeping thistle is quite good for wildlife but it is an invasive pest in grassland. The idea is to cut the stem below ground so as to prevent seeding and weaken the root.

As usual there is a splendid display of early summer flowers.
An interesting addition to the park flora is a type of wild onion.This seems to have made its way on to the park from the old Rivers Nursery site.

 The Bishops Stortford Natural History Society held a mothing evening in May. We recorded 22 species of moths.

 The water buffalo are doing a splendid job on the wet meadow. It is very good to see the reappearance of Ragged Robin. If you have the opportunity also have a look at the splendid stretch of backwater adjacent to this meadow.

The water buffalo are doing a splendid job on the wet meadow. It is very good to see the reappearance of Ragged Robin. If you have the opportunity also have a look at the splendid stretch of backwater adjacent to this meadow.