Wildlife gets a helping hand

Spades at the ready, seven eager local volunteers donned their wellies to give wildlife a helping hand. Joining LOHP (Little Ouse Headwaters Project) at our New Fen site in Thelnetham, to help create ponds for wildlife, as part of the Big Help Out.

The first pond dug was dug within an hour, after a short break and fuelled with lots of homemade cake the volunteers were raring to go again.

Conservation Manager for LOHP, Ellie Beach said ‘They have done such an amazing job, in such a short amount of time, thank you. It’s great, we now have 2 new ponds, which are so important for all manner of wildlife including invertebrates, plants, birds and mammals. Soon they will be full of wildlife. New Fen is well worth a visit in late June/July to see the wildflowers and catch a glimpse of the ponds as they develop’.

Ellie continued ‘Everyone went away happy and muddy but pleased with their achievements, and amazingly no one fell in. If people want to get involved and help their local wildlife why not come along and join us on a work party, more details are on our website www.lohp.org.uk’

Big Help Out - Help us Create a Wildlife Pond

Join LOHP on Monday 8th May 10.00am to 12pm for a Practical Conservation Taster Session. Prepare to get mucky helping us to create a new wildlife pond. No experience necessary, wear old clothes, wellies, and bring gloves (if you have some). Refreshments provided. (Under 18’s must be accompanied by an adult).

Meeting opposite Thelnetham Windmill, Mill Road, Thelnetham, Suffolk (IP22 1JS) (What3Words: proved.racked.treble)

Please let us know if you are going to come along so we can make sure we have enough tools and refreshments: enquiries@lohp.org.uk 07919 912045

Fenland Trees - an amateurs view from the ground - walk round-up

On the morning of 1st April, after a cool and breezy start, around 17 members and guests joined LOHP for a gentle stroll around the fens identifying trees and looking out for other signs of spring along the way. We left Thelnetham Windmill behind us and strolled across Parkers Piece stopping to look at the small trees on the mound of earth created by scraping nearby peat. Moving across to the banks of the Little Ouse we looked at the various types of Willow, Sallow and Alder that can be found here.

Fenland Tree Walk © Bev Blackburn

Our leader Reg explained how some of the trees had been cleared, others left in situ and yet more were managed for safety, or enhanced for wildlife. Differing techniques employed included:

• Coppicing: where the tree is cut close to the ground, causing it to regrow with many stems – can increase susceptibility to grazing from cattle and deer

• Pollarding: similar to coppicing but cutting the stem at waist/shoulder levels – to provide diverse habitat for smaller birds

• High Pollarding: as pollarding but higher up above grazing level - creates a spread of branches which can provide shade and potential nesting sites for birds out of reach of ground based predation.

Volunteers undertaking pollarding on Bettys Fen © Ellie Beach

We viewed different types of fen such as Webbs Fen which had wet and dryer areas and looked across to Bettys and Blo’ Norton Fens where there is more tree cover. Moving on towards Oak Tree Fen we saw more examples of new pollarding (planting poles directly in the ground to root) and other restoration work carried out by volunteers, before turning towards Hinderclay Fen where we passed the rare floating fen (Suffolk Wildlife Trust) and open drier landscape at previously farmed land on Reeves Meadows. As time was against us we crossed the new bridge into the western end of Hinderclay Fen to a tiny part of the wet woodland before returning across part of the wild flower walk to the wooded area on the southern bank of the river on our return to the start point.

Round up by LOHP Volunteer Tony