Tree Popping

I'm feeling very well exercised this evening having spent the day helping to remove invasive scrub form an area of species-rich grassland that Pete and I discovered in July 2017. The event was organised by the Langdyke Trust and carried out in partnership with Kier and the Highways Agency, who actually own the land.

Alan Martin from Nature Conservation Services brought along plenty of Tree Poppers for us to use. These cunning devices have jaws that close round the base of the stem, and enable you to lever the scrub out of the ground, roots and all. We also had a licensed chainsaw operator who was able to take down some of the larger trees and bushes. 

After five hours we'd nearly removed all the scrub - now we have to go back to deal with the huge piles of woody material we created. So good to see that this gem of a site is going to be looked after into the future. I'm looking forward to seeing all the flowers next summer!