As always at this time of year, we have been out and about in the woods with the volunteers, coppicing on Woodland Trust land.

 

Joyden's Wood, Saxten's Wood and Hollow's Wood have all benefitted from the volunteers' hard work, and many of the public rides have been widened to allow more light in, which will encourage a greater array of ground flora once the spring arrives.

 

 

                                              

 

 

 

 

The volunteers recently completed a fantastic pond refurbishment at Craylands School, Swanscombe. The original pond there had been installed seven years ago by some contractors and had not been used even once because of its unsuitabillity. With steep, concrete edges and a nasty case of E-Coli in the water, the children had never been near it!

 

The volunteers re-profiled the edged of the pond, laid turf over the concrete and installed a bark chip path to the edge, all within the space of 3 very cold, snowy days.

 

The school is delighted with the result and we will be returning in the summer to plant up the pond with an array of native aquatic species, ready for the kids to commence pond dippiing.

 

 

Over the next few weeks we have a large-scale project coming up at Leigh Primary School , near Tonbridge, and another at Hartley School.