Aberystwyth Conservation Volunteers: May 2012

ACV Bioblitz at Llanerchaeron 31/03/12

An early start, even by ACV standards, awaited all that signed up to go on a special one off outing on Saturday 31^st March. Our destination was the National Trust Llanerchaeron site near Aberaeron, our task was to assist in their Bioblitz.

Bioblitz’s are an initiative set up by the Bristol Natural History Consortium and are run worldwide with the aim of encouraging people to get in touch with wildlife by aiding scientists to identify as many species as possible in an area in a 24 hour period.

Off on the bird walk (Photo S. James)

We arrived and promptly set off on a walk around the woods looking but more so listening for birds. We had an excellent set of guides, all of whom were local naturalists and many of them are county record keepers. After an hour or so we started to head back to the house and gardens for a cup of tea and a talk about the aims of the day from the site warden.

Listening to bird calls (Photo E. Bell)

After splitting into smaller groups we went off with the various guides and got to focus on an area of interest. There was moth ID and meadow plant ID before lunch. Then after lunch there was pond dipping, invertebrate hunting in rotten logs up in the woods and then woodland and field edge plant ID.

Purple Thorn (Photo E. Bell)

People were welcome to move around and encouraged to share any knowledge they had on a subject but most of us found it an amazing learning opportunity as the guides all have a wealth of wisdom on species and especially their uses when it comes to plants that can only be acquired after years of being out and about in the woods and countryside.

Wood Anenome (Photo S. James)

It was a fantastic day that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. We would like to thank all the guides for their patience and sharing their knowledge with us, seeing as they were there as volunteers as well. A big thanks to our secretary Alex Dodds for organising this as an extra event and finally to Gwen, the site warden at Llanerchaeron, for inviting us down!

Newt (Photo E. Bell)

If you would like to find out more about Bioblitz’s and see if there is one in your area check out the Bioblitz website http://www.bnhc.org.uk/home/bioblitz/

Also for any one that fancies visiting the site at Llanerchaeron information can be found here http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/llanerchaeron/

Ladybirds in the meadow (Photo E. Bell)

Coed Phoenix 28th April 2012

The Coed Phoenix is a project in Mid Wales to turn a former spruce plantation into a diverse woodland, with a good mosaic of habitats to provide not only a valuable environment, but a place of learning!

ACV volunteered on their “Amphibian and Freshwater Discovery Day” where we were able to help out with surveys – pond dipping and identifying the critters caught. This was the first wildlife survey ACV members have been involved with, and it was such a success that there will definitely be more of those tasks in the future!

Not only did we count newts and dragonfly nymphs, we did our usual fabulous conservation work;

<<<<<<<< Building two boardwalk bridges to improve access to the freshwater network

Building a log shed to keep the
firewood dry >>>>>>>>>>

<<<<<<<<<< Dead heading to expose the ground to sunlight and encourage the natural ground flora to regenerate

We also had fun contributing to the hand print decoration of their storage container, which the boys just couldn’t resist turning into a paint fight….

http://www.thegreenphoenix.co.uk/

Coppicing in LLandewi Brefi

On the 5th March 2012 ACV went to Llandewi Brefi and helped Andy ,who we've worked with before at Denmark Farm, so some coppicing, in woodlands being the town hall.
Wildlife Where You Live is a programme that helps communities carry out local environmental imrpovements in their own towns and villages and is run by Denmark farm. The plan at Llandewi Brefi is to have a dragon,the stone wall will form the body,the coppiced trees will form the spines and a sculpture will be created for the head.You can find out more about the initiative here
http://www.denmarkfarm.org.uk/wildlife-where-you-live-wwyl/

So after a quick tutorial in how to coppice some of the team set about coppicing whilst the rest set about moving already felled trees from the field behind

Working together to move coppiced wood into one pile

Coppicing was made a little difficult in the afternoon as the wooded area we were working in backs onto the town's football field, so we were dodging footballs! However everyone enjoyed them selves, and many of us learnt new skills.

Thanks to everyone that took part.

Group Photo

Plant a Tree with ACV

870 Trees

13 Volunteers

6 Hours

Plant a Tree with ACV

On a gloriously sunny day in March, the kind that shows Mid Wales in its best light, Aberystwyth Conservation Volunteers set of with the challenge of planting 870 trees in a day. We had attracted many on members to the event through the weekly e-mail. So

We were planting on a small holding near Trefenter. The lady that owned the land had been given a grant through the Woodland Creation Scheme (The current Welsh Government plan to plan trees all over Wales). However the grant didn’t cover labour so our president Ally was approached to find volunteers to plant the trees.

It was decided to open the event up to the university and through advertising in the weekly e-mail and various other places we had many new volunteers sign up.It was great to have a mix of old ACVer and new members too.

The land we were planting on was rather muddy and waterlogged, so tree species that were tolerant to water logging were chosen including Goat’s willow, Alder and Hawthorne. Those that hadn’t planted trees before picked the technique up very quickly and the trees were all planted in 6 hours.

How to Plant a Tree