Welcome to the blog!

Starting next week, this will be the drop off point for any updates in the society, interesting goings on and possibly a weekly post detailing what'll be happening in the next few days.
We'll also be having a link here to our Flickr, which will have more, higher quality photos than Facebook. Hopefully this'll be ongoing, so stick around for more!

C.A.T  8^th December 2012

Wow…this was a special one. The Centre of Alternative Technology usually has us working on the opposite side to the main C.A.T centre, on the opposite valley, and that was where we were today. The task ahead of us included coppicing, laying chicken wire over walk ways and bridges and cutting a large pile of fallen branches and trees into more manageable sizes.

The work went well with three separate groups working on a task each. The scenery, up in the woods, was great, except for the overcast weather in the morning. All was going well until.. well you remember that I said it was a special one? Well that was for one reason - the first injury ACV has witnessed in a long time! Now we won’t name names but someone ended up cutting their thumb on an axe and needed a little trip to the hospital to get themselves sorted out, after a little bit of first aid magic from yours truly - of course. Tip: roll out the bandage and find the padding first, before you start rolling it around the injury. Lesson learned. Our injured warrior was all fine and well after the task, but has a nice scar to remember the day by!

Lunch was served in the building we were working around, an impressive make shift barn, housing a kettle and crafting areas. After the excitement of the morning the afternoon passed without incident but we got a lot of work done. The chicken wire made an excellent addition to the walk ways, making them safe for future use in the rain. Feel free to visit the C.A.T centre to learn more about alternative technologies, they are a welcoming and friendly bunch and have a very impressive centre and grounds! A restaurant is present on site for those who get peckish waking around the site.

To find out more about C.A.T. visit their website:

http://www.cat.org.uk/

By Ben Griffiths

Denmark Farm 24th November 2012

On Saturday 24^th November, ACV visited Denmark Farm Conservation Centre, near Lampeter. Even the freezing weather and drizzle couldn’t put off our 10 eager volunteers!

                          

After getting rather lost on the way there (blame Amy, whose only knowledge was to “turn left at the grey house”!) we arrived in good spirits. After a quick cup of tea, we were briefed on the day’s task, which was to involve making habitat piles, side pruning and coppicing, and create drainage ditches in some of the paths, led by Tony, a woodland worker and trainer.

Splitting into groups of three we worked on sections of path, ‘leapfrogging’ to the front and cracking on with the next section along once we’d finished. We cut back branches hanging into the path, to allow easier accessibility for visitors to the centre, and dug furrows into the path to reduce waterlogging. If these are successful, the ditches will be filled with gravel to make them permanent.

Scenic views on part of Denmark Farm

(image from Denmark farm – too much rain to take out camera!)

After making significant progress, we retired to the main building for lunch and, of course, tea and biscuits! Angie, one of the staff, also treated us to a slide show of how Denmark farm has developed from a tired, over-worked intensive farm, to the natural wildlife haven it is today.

After lunch we split further, with half the group continuing with the morning’s work, and half pruning pathways on another section of the 40 acre site. As it began to get dark, we ferried 10 happy but exceedingly muddy students back onto the minibus – with warning that we’d leave them behind if they were too muddy!

For more information on Denmark Farm visit www.denmarkfarm.org.uk.

By Rachel Say & Amy Brittan

Pictures courtesy of Denmark Farm

Old Chapel Farm 24th to 25th November 2012

The second residential of the semester and one that is a highlight for ACV. Unfortunately, due to gale force winds we weren’t able to make the entire weekend but luckily the Welsh weather calmed down enough for us to make a day of it on Sunday.

Sunday

After a long trek up a steep lane from the parked minibus to the camp fire and wood shed (the hub of Old Chapel woods) we had a day of varying tasks ahead of us.

Split into groups we had some of our number putting in steps into the hillside, as access to the new planned Neolithic site, which proved hard work at first as the ground was incredibly solid.  Whilst the other part of our group were charring split oak posts that were to make up the main posts for one of the Neolithic buildings.

After lunch we planted some trees, amongst them some Hazel, just above the Neolithic site and then set about putting the charred posts into place to create the beginnings of a round house.  Then, with just a small amount of time remaining we put in a couple more steps before setting off for home.

If you’d like to know more about Old Chapel and the work they do, including their work on the Neolithic site, please visit their website:

www.oldchapelfarm.org

By Steph James

Pictures courtesy of Alex Dodds

Penglais Woods  10th November 2012

On the 10^th November 2012, ACV volunteered for Ceredigion County Council in nearby Penglais Woods - no need for minibus travel this week, it’s only a 5 minute stroll from the Uni campus!

As other volunteers from the local area also came along, we had a small army to make a real difference to the environment. 

After a quick briefing, we set about the morning’s task of clearing brambles and non-native invasive trees. We needed to create the ideal environment to plant a wide variety of native species. Massive piles of brash showed quite how much clearance we managed!

After the mandatory ACV tea-and-biscuit break and our lunch, we received a briefing into tree planting – a lot more complex than most people think! Apparently, if roots are exposed to the cold breeze for too long, the chances of the tree surviving and flourishing once planted is significantly lowered, so timing was critical.

Once we understood the process, everyone cracked on planting trees – up to 100 were planted that afternoon! Species included elm and hawthorn.

Hiding from rain showers and working in the drizzle has become second nature to regular ACV-ers, and this particular Saturday was no different!

Thank you to everyone who came on what was a very successful task!

By Rachel Say 

Hafod 3rd November 2012

  

Our morning started like any other, piling into the minibus for the trip to the Hafod estate.  Situated about 12 miles, south-east, of Aberystwyth, at the top of the Ystwyth Valley, Hafod is thought to be one of the most picturesque landscapes in Europe.

Most of the estate was a conifer plantation managed by the Forestry Commission but areas are being cleared and either returned to Heather meadow or broadleaf woodland. Our job, working with the wardens of the estate, was to remove fast growing spruce from a high field.The highland cattle do a good job of keeping in check most of the time but pockets had started to get too large and needed the attention of ACV and its willing volunteers.

We set to work and made good progress in the field till lunchtime. After lunch the weather started to turn but we had a fire going by this point and burned the cleared trees. We even helped clear the dense vegetation in the area of an old scenic view point, overlooking a small waterfall, which feeds into the Ystwyth River.

All in all, it was a good day out and a fair amount achieved. Thanks to David for letting us come and work with him and his team.

Find out more about Hafod here: http://www.hafod.org/homepage.html

By Edward Bell

Green Phoenix 27th to 28th October 2012

For the first residential of the new academic year we found ourselves at Green Phoenix again!

Saturday & Sunday

Arriving bright and early we were all keen to get started as soon as possible to warm up on this freezing Saturday morning.  We did a small amount of dead hedging (creating hedging from cut trees and branches) before moving onto our main task of the day.  Scott (the founder of Green Phoenix) wanted a relatively untouched area of his site opening up to allow light in so that mosses, ferns and grasses could establish themselves on the woodland floor, making for a much more inviting habitat for wildlife.  Whilst Scott used his chainsaw to fell the larger trees we worked to billhook all the lower branches off of the trees up to around 6ft and then chopped down smaller trees using axes, once again placing all the felled materials into dead hedges.  Another purpose for clearing the site was to help open up space around a ditch that ran through the middle of the area we were working in and to clean it out of debris so as to link it with other ditches and habitats to help Green Phoenix’s water vole population.

Unfortunately, an arctic weather front called a stop to our plans to camp overnight on the site, as camping on frosted ground would have been uncomfortable...to say the least.  So we left for the warmth of home and came back Sunday morning refreshed to find a very wet day of work ahead of us – but on the bright side it wasn’t as cold!!  Carrying on our clearing work, in the same area, by midday we had helped transform the once dark area into light filled woodland and the ditch that was once only a trickle and full of debris was now happily flowing with water.  So we moved onto billhooking trees in a small surrounding area to, again, open up the woodland as much as possible to allow light in.

If you would like to know more about Green Phoenix and the work that Scott does or would like to get involved please visit the sites below:

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

http://www.facebook.com/Coedphoenix

By Steph James

Picture courtesy of Coed Phoenix :)

Ynys Hir October 13th 2012

On October 13^th ACV braved the rain and wind to volunteer at Ynys Hir, an RSPB reserve relatively close to Aberystwyth. Many of you may recognise the name – this is where the last Springwatch was filmed!

13 ACV members met bright and early to get down to work. Our task this week was right infront of the visitors centre, clearing brambles and brash to create habitat piles, and hence an excellent environment for grass snakes. The setting was beautiful – a view of the lake and mountains infront, and the reserve’s ever-busy bird feeders just behind us. They were bustling with bird-life and squirrels all day!

 
ACV successfully cleared this large patch, and even though we were told it was the wrong time of year for grass snakes, we did find one – though definitely not a very live one!

  

After all the hard work, we took a well-deserved break to walk around and enjoy the reserve. We found an amazing hide half way round, which offered an incredible view of the Dyfi estuary.

Thanks to all ACV volunteers for braving the rain showers and to Ynys Hir for having us. As always, we look forward to returning to the reserve in the future!

 

By Rachel Say

For more information on Ynys Hir - http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/y/ynys-hir/

Green Phoenix 6^th October 2012

The first task of the year, woo hoo! The aims for this task were to selectively fell (coppice) an area of spruce trees in order for a pathway to be formed and a clearing made for new plant growth. The branches of felled spruce were then to be made into ‘dead hedges’, simply staking up the branches one on top of the other in a neat fashion, so that they would form a perimeter hedge, bordering the new opening. It must be said that Dave’s group made some rather fancy and neat hedges, while mine (Ben’s) group tended to go for the chop em’ down and stack em’ up approach.

After lunch we got the chance to work on filling in gaps between the logs of the newly built log cabin (new study and crafts room) with wattle and daub, essentially a clay based mixed mixture that would insulate the building. Messy fun! The weather was nice, a bit nippy but once we got into our work it felt like a spring day.

Green phoenix is always looking for helpers and accepting of visitors and school groups.

http://www.facebook.com/Coedphoenix

By Ben Griffiths

Picture courtesy of Coed Phoenix :)

Tasks for Semester Two

A look ahead at all the organisations we will be working with this semester 

February - May 2013

Ceredigion County Council

Hafod Estate - Forestry Commision

Llandre Heritage - www.llandre.org.uk

Shared Earth Trust - Denmark Farm

Old Chapel Cambrian Archaeological projects

C.A.T (Centre for Alternative Technology)

Tasks for the upcoming semester

A look ahead at all the organisations we will be working with this semester 

October - December 2012

Green Phoenix

RSPB - Ynys Hir

Ceredigion County Council

Hafod Estate - Forestry Commision

National Trust - Llanerchaeron

Shared Earth Trust - Denmark Farm

Old Chapel Cambrian Archaeological projects

Countryside Council for Wales - Borth Bog

C.A.T (Centre for Alternative Technology)

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

1) Making the T-cut

2)Planting the tree

3) Put the stake in the hole and fill in the hole

5) Place a tree guard around the tree and the stake

The hard work was rewarded with a delicious lunch which included many home made cakes and pasties.

Many thanks to those that helped us plant all the trees, hopefully in twenty years time we’ll be able to go back and see a woodland!

The Tree Planting Gang

Llandre 24-03-2012

For the last official task of the semester the ACV gang headed to Llandre, a familiar task for many of us, however, this task had many new faces for Llandre!  Arriving bright and early at the church car park the day looked promising with the sun already baking overhead.  Roger, the faithful secretary for Llandre Heritage, gave a quick history talk about the area before showing us to site we’d be working on.

Clearing brambles from this sight ^^, which had been pretty much taken over by it and creating more defined footpaths was the aim of the task.

BEFORE

                                                        AFTER

In usual ACV style the task was almost finished in no time at all, so half of the group moved on to attack brambles on a horrendously steep bank.

Thanks to all the volunteers who gave up there gloriously sunny Saturday to help out! If you'd like to know more about Llandre visit there website http://www.llandre.org.uk/

- Steph James

Old Chapel Farm Residential 17th/ 18th March 2012

Another cracking weekend working in the woods and enjoying the hospitality of Kevin and Fran at Old Chapel Farm.

Really busy atmosphere at Old Chapel as we were not alone in the woods, there were a  few people staying the weekend to plant trees, a group of woofers who were currently staying at the farm and then the local Bodgers (Green woodworkers) group were up at the woods that weekend too.

Main task for the weekend was continuation of the paths through the wood, after a customary tea break we were all needed to lift a felled tree and get it in place as a roof beam for a wood store that was under construction in one the quarried out recesses next to the hut and camp fire. Once this was done we set to work on the paths clearing a good section with our trusty mattocks before stopping for lunch.

After lunch another tree was felled and again lifted into place, whoever came up with the expression many hands make light work clearly hasn’t lifted a felled tree before. Then the rest of the afternoon was spent putting in a few steps along the path and bit a down time carving and chatting to the Bodgers about green wood working and having a little go at a few simple crafts as well. Come sunset it was back to the farm for a delicious vegan curry, some pleasant conversation and a fair few glasses of home-made wine before bed.

Sunday started much the same with us getting on with the paths in the morning and finishing a good few sections of steps then after lunch, some continued with the paths while a few more were roped into help with the roofing on the wood store. Come mid-afternoon in typical welsh fashion the beautiful sunshine was unexpectedly replaced with a ten minute hail storm which had everyone running for cover. The rest of the afternoon was taken at a leisurely pace with a lot of conversation round the camp fire before it was back to the farm for farewell tea and cake and a longer than expected 5 minute walk to see the cows and cob in one of the lower fields.

Great weekend as always at Old Chapel thoroughly enjoyed by all!

Edward Bell (First year)