Friends of Parc Slip, Saturday 22nd Feb 2014

On Saturday 22nd Feb, Friends of Parc Slip met to do some practical conservation work on the nature reserve. Friends of Parc Slip is our weekend conservation work party who meet once a month on a Saturday to help the Wildlife Trust manage the nature reserve. This could mean anything from cutting down trees to building bug hotels.

Some of Friends of Parc Slip with Bugingham Palace

On Saturday 22nd February, we were working on the ditch running along the haulage road. Scrub has slowly been encroaching on this ditch over the years, shading the water and leaf fall is leading to the ditch filling in. We were removing the trees from within the ditch channel to prevent shading and drying out. 

The gang working in the ditch

The scrub that was removed was cut and used to build dams along the ditch. Hopefully these works will mean that there is pools of water in the ditch throughout the summer which will be perfect for breeding invertebrates, such as the scarce blue-tailed damselfly- the larvae mature at a faster rate in warm pools.

Large Red Damselfly Vaughn Matthews

 Breeding amphibians will also make use of the increased water in the ditches over the next few months. 

Rudi with the Dam of the Day! 

The result- a dam with a pool of water behind it

The next meeting of Friends of Parc Slip is Sat 22nd March, anyone welcome! http://www.welshwildlife.org/events/friends-parc-slip-2014-03-15/