On the 2nd October, our head of conservation Gavin and our ranger Fiona were joined by BBOWT at our Whiteleaf reserve to clear some areas of scrub. BBOWT brought along their alpine tractor which was used to cut a large section of scrub from an area on the hillside.
This was the first time we have been able to use this machinery at Whiteleaf, and we are hoping that this will help us to make a greater impact on the amount of scrub we can clear in the year. It is important to keep scrub down to a minimum on the grassland areas; if left to grow the scrub will outcompete the chalk grassland plants that are so important to the reserve and the Chilterns. We also had four brush-cutters in use, clearing areas of dogwood and other scrub from the steep hillside banks. We are grateful to BBOWT for their time in helping make a positive start early on in the season.
Our regular volunteer group of volunteers at Whiteleaf went out later in the week to rake the areas that we had cut and our volunteers will continue to cut back the scrub and burn the arisings during the Autumn and Winter months. We are hopeful that by repeating this type of habitat management over time that there will be a reduction in scrub and more grassland plants will flourish, which in turn will provide a great variety of fauna too.
