Many Hands Make for Light Winter Work

Posted on 25 April 2024

Client: SWT Mendip Reserves Team

Site: Across SWT's Mendip Nature Reserves

An enormous amount of work needs to happen just to maintain the current condition of our nature reserves. Activities like scrub bashing and coppicing are not glamorous — but they are fundamental in terms of ensuring that we maintain the special ecosystems that exist within some really quite special habitats in this landscape. They are time and labour intensive and have to be delivered within a certain timeframe, so the additional pressure on the teams with regards to urgent and extensive works due to Ash dieback created a real problem. Having SWTC’s support and expertise was absolutely vital for us to complete work in time.

Aims and Objectives

The presence of Ash dieback across the county has added enormous pressure on land and reserve managers across the county and beyond. The Mendip landscape sadly has suffered extensively in terms of affected trees, and for Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve managers, the extra workload meant that the normal programme of vital winter work on its Mendip reserves was at risk of being completed. SWTC was a natural choice to support the team to ensure that all winter workloads across their Mendip sites were delivered successfully.

Approach and Outcomes

With SWTC on board, the Trust’s team were able to make short work of the high volume of intensive scrub and bramble clearance – vital for ensuring that our species-rich grassland habitats are kept in good condition. The expanded team were also able to complete its hedgelaying and coppicing programme and, because two members of the SWTC team were able to undertake training in the use of chainsaws, they were also able to assist with felling trees.