A celebration and a successful workday

Our work morning last Sunday started with a celebration as Cllr Gloria Stephen, Chairman of Dodington Parish Council,  presented the volunteers of the Wapley Bushes Conservation Group with the Green Flag Communities Award. The Green Flag Community Award is the national award scheme for high quality green spaces in the UK that are managed by voluntary and community groups. Wapley is is one of just three sites in South Gloucestershire to receive Green Flag awards this year.

We were very pleased to see so many at our work morning – around 30 people, many of them children. Our numbers were boosted by a community work party from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

With so many willing hands we accomplished a lot of work. The key objective was our annual task of clearing the ditch down through the wood – this year it wasn’t as clogged up as usual. When (if?) we have dry summers the ditch fills up with early leaf fall, but this year it was just a case of clearing some excess clay and removing fallen branches.

Another major task was cutting back fast-growing vegetation along some of the paths. This was of course more onerous than usual. We also cleared some young blackthorn that has shot up among the unmowed part of the orchard grass, and did a litter pick throughout the Reserve.

Our next Wapley workday will be at 10 am on Sunday 4 November, meeting at the Shire Way gate – call Paul Hulbert on 01454 315851 for more details, or just turn up.

Don’t forget that we have a Bat Walk at Yate Common on 19 September and a Wild Food Foray at Wapley on 24 September, and there’s a whole list of local wildlife events shown in Dates for Your Diary. Full details of each event appear on this blog a couple of weeks before the due day.

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