PEA POD-Plymouth Environmental Action Conservation Volunteering.

'Romantic' Fort Vegetation Clearance at Maker! 14th February 2015

Just picture it: Great weather, Beautiful location and UP TO YOU EYES IN BRAMBLES!

Not really the traditional way most people would consider to spend the supposedly 'most romantic' day of the year, but for the PEA crew it was business as usual we headed to Maker for a spot of Vegetation Clearance...

Well, thats what we were all expecting at least anyway...

That is, till a certain project manager remembered

he'd left the minibus petrol cap key at home...Ooops!

After an unexpected detour to Chris's humble abode,

we eventually arrived at Maker in time for a cup of tea....

Chris then insisted on being our star model for this week's Tool demonstration....

He was very excited about the brand new loppers....

Beautifully mimed cutting down some grass...

And gave us a brilliant demonstration of raking...Hmm...Now who does he remind you off...

'He'd make a fine chimney sweep!"

With the demonstration over we made our way to the today's site in the 'literally' blazing sunshine!

Under this mass of wild shrubbery we were informed was a long standing

fort foundation that needed to be unearthed...

With the sun warming backs though we got straight to work...

We even met some of the locals who were enjoying the unusually fine weather with a refreshing pint....

They only have enough change for one!

We then headed back up the hill for some lunch...

During which we were treated to a local plant masterclass by our wild plant expert Esther.

She is currently in the midst of writing up her plant
masterclass into 'blog form' which shall be posted up in the very near future!

WARNING: Readers with a weak disposition may want to
put their cups of tea down
for after lunch I sustained a severe injury...

In the form of the cut finger from a VICIOUS...bramble.

Luckily as well being well schooled in the way of plants,

Esther is also a dab hand at applying plasters....

She's kinda like a female Gandalf...

Except without the beard and smell of old toby...

On our volunteering sessions you can learn many different enviromental skills...like Camouflage!

It's like I'm not even there!

Which for some people may take a bit of time to perfect...

Keep trying Chris....

Though one of the biggest projects we have yet to take on for this year,
by the end of the day we had really begun to make a visible difference to the site...

And as we gathered for our group photos in the setting sun...

We all agreed there couldn't have been a better way to spend February the 14th....

Isn't that right...Esther & Chris?

Michael Gamble-PEA Team

Meadow Raking at Dartmouth with South West Devon Trust! (RAKING SPECIAL)-31st January 2015

It was not a coincidence that our Project offer Chris Bond decided to order some new 'hand-made' rakes recently, as this week we headed up to Dartmouth for a relaxing day of Meadow Raking!

Just look how excited he was!

Somehow we managed to have some of the best weather we have seen in the last...3 months?

8?.......A long time...

The worksite, all trimmed & ready for raking!

Our services today were lent to Craig of South West Devon Trust, who was well equipped for the day ahead...

Don't worry Chris, his strimmer isn't a patch on our new rakes!

Just look at them, handcrafted perfection!

Before we got started, we had our weekly 'Proper Tool Use' Demostration...Or as I fondly like to call it... 'Tool Modelling'

Superb duel wielding here by Pete,

this is a man who fears no allotment.

Exquisite Slasher Stance from Esther, she'll have your lawn cut before you

can even start your lawnmower's motor!

With Tool mo-I mean demonstration over with, everyone soon got to work raking, trimming and litter picking...

The litter picking perhaps got a tad over ambitious at first...

I think we're gonna need a bigger bag...

Chris also took the opportunity to get some shots of the new rakes in action...

Yes Chris yes this is going on the blog...

So here are Chris's favourite 'Raking' moments in this week's...

In at Number 3 is....

Samantha! Though new to the PEA scene Sam has wasted no time in attracting the favour of our project officer with this great show of raking prowess!

In at number 2 is...

Hayley and Sam with this excellent show of teamwork raking!

After all why only use one rake when you can use two!

And finally...in at Number one is....

Rob with perfectly uniformly raked bale!

He has truly shown what can be done with

these great pieces of human engineering!

Phew...And now to calm you down after all that excitement,

try and spot the bird in this bush...

A beautiful specimen right?

As well as raking, we also freed all the grown up sapling from their grow guards...

There were a lot!

After a busy morning of 'work' it was time for lunch...

We then got back to work,

(Well most of us did, the others popped to the local Sainsbury's to use the 'facilities.')

After all the raking, our next task was to free some poor saplings from the overgrown hedgerow...

Which had a serious Bramble problem...

Hmm now where have I seem brambles like these....

Ah...yes..'Sleeping Beauty'

With my slasher in hand and trusty steed though, I made short work of those brambles...

Alright...so maybe I didn't have a horse...

Just in time for the rest of the group to return!

Seriously guys, you missed all the action!

It was important to cut back these brambles though

inorder for these little saplings to grown up to one day be mighty trees...

With our work done, we made the short trek back to the bus for a quick brew,

and of course, the group photo!

Well photos, as Esther insisted we have one with me...

We all then headed home, looking forward to a hot bath and tea...

And I don't know about you,

but I definitely know that some peoples dreams were filled with rakes that night....

Michael Gamble-PEA Team

"Coppicing at Burrator Reservoir"-25th January 2015

Everyone got to practice their "TIMBER!!!!" this week as we headed up

to Burrator Reservoir for a day of 'Coppicing' with

South West Lakes Trust.

The woodland site on the edge of the reservoir in need of Coppicing

But Wait! What is Coppicing you say?

Well allow us to provide you with short explanation.

(Please Note this definition was highly abbreviated from a much more detailed explanation provided by the lovely Emily of South West Lakes Trust (Glasses and Ponytail)...oh and Chris of PEA...(Wearing a lovely knitted hat!)

Coppicing: Coppicing short and simply is a forest maintenance process of cutting down small trees to stumps of about a foot high off the ground.

This cutting of the tree encourages multiple new shoots to sprout from the stump, which after few years result in bigger and fuller trees which yield far more resources.

Before becoming lumberjacks for the day though-(Insert Comedic Lumberjack Song here)

Our volunteers needed fuelling with ample amounts of tea and biscuits!

Some were shocked to discover however, that a pack of
(NON SPECIFIC BRAND) Chocolate Digestives
had come down with an unfortunate a case of...

'The Melties'

Whilst others decided to make the most of the situation...

Fuelled with triple layer biscuits and far too much tea we all finally set to work...

Some had major sugar rushes...

The art of Co-operation & Teamwork was crucial for today...

I mean someone's gotta take your new Facebook profile picture right?...

We all got into the swing of it though-Swing? Axes? Lumberjack?- And most people were quite productive throughout the morning...

When we could resist the urge to take 'Selfies'....

"Yellow suits you Esther..."

NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

As well as cutting down the trees, part of our work was also to construct a natural fence barrier with the cut material to prevent deer from feeding on the future tree stump saplings...and people like us trampling all over them...