Spring Newsletter 2021

SPRING 2021 Volunteering Update Lockdown Litter Heroes Thames Water Projects:

Kingsmead and Wye Dean Fruiting the Marsh Community Board Updates Chalk, Cherries & Chairs Progress Welcome our newest staff member!

And what on earth could this be?!

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Welcome to our Spring 2021 newsletter It’s been a very unusual year but we have kept busy over the winter and we are now looking forward to spring! We’ve had to limit our volunteering activities but our work has carried on and we hope you’ve been staying healthy and safe.

Projects with organisations such as the Chilterns’ Conservation Board, Thames Water and Buckinghamshire Council have continued, so we have updates for you on those, as well as looking towards the future and even some good news:

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Volunteering Update

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Lockdown Litter Heroes

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Thames Water Kingsmead and Wye Dean

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Community Orchard: Fruiting the Marsh

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Hair Ice in the Chilterns

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Community Board Updates

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Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Project Progress

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New Member of Staff: Welcome Ilona!

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Volunteering Update Well, what a winter it’s been! We made a promising start to the season, with socially distanced coppicing, thinning, scrub bashing and fires, including a community event attended by an amazing 29 people who gave up a combined 83 hours of their time at Gomms Wood on New Year’s Eve. The start of 2021, of course, ushered in another national lockdown so we took the difficult decision to suspend all volunteer sessions for the foreseeable. Whilst volunteering is allowed under the government guidelines, the safety of staff and volunteers is paramount, so we continued on our lonesome.

Volunteers and a roaring bonfire at Gomms Wood.

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That’s not to say that our volunteers haven’t been able to help us

Ranger Dan out, as we have been loaning out litter picking equipment so people can help keep our sites clean whilst out on their daily exercise.

At the time of writing, we are tentatively reopening sessions to volunteers. Initially it will be very limited numbers, to ensure covid secure working practices, and the site and task will dictate how we are able to operate. We will adapt to any changes as the year progresses, so keep an eye on the website and social media to find out information on volunteering opportunities, and we hope to see you all soon!

#LockdownLitterHeroes Looking for something simple but meaningful to do? Get in touch and help us out by picking up some litter on you daily walk and become a lockdown litter hero!

All the details are in the poster opposite.

Thank you to everyone who has already helped with this, every bit helps!

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Thames Water Projects: Kingsmead and Wye Dean

Native hedgerow planted at Kingsmead.

Thank you to Thames Water for their continued funding of projects at Kingsmead and Wye Dean.

We have been felling and chipping at Kingsmead Park to improve light conditions. The chippings have been spread onto paths that have been suffering with the high visitor usage and we have been re-mulching native hedgerow which we planted earlier in the project.

We are continuing the river restoration work at Wye Dene and two of the three sections we have permission to restore are nearly complete. On the first day of the build in January, three rangers and Allen Beechey (Chiltern Chalk Streams Officer) built a large berm, and installed two tree sweepers and a deflector by using all the woody materials as a result of the thinning and coppicing.

We have been there most Thursdays since then and have appreciated so much positive feedback from Wye Dene residents and people enjoying their daily exercise.

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Images: The river before we started work, and work in progress, constructing the berm!

Fruiting the Marsh: Creating a Community Orchard

Ranger John T

One of the most popular ideas arising from my initial consultations as Community Ranger for Marsh and Micklefield was the creation of a community orchard or orchards. This has proved difficult due to finding a bit of land and getting consent to plant a few trees. An orchard is simply the intentional planting of trees or bushes for the production of fruit – the minimum number of trees you need is five.

Last year I was fortunate to be able to give a talk to Wycombe Marsh WI which covered many subjects including the fruit growing heritage of the area. It was wonderful to hear many attendees share their memories of the trees in blossom, seasonal fruit picking and grocers in the area selling local produce.

Huge thanks to all the members of WMWI for their commitment to and help with this project.

Quite a few people expressed an interest in the idea of an orchard but again we were hampered by the lack of a suitable spot. Having sourced several types of fruit trees – trying to get as many local varieties as possible – the idea of a ‘deconstructed orchard’ took shape. We have now planted out individual trees in neighbouring gardens and small clusters in an area stretching from around Kingsmead, through the Marsh and Wye Dene and up to Funges Meadow as well as working on a mini-orchard at Marsh Infant School and Wrights Meadow Centre.

As well as being great for biodiversity and lovely to look at, the fruit trees offer a practical and symbolic way of reconnecting with a halfforgotten history (southern Bucks has lost over 90% of its orchards since the late 1930s) and a celebration of the value of local fruit – we need to think about the distinctiveness of our area and the idea of particularism. Local orchards, however deconstructed, in the right place and cared for properly, can help to link people with the place in which they live and the history of that place.

Hair Ice in the Chilterns Hair ice is not very common in the UK but it can be found in the Chilterns given the right conditions. Its appearance resembles a clump of fine white hairs growing out of a piece of wood and this winter it was seen a number of times in our local woods.

Hair ice is formed by the fungus Exidiopsis effusa and the presence of this fungus leads to a process called ‘ice segregation’. When water in the wood freezes it creates a barrier that traps liquid between the ice and the pores of the wood.

Alex Harley, Office Manager This creates a suction force which pushes water out of the pores to the edge of the ice surface where it freezes and extends outwards.

This action of the fungus enables the ice to form very thin hairs, with a diameter of about 0.01mm. The fungus requires specific conditions to be able to produce the hair ice which is the presence of moist, rotting wood from broadleaf trees, a humid atmosphere and temperatures slightly under 0 °C. A piece of wood that produces hair ice once may continue to produce it over several years.

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Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School cleans up.

Community Board Updates

Ranger Paul Stack

We have been working with several of the new Community Boards across Buckinghamshire and we are looking forward to being able to work with more community groups and schools as lockdown restrictions ease.

and spreading it onto a seating area we created.

We had the support of a group of our regular volunteers too that made it all possible. We will be back in the spring/summer to do some planting.

Beaconsfield Community Board

We have worked with several primary schools. With one we created a whole school hedgerow and we held a coppice and fence building day at Loudwater School with 120 pupils getting involved together with a great team of DBS-checked volunteers. Thank you team!

We have been working on several projects all over the Beaconsfield Community Board with a focus on school groups, both whole classes when everyone was in school and key worker bubbles during lockdown.

Our joint partnership with Alfriston and Beaconsfield High continues to grow and we look forward to the time when the students can regularly join forces. Ranger Paul and Volunteer Karina have provided 7 work experience days with Year 9 and Post 16 groups at Alfriston with a focus on building the girls confidence and providing them a Stepping Stones towards developing their employability skills. The school has extensive grounds that we are developing for learning and wildlife habitat. The girls have coppiced, started restoring their pond, built dead hedges, sculptural bird feeders and on a special NCS day with Action for Youth planted much need native hedgerow!

Beaconsfield High Students joined them a few times when it was safe to do so.

At Beaconsfield High we continued to restore their large pond working with students to fell trees in and around the pond, chipping the wood 8

It is always lovely when students walk from school to their local nature Holtspur School students reserve or woodland to and staff hard at work. make a difference in their own community. Year 5 and 6 key worker bubbles from Holtspur School have been helping coppice this year’s coup at Holtspur Bank and Year 5s from Butlers Court have cut down non-native laurel at Walkwood and spread the woodchip created over the worn central path. All students and staff worked with such energy and enthusiasm. Lovely to be able to give them a boost for their well-being in these difficult times.

Amersham Community Board In February we were joined by pupils and members of staff from Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School in Amersham at Chesham Bois Wood to help clear the litter and cut holly down.

Clearing the holly is part of the management of the woods to create space for other woodland plants and trees to grow in a healthy environment. An incredible 12 bags of rubbish were collected – fantastic effort everyone!

We are working with St Mary’s Amersham School pupils and staff to manage their Forest School woodland to make it safer and a better habitat for wildlife and learning. We have started with two sessions of coppicing and fence building using the coppiced materials and are soon to survey all of the school grounds to identify the next steps to increase the diversity of habitats. Visit St Marys School gallery for photos of this session.

Want to get your community buzzing?

Our friends at Bucks Buzzing have wildlifefriendly resources for community groups, schools and everyday gardening heroes.

Click here to visit their website!

Hazlemere Community Board Ranger Paul has been liaising with Hazlemere Parish Council as they put together a project to help ‘Keep Bucks Buzzing’ by making Hazlemere a bee corridor. They are aiming to encourage residents to create a small patch in their gardens or window box full of bee and butterfly friendly pollinators. A really exciting project, we can’t wait to see those gardens full of life in the summer.

North West Chilterns Community Board With the support of the Board, Butterfly Conservation, the Chalk Cherries & Chairs Project and the Landowner, we have been able to continue our work to create a network of Duke of Burgundy habitats in the Chilterns.

The Duke of Burgundy (right) is a Biodiversity Action Plan priority species and needs quite a specific habitat structure in order to thrive (learn more on the Butterfly Conservation website).

We have worked on a new Network Rail-owned site in Saunderton which is adjacent to the private Far Kingdom Site and we are really excited to hear from the Butterfly Conservation surveying team which species they see in the summer. As well as the Duke, we are hoping that due to the large quantity of wild strawberry, we will see another priority species, the Grizzled Skipper.

We have worked at three other sites so far, doing much needed scrub clearance to manage these chalk grassland habitats, and are soon to work with Hughenden Primary School and the National Trust at Small Dean Bank after half term. We also worked on a privately owned site near Princes Risborough in February. As you can see below, the sheep enjoyed our company!

Coming up in March, we hope to be working with either keyworker bubbles or whole classes from Bledlow Ridge School and Princes Risborough Primary School’s unit for Autistic Students with much needed planting of cowslips, larval food plant for the Duke of Burgundy.

From top: the Duke of Burgundy butterfly; Curious sheep at Princes Risborough.

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Chilterns Conservation Board Chalk, Cherries & Chairs Project We have been delivering projects on the ground as part of the Chilterns Conservation Board’s Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Landscape Partnership Project. Visit the project website to learn more: www.chilternsaonb.org/projects/CCC

Hedgerows In February we were out linking old hedgerow with new to continue this important habitat on another site near Saunderton. Hedgerows are like linear miniature woodlands and provide food and shelter for all sorts of British wildlife. We had a hugely successful session planting over 500 whips to create 130m of hedgerow with only 4 people.

We heard skylarks and Ilona saw two stonechats in the existing hedge. What a delightful spot in the Chilterns we were in! This is part funded by the North West Community Board and is also part of the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Landscape Connection Project and there is lots more to do across the central Chilterns!

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Hedgerow planting near Saunderton.

Orchard planting, Collingshanger Farm, Prestwood.

Orchard planting Prestwood was once renowned for its orchards, especially for the cherries, but many have disappeared over the years and this project aims to replace some of the lost trees and orchards.

Steph and volunteer Jean joined Harriet from the Chilterns Conservation Board at Collingshanger Farm in Prestwood to increase the number of trees in the old orchard.

They applied team-work, problem-solving and a sledge hammer to get the hefty guards together and fastened to the ground. These are in place to protect the newly planted orchard trees from damage that the inquisitive rams and other livestock from the farm might inflict.

They planted native local species of pear, quince and apple adding to the existing orchard ensuring fruit crops for generations to come. It’s all part of the great work going on as part of the Chalk, Cherries and Chairs project.

Have a look at more information on Prestwood’s orchards on the Prestwood Nature website.

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New Member of Staff: Welcome Ilona!

For those I may not have crossed paths with yet, my name is Ilona Livarski and I’m Chiltern Rangers newest Ranger. I joined the team in December 2020, so as I am writing this I have been with Chiltern Rangers for a month.

Prior to Chiltern Rangers, although many people think that I have just finished university (my mum says I’ll see this as a compliment in the future), I have been working in conservation for 5 years. In those 5 years I had 5 different jobs in conservation: a traineeship with the Bucks, Berks & Oxon Wildlife Trust, a seasonal job with the Thames Basin Heath Partnership, and full time jobs with the National Trust at Ashridge Estate, Henley Town Council and most recently on the Country Parks Team at Buckinghamshire Council (managing Black Park, Langley Park and Denham Country Park). I am grateful for all that these jobs have taught me about wildlife and conservation but I’m hopeful now that I have found my dream job at Chiltern Rangers!

So how have I found this past month at Chiltern Rangers? Having come from Black Park, where I was a key worker throughout the pandemic and we saw an unprecedented amount of visitors, working at Chiltern Rangers has been a breath of fresh air. This last month has been exhausting in a different way though as I’ve been chain-sawing most days, and although I’m sure our water bill at home has gone up due to the amount of baths I’ve needed to soothe my aching muscles, I’ve loved every minute of it.

It has also been great working at so many different sites across the Chilterns and I can’t wait to see the fruits of our labour on these sites in the summer.

However, I think I’ve most enjoyed working with such an enthusiastic and kind group of volunteers and colleagues alike. So thank you to everyone who has been so welcoming to me since joining Chiltern Rangers; it has made settling in an absolute pleasure, even amongst all the challenges that the pandemic has thrown our way.

Office Volunteer Thanks!

We would like to thank one particular volunteer who works from her home and has been a constant support to us throughout the year. Whilst also working for other environmental organisations, Rhiannon has continued to help us with marketing and production of the quarterly newsletter despite all the difficulties since last March. A huge thank you to Rhiannon!

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From all of us at Chiltern Rangers...

We know how keen many of you are to join us again and we look forward to a more positive year ahead, getting our volunteers out and running the ‘Be a Ranger’ team building days when restrictions allow.

If you would like further information about any of the articles in this issue, please contact us: email: info@chilternrangers.co.uk call: 01494 474 486

Keep an eye on our website and social media to see the changes and adaptations we are making to involve you all. In the meantime enjoy the wonder of Spring in the countryside and your gardens!

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Inspiring and enriching communities, through conservation, education & community engagement 13