A good turnout

Seasons reassuringly reappear, but one year your tree is full of apples and the next there is a single sad specimen. This is nature. We have to work with it. So when Pete Gurney -YWT Reserves Assistant (West) - told me that we could no longer do our planned coppicing blog at Hetchell Wood, just south of Wetherby, we worked with it and decided to cover a Hetchell Wood task day instead. Pete said there was likely to be a good turnout, and when I got there, I soon found out why.

The Team

As I pulled into one of the laybys at the entrance to Hetchell Wood, I could see a lot more activity than I would have expected on a cloudy February Tuesday. Tools were already being unloaded as Pete passed round the register, and there was a lot of chatter from the 20 or so gathering volunteers. I did think this was a lot of volunteers to tackle a wood in the middle of nowhere, but it soon became apparent that this was not just the normal team. The giveaway was when I spotted Elliot Baxendale from the INNS team, who’d brought a team of his volunteers to help during their quiet period, as Invasive Non Native Species hide away at this time of year. Also present were the Lower Aire Valley (LAV) volunteer team. So, three teams working together on one site. Brilliant! But why this site? Well there was a lot to do…

The Reserve

Hetchell Wood is hidden away down a network of narrow lanes just off the A1 near Bramham. Indeed, it is a small part of the large Bramham Estate, which these days is probably best known for its annual Leeds Music Festival, recently featuring artists such as Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish, Arctic Monkeys, Stormzy, Kendrick Lamar, Metallica, Guns and Roses, Radiohead, Pulp and Eminem. Names you didn’t expect to read in a YWT blog. See, we are down with the kids. If any of the artists or, indeed, the kids are reading, you’re welcome to come and join us. I’m guessing Pulp and the Arctic Monkeys would have the shortest journeys, but the idea of this year’s headliner, Bring me the Horizon, watching the sunrise from the limestone meadow does have a certain poetic appeal.

YWT lease the wood from the Bramham estate and manage it for them. The site itself is a great one to visit. You approach the meadows through an old quarry where large beech trees have established themselves on the edges of the steep slopes putting out extra stabilising roots giving the area an enchanting Gothic feel.

Then you come to a hillside with linked meadows. In the summer, Hebridean sheep graze here, although, this being conservation grazing, don’t be surprised if we were to swap to cattle. The meadows here are very special as they are home to the limestone loving Thistle broomrape (Orobanche reticulata) which can only be found in a small number of places in Yorkshire. It is a parasite of Creeping thistle and has no leaves or chlorophyll and has, wisely, chosen Yorkshire as its only home in the UK. Down below the meadows is the coppicing area where the Leeds Coppice Workers manage the hazels from which they make ethically sourced wood products. So, there’s plenty going on.

The tasks

We had a lot to do. Firstly Elliot had sourced some fence posts from another site which we needed to get to the coppicing area. There wasn’t a good route and the combined team had a single trolley to manoeuvre around a series of field and quarry paths. The paths were wet and slippery, so it all had a mediaeval feel as we carefully pulled and guided the trolley.

In some places it was too steep, so we rolled the poles down one by one and collected them from the meadow by hand before transferring them back to the trolley. Although labour-intensive, this saves the Trust a lot of money as not only would we would have to pay someone for the posts, but also for the labour to transport them to the right place.

The other main task was to clear the limestone meadows of anything that casts shade. Thistle broomrape does not like shade, but on the other hand we can’t manage an area just for one species. We have to strike a balance that’s more broadly beneficial. In this case, keeping the meadow grassy and low growing will help many species. The LAV team set to work identifying and clearing young hawthorn and wild rose growth, digging them out in most cases. We didn’t worry about bramble. At Barlow Common, where I volunteer, we get rid of the bramble and leave the hawthorn - A definite case of ‘the right plants in the right places’.

Pete and Steve, from the Hetchell team, attacked some larger hawthorns and managed the fire that was carefully built on a platform to protect the underlying vegetation.

Meanwhile, members of the INNS team were raking away last year's grass to let light through. This will encourage lots of different species to grow and also encourage their pollinators.

There was a lot of other stuff going on and people from all the teams were involved in all of the tasks. Except for one very important task. This was the Lower Aire Valley “special” task

The Tea Trolley

I had heard of the Lower Aire Valley Tea Trolley, but until I saw it with my own eyes, I thought it was a myth. The idea that hot tea and coffee, not to mention homemade cake, could be dispensed to so many people in remote spots on a regular basis seemed highly improbable. Especially as it had to make a journey not too different from the one taken by the fence posts. But with added hot water. Hot water, cake, trolley and everything else is collected and taken to whichever site the largely nomadic LAV team are managing on that day. I never got to the bottom of how all this is achieved, especially as the wonderful cake needs to be baked in the first place, but I guess it adds to the mystique.

So, at break time a wheelbarrow full of goodies just appeared as if by magic.

I’m not going to say anything more, except to say that the cake tasted as good as it looks, so the pictures can do the talking.

The Volunteer

James Hogarth who normally volunteers at Rothwell and Kippax as part of the LAV team wasn’t giving away any secrets about the Tea Trolley. But he could tell me the secret of managing volunteering around a full-time job at a bookshop cafe. Whilst he works full-time, he isn’t Monday to Friday, so he can join every other week on his days off, with a bit of planning. The volunteering has helped him to secure a new role with an Ecological consultancy where he will be doing surveys mainly in Yorkshire and the North East.

End of the day

As the day ended, I was part of the team taking the equipment back through the meadows and the wood. Pushing the wheelbarrow up and down the slopes and over the tree roots wasn’t easy. It was prone to tipping over and sometimes we just removed everything to get up the difficult bits. When I got to the van, the tea trolley was already there. Spotless. How did they do it? It’s still a mystery to me.

Find out More

Discover Hetchell Wood: Hetchell Wood | YWT

Or join us for a Practical Conservation Task Day! If Howard's article has sparked your interest, why not come along to one of our Practical Conservation Days at a reserve near you? We can't always guarantee such fantastic cake, but we can offer a rewarding time in the fresh air, with friendly groups of volunteers. Find out more here: Practical Conservation Volunteering