Medway and Coastal Wetlands Volunteers - February 2022 update

After the Christmas break, the volunteers began at Holborough, fixing a fence and cutting in front of the viewing screens. The viewing screens look out onto the grazing marsh, and over winter, reed and scrub had grown up and blocked the view. Footpaths through the scrub at Holborough were also cut and the rides were started and will be finished in the next couple of weeks.  

At Peters Pit, the Wednesday team cut around the “T-shaped” pond, cutting dogwood, grass and small willow that the sheep hadn’t been able to graze in the summer. The arisings were left in piles which can be used by the newts, as well as other amphibians and small mammals, as hibernacula during the winter.  

There is still plenty of jobs that need doing before the cutting season finishes at the end of March. There is a coppice plot to cut at Holborough, to create a denser area of scrub for nightingales and turtle doves. Scrub at Wouldham will be cut, to prevent its encroachment into the chalk grassland, plus it will help our livestock checkers when the two tiny goats try to hide amongst it. At Peters Pit, there is buddleia to cut, to try and stop its spread across the reserve.