Time to experiment

It has been freezing cold, so cold that when we ventured down to High Borrowdale this week it felt cold enough to snow and High Borrowdale does have its very own and unique micro climate that is unpredictable.

As ever, High Borrowdale is always full of surprises and you never know what you will find. A rather unusual surprise this week – our top watergate has been completely renewed and all without us knowing anything about it. Turns out one of our neighbours has been having a lot of new fencing works and did our gate as well. It looks fine from a distance, but as ever contractors new to the valley underestimate that unpredictable micro climate. They have fixed the watergates to the wire with our chains but then just stapled the chains to the wood. We normally use metal shackles and there is no guarantee even they will withstand the huge flows that can happen in the beck. So nice new gate, shame about the fixings, one for the next workparty list.

Work at High Borrowdale

The jobs list for the day was really about walling repairs. We had a lot of wall repairs to do. One of the only benefits of chasing the sheep out of the allotment last time we were there was we got to walk all the wall boundaries and found a few issues on the top wall that need attention before they get worse. So this was the time for some more fixes. Two gangs headed off up the fell to fettle the gaps. Meanwhile our watergate specialist Richard set to on the bigger gate under the bridge. We have a wire strung right along at the base of the abutments which stops the gates moving westwards – this stops the sheep pushing against the gates to gain entry to our land. Although the wire has no weight on it, the power of the water was such it had bent all the metal fixings and stretched the wire. Quite incredible to think about the power of the water.

We then moved on to gate repairs. High Borrowdale is just like being at home, there is always some job to do and always something needing fixing. With the wind and use, several gates had dropped so were not shutting smoothly, time for the spanner again. We had time for a look at the hay meadows and a quick walkover to see how the flowers are coming on. The striking thing was how little growth there was in the meadows, again the High Borrowdale climate impact. But, look closer and the diversity of species was evident with the ribwort plantain in flower, and the hawkbits and knapweed evident. It looks like it might be a later flowering time this year judging by the growth so far, but time will tell.

Photos: Watergates in High Borrowdale, experiments with sheep fat and volunteer Marion explores what can be found in our Rusland woods

Experiments in Rusland

On Wednesday, trusty volunteer Andy, Marion, our Engagement Trainee Steph and I headed down to Rusland for a bit of experimentation. There is a newish product on the market called Trico. It is made of non toxic sheep fat and its smell and taste seem to repel deer. If it works it could be a far cheaper and easier solution to the miles and miles of deer fencing we see in the countryside and it could really help our deer eaten woods in the Rusland valley. The deer have pretty devastating consequences there, either eating off the new regeneration or nibbling newly planted trees, which means the woods have no young trees coming through and no diversity. So we decided to test this product for ourselves. Its fairly easy to use, goes in a backpack sprayer and you spray it onto the new growth or shoots of trees, job done. So we targeted the ten enclosures we put in to Resp Haw and Bull Coppice and planted up at the back end of last year. The trees are tubed to give protection from deer, mice and voles but some of the trees are already coming out of the top of the tubes. The enclosures were densely planted and only small so it is unlikely deer will choose to jump in, but you never know. We also targeted some young self seeded oaks and the shoots of some old hazel trees which were trying to sprout from the base but eaten off.

It was an interesting experience for sure. We had purchased a special backpack sprayer and Andy kindly followed the instructions to change the nozzles and remove the filters due to the viscosity of the Trico. Strangely it was more runny than I expected and the smell nowhere near as bad as we thought. It comes mixed with a white powder so its really obvious where you spray. The enclosures looked like we had blitzed them with white emulsion. You pump the sprayer to get pressure and then spray, and the nozzle can be calibrated to the dosage you want. We had full protective clothing on as a precaution, although it is non toxic. It is meant to go on in the dry so it is not washed off and forms a bit of a waxy coating. We had some rain showers but as we were fairly sheltered we took the chance whilst we had it.

Growth rates in the enclosures were really good, which was encouraging, and seeing new oak regeneration was also good. We left one enclosure as a control and for the final job moved down to the bottom of the wood to spray the young shoots trying to grow on a group of very old hazels. They are trying really hard but all the new shoots get eaten so we gave them a good spray. Overall we must have sprayed over 300 trees and we got faster as time went on. We will monitor what happens over the summer and respray the new growth in autumn and see. If it works, potentially it could replace the need for unsightly tree tubes and also fences but in all probability there will remain a need for it all until deer numbers are more sustainable. We just had time for another bit of experimentation – our vols love their cake and we like to try new varieties – this time a mocha kitkat – verdict, yes we can add it to the cake bag, not bad…

Next up for us is the Helm on 2 June and Dam Mire on 8 June. You can join us by booking here.