Friends of Bersted Brooks

Meetings and Events

quambyg — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:15:10 +0000

Our first event of 2012 will be a Fruiting Hedge Aftercare session on Saturday 18th February, from 10.30 to 12.30. We will be applying mulch around the new fruiting trees to help them retain moisture when the sunny weather returns. This is a FREE activity that families can get involved with – especially those who want to learn to forage for their fruits once the trees get mature enough.

Our next event will be Trees Love Care on Saturday 17th March, also from 10.30 to 12.30. Once again we welcome families to come & help us, especially as this event coincides with The Tree Council‘s Tree Care Campaign. The trees in the fruiting hedge were donated by the Tree Council as part of their Hedgerow Harvest Campaign, so we must look after them!

Families are very welcome to join us at most of our events, especially as most children love getting dirty and helping to plant trees, mulching and removing tree guards is great fun – especially when we find wood mice and other creatures inside them! Please wear wellies if you have them because the Brooks is already quite muddy; also wear suitable clothing as it can get very cold in the middle of an exposed field this time of year!

If you arrive a bit later than the published time, just come and join us when you can, as we need as many helpers as possible – we will be in the field nearest the car park (Cricket Field), so you should be able to see where we are!

PLEASE NOTE: we still have several thousand tree guards to remove from our young trees. The removal of tree shelters will be an on-going maintenance job for the forseeable future, so we will ALWAYS need plenty of help on any of our Tree Care Events. The removal of the actual shelters is really a job for adults, but children can help by putting the used shelters into piles ready to be bagged and taken away.

The next Friends meeting will be held on Monday 5th March 2012 at 7.40pm, in Bersted Green Learning Centre, Hazel Road, Bognor Regis, PO22 9DY. PLEASE NOTE THE SLIGHTLY LATER START TIME.

For up-to-date info about forthcoming events and the latest news, please email us here for details.

Hibernaculum

quambyg — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:49:52 +0000

On 19^th October 2011 a HIBERNACULUMwas excavated in field 2, “Friends Field”, to provide a place where creatures such as slow worms could over-winter. Any suitable creatures that are found during the excavation of the relief road (and from other sites) will be relocated here to give them a new home, although it is hoped that some will find this place for themselves.

: The hibernaculum is excavated

: The hibernaculum is filled with rubble and wood to create chambers

: The hibernaculum is back-filled with soil and gently compressed

STOP PRESS: After the tree guard removal session on 20th November a new hole was noticed at the edge of the hibernaculum. The hole is the right size for a slow worm, so fingers crossed!

Water Voles

quambyg — Thu, 06 May 2010 09:06:51 +0000

Last September Kingfisher Members joined Matt Smith from the Sussex Otters and Rivers Project to look for signs of water voles along the margins of the Rife – especially those bordering the Brooks!

We are thrilled to announce that feeding stations, latrines and at least one tunnel were found – so, YES! we have water voles on Bersted Brooks!