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Article for LBCV Newsletter Well thanks for all your hard work on the Lee Valley Park’s sites last year. It takes time for the work to bear fruit and some of it needs following up by us of course, so here’s how things have progressed. EFB Bed14 Cutting reed and weeding around the ‘plugs’ is a difficult task and will take time to show results. We did eventually get the whole bed mown in late summer and the vegetation taken away. However the pump has continued to play up and so we weren’t able to flood and kill off the reed in the winter. We’re trying to get rid of it so that a more diverse flora takes its place. It was only this April that pumping has been restored, which is also necessary to keep the bed wet and benefit the marsh plants we have been nurturing there. It’s too early to say how things are going this year yet. Walthamstow Marsh ditches As many of you know last year was a phenomenally successful year. By keeping the reeedmace etc in check through hand pulling and mechanical excavation (10 year cycle) we keep the habitat open which creates the right conditions for less competitive plants to set seed and spread and dragonflies and many other insects to thrive. It’s not every day that you discover a Red Data Book species of plant new to the marsh and this one, Creeping Marshwort, is found at only one other site in the country, at Oxford. Its discovery, by Brian Wurzell, has allowed us to formulate concrete proposals to re-introduce grazing on to the marsh, which we expect to trial from May. In the same section of ditch we found Small Sweet-grass (mustn’t pull this one out!) and Blunt-flowered Rush (new too), and high up on the berm Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil (not seen here for 30 or 40 years). Brooklime has also appeared on this stretch, whilst near the picnic area Arrowhead is new to the marsh. Unlike on the river it flowered, as boats’ propellers do not decapitate it. By continuing our annual sessions of ditch clearing we can help conserve the populations of these plants, as well as traditional favourites such as Flowering-rush. It wasn’t a brilliant year for dragonflies but we don’t have the time to monitor their populations and show that our work is benefiting them – Hint! Anyone interested? Tottenham Marsh plant plugging It’s too early to relate how successful they’ve been, but we have had an encouraging display of cowslips to start with. Will anyone own up to planting 2 hyacinths? An interesting addition to the marsh’s records. Narrowmead had a couple of haphazard hay cuts last year – you just can’t get the contractors! And what I will call Broadmead, nearer the picnic area, had a good late summer cut – its first. This is a new meadow in the making. Coppicing Again it’s too early to tell whether the birds appreciate what you’ve done. The wet winter, which seems a long time ago now (though so does the snow of Thursday 10th April – I’m writing on the blisteringly hot day of 17th April), again made it difficult to get in to Horseshoe Thicket with a chipper, so we’ve got that to catch up on. I hope you’ll find time to come and see how the sites you’ve worked on are shaping up. You might even see other things. Gary James had an Osprey fly low over the marsh (Walthamstow) on Wednesday and there’s still a Cetti’s Warbler skulking at the north end of the marsh as I speak. Again, thanks for all your time and hard work. David Miller, Ranger, LVRPA |