Month: April 2023

March gave our volunteer team some kinder weather, which was particularly welcomed as we spent 3 weeks in Ladywell Fields (North Field) widening the secondary channel around the bridges. Since the works have been completed at the entrance to the secondary channel you can now see the channel filled with water everyday through the field. As this waterflow moves through the channel it naturally erodes areas of the banks where it is moving fastest and drops silt in the slower areas. This is a wonderful natural process to watch happening through the middle of the park. Our volunteers have managed to rework the meander by the middle bridge to reduce any erosion where the bridge is connected to the path, and to open up the inflow channel to the backwater located here.

Further south into the borough our volunteer team have been removing litter and being vigilant for invasive non-native plant species in the Manor Park section of the River Quaggy.

February threw us some colder and wetter weather, which meant on some sessions we focused mainly on bank side work rather than being in the river channel itself. When the weather gave us some respite we spent a few sessions in Ladywell Fields litter-picking in the channel, we often find smaller items within the channel like cans, plastic bags etc. Sometimes we find much larger items, like the lime bike and building sign above. The wonderful volunteers managed to get these out of the channel then Glendale’s park cleansing team were able to take them away from the site.

Another of our projects in February was working on the main dipping pond and it’s channel at Chinbrook Meadows. Over time silt and leaf litter had filled up the inflow from the River Quaggy, so our team cleared a nice secondary channel that feeds into the pond under the boardwalk. Keeping water in this pond will allow for a wide variety of invertebrates (and a few vertebrates) to thrive in the standing water habitat, rather than the moving water from the River Quaggy.