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January began as a frosty month, where we finished up our work on a section of reeds in the Hare & Billet pond, Blackheath. We’ll return next winter to tackle the next area of reeds, as we cut areas back on rotation

Elsewhere in the borough, we were planting native black poplar trees along the River Pool, we planted 5 trees, 3 male and 2 female along the stretch of the river and installed protective cages around them to give them time to grow large enough without any disturbance.

DID YOU KNOW? Only around 7,000 wild black poplars now grow in Britain and of these, only 600 are female trees.

December was a busy month, considering that we only had a few sessions due to the festive break. We began our winter management of the Hare & Billet pond up on Blackheath. This is a task we do annually to keep the reeds and flag iris contained in one area of the pond (otherwise they’d spread across the whole pond).

Later in the month we had some new bird boxes to put up in Northbrook Park, where there has been a big project to turn one corner of the park into a wetland, linking up the wet woodland and large pond in the adjacent Network Rail Land.

We finished our year with a walk around Beckenham Place Park, looking at all the work and different projects that have been occurring there over the past year. From me personally I’d like to say a HUGE thanks to all the wonderful volunteers that help to continue improve our wonderful green and blue spaces in Lewisham!

Bramble Bashing! We started our month off in Brookmill Park, where we rotationally remove bramble from two of the path bends. This is a once a year task and we only clear one area at a time to allow for winter foraging and shelter for wildlife that remain local in the winter months.

One of those animals that use the vegetation as cover is the wonderful common frog, like the one pictured below. Also pictured is the river with a lovely shadow of the bare trees.

November also marked leaving Lewisham’s rivers to dip our waders in one of the boroughs many wildlife ponds. This year we got into Hare & Billet pond to remove some of the reed growth, we try to maintain an area of the pond as a reedbed, but have to keep on top of the reeds before they expand into the deeper areas of the pond where we cannot reach. We’ll be back in the pond in January to finish up the last bits!

We started off in October continuing with our hub project in Ladywell Fields (South Field), where we continued with teh ground preparation for our future planting on the banks. The list of plants has been confirmed, and come spring we’ll be back to get planting!

Our group then spent the rest of October in Chinbrook Meadows, swapping bramble bashing for willow coppicing. Each year we coppice another selection of willows alongside the river and wildlife ponds- we do quite drastic work at the far wildlife pond to enable enough light to hit that pond. Fun fact with that pond is that it is the only pond in the meadows that isn’t regularly fed by river water, it’s actually mainly filled with run-off from the football pitches on the other side of the footpath. The exception to this is when the Quaggy is in flood state, where it bursts it’s banks and then runs into the pond.

To add to spooky season, look at this creepy doll found face down in some nettles next to the river!