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Newsletter
Spring 2010
Welcome to the Spring
Newsletter. The winter snow which now seems a distant
memory resulted in the Park being packed with children
(and some adults) careering across the fields on sledges
and some great snowmen. The cold weather resulted in a
number of frogs found dead in the ponds having been
caught underneath the ice for a long period of time and
the kingfishers also struggled with numbers being down
this year.
Work has been ongoing with
trying to increase income to run the Park. When the
Park was transferred to the Trust from the Commission
for the New Towns an endowment was received to pay for
the long term management of the Park. This has been
inadequate from the start and the Trust believes it was
incorrectly calculated by the Commission. In an effort
to get the endowment increased Lindsay Hoyle MP arranged
for the Trust to present its case to Ian Austin MP the
then Undersecretary of State at the Department for
Communities and Local Government. He asked for a review
of the calculation of the endowment and the funds
required to run the Park. The review currently ongoing
but even if it finds in the Trusts favour with the
current squeeze and change of Government getting the
money out of the Treasury may prove to be a difficult
task.
Other ways of raising
income are also moving forward. The parking machines
are now up and running although there were a few
reliability problems during the very cold snap. The
Trust would like to thank all those people that have
supported the park by purchasing a parking permit or
ticket. As always there are some people that will park
elsewhere and walk onto the Park and there have been a
few problems with people passing on tickets to other
users as they leave the car park.
The Friends of CVP are
organising a monthly farmers market at the Barn as a
further source of income as well as an event to bring
more people onto the Park. The markets are being held
on the 4th Sunday of the month with the
exception of December. The first couple of markets have
been very successful with just over 40 stalls and around
3,000 visitors. The first two markets each raised about
£1,700 towards the ongoing management of the Park.
Putting on the market requires a lot of work and if
there are any volunteers out there that would like to
give a hand on the day please get in touch with the
office.
The annual fair has just
taken place and was bigger than ever before. New
attractions this year included a demonstration mountain
bike course that involved cyclists riding over cars, a
skip and stacks of pallets. Many of the stalls from the
farmers market were there and music was from Trouble at
Mill. This was our biggest event and fundraiser of the
year and we were very lucky with the weather. The sun
shone and the public turned up in their thousands. In
total about 4,500 people attended and by the time gift
aid has been claimed the event should have raised
£6,000.
Park Maintenance
During the winter work has
concentrated on woodland management. As part of the
mitigation works for the construction of the M65 over
30,000 trees were planted in the Park paid for by the
Highways Agency. These were planted very close together
at 1 metre apart to encourage fast upward growth as they
fought for the light and a quick closing of the canopy
to shade out competing grasses. The planting has been
very successful and the trees now require thinning. A
start had been made last winter but the bulk of the work
has been undertaken over the last few months. Between
30% and 50% of the trees are being removed to favour
“best stem” in other words the healthiest tree with the
best shape and certain species such as oak and ash.
Thinning work has been carried out at Stag Lodge and in
a number of areas near Wigan Rd car park and the bridge
over the motorway.
Woodland work has also
taken place in Ice House Wood which is the nature
reserve area near the Pinetum. The process of
conversion from a softwood plantation to a native
woodland of coppice with standards is now complete.
Twenty years ago it was a thick under-managed softwood
plantation with a few thin and straggly oaks in amongst
the larch trees. The first job was to thin out the
larch to give more room and light to the oaks to allow
them to become sturdier trees. The larch were then
progressively removed. If they were removed too quickly
the oaks would have blown over or snapped off in the
first high wind, this way the oaks adjusted to the
changing conditions and put on girth rather than height
and developed a better root system. As the larch were
removed they were replaced by hazel. The final stage
was to thin out the oaks and complete the first coppice
cycle. Coppice with standards is one of the oldest forms
of woodland management dating back to at least the 13th
century although more commonly found in southern
England. The coppice is a crop of wood that is
regularly cut on a cycle in our case hazel is cut about
every 8 years and the sticks would be used for making
hurdles, thatching spars etc. Other common species of
coppice were sweet chestnut for fencing and alder for
charcoal. Above them are the standards, normally oak
trees at a wide spacing that are grown for timber and
felled at about 80 years old.
Cutting back has taken
place behind houses just off the A6 where the trees had
grown very tall near the boundary and were cutting off
light from the properties. Many of the trees were
willows which can become unstable as they get old and
could have caused quite a lot of damage if they had
blown over or snapped off. Maintenance work has been
undertaken around the reservoir following the last
inspectors report. Works included removing a sugar
maple whose root plate had started to move and a couple
of other trees on the embankment that were starting to
get too large. The problem with large trees on the
embankment is that if they blow over the roots can tear
a large section out of the banking seriously weakening
it. A number of trees were also removed around the
overflow area that could cause problems under storm
conditions when the overflow cannot cope and the
emergency overflow comes into play.
As mentioned in the last
newsletter we have received a grant from the Lancashire
Environmental Fund and the Friends for wildflower
planting. In the autumn we planted bulbs and we have
now planted nearly 2,000 seedlings in the meadows and
woodlands. These have included ragged robin, cowslip
and primrose. If they have survived the dry spring we
should hopefully see the result next year. Most of the
autumn bulbs have sprouted this spring but again will
not flower until next year.
As the weather warms up we
can continue with the re-pointing of the stone wall
along Wigan Road. The work was started in the
autumn but suspended with the onset of winter frosts.
The largest task for the spring though is renewing the
stock fence along the back of Black Banks Wood and other
sections of the field, in total over a kilometre of
fencing. Sections of this boundary are normally
very wet but with the dry spring this year should make
life easier. Work is also scheduled to improve a
short section of footpath from the picnic area to behind
the lake which is currently very uneven and difficult
with a pushchair.
Work is due to start
during July on the cycleway that will link the Park to
Buckshaw Village. The project is being undertaken by
Lancashire County Council and was due to be completed in
2007 but delays in funding from the developers at
Buckshaw has delayed the project. Trees have been
felled near Lower Kem Mill in preparation for the works
before birds had chance to nest in them.
The annual summer
maintenance work has also commenced with the mowers
being brought out of hibernation. As summer arrives
more time is spent patrolling the park and clearing up
litter. As in previous years there will be a ranger
presence in the park on some evening and some joint
patrols will be taking place with the local PCSOs
particularly looking at dealing with underage drinking
that we occasionally have problems with.
Jim Longbottom, Park Manager
Watch Club
This winter has seen more
awards given to our group. In January the group won a
Bronze Wildlife Action award from the RSPB and in
February Helen Thompson, one of our leaders received her
15yr volunteering award, also from the RSPB.
We have been making
seasonal decorations in December using holly and ivy,
this also included making a gnome home. January we took
part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, and in February,
Stephen Wexler from Eclipse Photography showed us all
how to take good wildlife pictures
At the end of March, with
this being the International Year of Biodiversity, we
helped plant some flower plugs, again helping the
variety on the Park. At the end of April we held our
annual Dawn Chorus enjoyed again by everyone who came
along
David Beattie, Watch Leader
Friends of Cuerden Valley Park
Many of the Friends helped
at the Christmas Fair we ran in December and contributed
to making it such a success. In January we held our
annual winter bird walk and in February, Darren, one of
our Rangers gave an excellent talk on Art in the
Landscape.
March saw our AGM with the
welcome appearance of considerably more members. I
stepped down as chairman, with the role being taken by
Patrick Ryan, who the committee chose with an
overwhelming number of votes. This was followed by our
“After Dark Walk”. We heard tawny owl, several hundred
jackdaws roosting in the nature reserve and heard two
early pipistrelle bat shouts on our detector. We
completed our walk in Ice House Wood where some members
of the Lancashire Moth Group had a variety of moth
traps. They showed us several of the moths they had
caught. It was a fascinating end to an enjoyable walk.
The Farmers Market has
been a great success thanks to a lot of hard work by a
number of volunteers. Work includes distributing flyers
and posters, putting up a marquee and gazebos the day
before, helping with car parking, taking money on the
gate, manning the tea stall and clearing up afterwards.
The current team would welcome further help. If you
would like to get involved please contact the office.
Conservation Volunteers
The conservation
volunteers have been busy again over the winter. In
December they helped with run the Christmas Fair. This
was followed in February by tree thinning near the M65.
In March as a change from cutting trees down it was time
to plant a few in Ice House Wood. After coppicing work
tree guards were placed over the coppice stools to allow
them to re-grow without providing dinner for the local
deer and rabbit population. Where there were gaps there
were planted up with hazel to increase the amount of
coppice. In April it was back to cutting things down
again, in this case self sown Alder around Stag Lodge
Pond. Too many trees around the pond leads to a build
up of leaf litter in the pond and reduces the amount of
sunlight reaching the surface of the pond.
Jim Longbottom, Park Manager
Education
Once again we have been
keeping busy with the schools programme. In March we did
a number of river studies. This summer term is fully
booked with some weeks having three schools booking in.
A huge thank you to the volunteers that make the
programme such a success.
I have almost completed
the Health Walks programme, we hope to start later in
the year, if anyone would be interested in helping let
me know. They will run once a month on a Monday.
The holiday programme has
started really well, ‘Birds, bugs and bees’ activity in
February was very popular and raising £150. The children
had fun planting wild flower plugs and going on a
daffodil hunt during the spring special.
Victorians will be going
ahead in June (for two weeks), we are in need of female
volunteers to be scullery maids and make ice cream with
the children, again if you think you could help please
get in contact with me.
Pauline Taylor, Education Officer
Wildlife
The plethora of snow meant
that everything was much later than normal. Snowdrops
and primrose again being the first out but we did have
to wait until February. The Great Crested Grebes showed
perfect timing by performing their courtship dance on St
Valentine’s Day. Chiffchaff and sand martin were our
first migrants to arrive but the highlights have to be
more signs of otter and sightings of both Red Kite and
Whinchat at the end of April. Neither of these had been
reported on the Park previously. Cuckoo flower with its
accompanying Orange Tip butterfly were in abundance
earlier this spring. Hopefully harbingers of a good
summer
David Beattie, Wildlife Recorder
Trustees and Members
The Board welcomed two new
Trustees to their number in February, John Ascroft from
Penwortham retired after 32½ years working for the NFU
and Susan Marsden a regular Park user for over 20 years
who has experience of running her own business.
Lesley Russell, Company Secretary
May 2010
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