This was the last field day of 2016. It was a mild, dry, morning which attracted a group of around a dozen volunteers with ages ranging from early teens to late 70’s.
We continued to clear the gorse, saplings and brambles from the top of the Bronze Age barrow.
We loaded the cut material into a trailer so that our local NT warden could take it away and burn it off site. No bonfires are allowed on this part of the Warren because it is the site of scheduled Ancient Monuments.
Once the trailer was full we stopped for our mid morning break when we had. delicious home-made cake, including a Christmas cake!
After the break we moved onto pine-pulling – pulling out by hand, where possible, any pine saplings. Any pine saplings that resisting hand pulling were cut at ground level. The pines are invasive. They break up the areas of heathland making the heath less hospitable to heathland wildlife, and the pine woods themselves do not support many species.