MORE RANGER WORK
03/12/11 10:55 Filed in: Management
The intrepid SDS Ranger Team gathered together again this morning and were very pleased to be issued with their new T-shirts & fleeces. We will all now look very smart (at least until the inevitable mud & grunge associated with our labours attach themselves to our clothing!)
The team split into 2 groups, one heading up to the Steyning Coombe in order to attack the scrub which is threatening to swamp the area, and the other to the pond to investigate the plumbing system of the dam.
The first team had the unenviable task of cutting and treating the scrub which is threatening to swamp the valuable grassland on the Coombe. This is slow & back-breaking work involving cutting the scrub down, clearing the brash & then treating the stumps with a biodegradable weedkiller. Although we do not like using chemicals here, the process is very targeted, literally painting each stump with the solution, & the chemical used is harmless to wildlife and biodegrades into harmless compounds
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The second team, Alec, Robin & myself, were charged with investigating the neglected overflow system at the dam by the pond. The whole pond system, originally built to supply Court Mill with plenty of water for it’s milling operations, has been left to its own devices for decades. When the pond fills up after rain it overflows around the back of the dam through a badly eroded channel as the existing system has become blocked.
We started by lifting the concrete lid of the sump to discover it was full of debris. Robin volunteered to get inside and start removing the debris & this was quite difficult due to the small space & depth of the sump.
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We removed large quantities of wood, broken bottles, drinks cans, plastic bottles and other assorted rubbish. Rob even found a hibernating slow worm which we relocated to a safer location. It would surely have drowned once water levels rose.
Eventually we got to the bottom of the sump and found the outlet pipe. Surprisingly the structure was all in very good shape, but, unsurprisingly, the outlet pipe was blocked. We went to find some drain rods and Rob found that he could push them a long way down the pipe before encountering the blockage. This proved to be on the edge of the watercourse downstream, so we started digging.
We had to create a small dam of our own to facilitate daring the area, but eventually found the top of the outlet pipe. After much triumphal back-slapping, we removed enough silt to get the drain rod all the way through.
However, as the watercourse has silted up so much and the outlet is so much lower than the existing water level, we have to devise a solution to getting the pipe to flow again without forever getting blocked….Watch this space!
Once again, many thanks to all our volunteers for giving up their time to help with the Steyning Downland Scheme.
Pete Varkala
The team split into 2 groups, one heading up to the Steyning Coombe in order to attack the scrub which is threatening to swamp the area, and the other to the pond to investigate the plumbing system of the dam.
The first team had the unenviable task of cutting and treating the scrub which is threatening to swamp the valuable grassland on the Coombe. This is slow & back-breaking work involving cutting the scrub down, clearing the brash & then treating the stumps with a biodegradable weedkiller. Although we do not like using chemicals here, the process is very targeted, literally painting each stump with the solution, & the chemical used is harmless to wildlife and biodegrades into harmless compounds
.
The second team, Alec, Robin & myself, were charged with investigating the neglected overflow system at the dam by the pond. The whole pond system, originally built to supply Court Mill with plenty of water for it’s milling operations, has been left to its own devices for decades. When the pond fills up after rain it overflows around the back of the dam through a badly eroded channel as the existing system has become blocked.
We started by lifting the concrete lid of the sump to discover it was full of debris. Robin volunteered to get inside and start removing the debris & this was quite difficult due to the small space & depth of the sump.
.
We removed large quantities of wood, broken bottles, drinks cans, plastic bottles and other assorted rubbish. Rob even found a hibernating slow worm which we relocated to a safer location. It would surely have drowned once water levels rose.
Eventually we got to the bottom of the sump and found the outlet pipe. Surprisingly the structure was all in very good shape, but, unsurprisingly, the outlet pipe was blocked. We went to find some drain rods and Rob found that he could push them a long way down the pipe before encountering the blockage. This proved to be on the edge of the watercourse downstream, so we started digging.
We had to create a small dam of our own to facilitate daring the area, but eventually found the top of the outlet pipe. After much triumphal back-slapping, we removed enough silt to get the drain rod all the way through.
However, as the watercourse has silted up so much and the outlet is so much lower than the existing water level, we have to devise a solution to getting the pipe to flow again without forever getting blocked….Watch this space!
Once again, many thanks to all our volunteers for giving up their time to help with the Steyning Downland Scheme.
Pete Varkala