Devon SSSI nature reserve and eco lodges - Maggie's Blog
29 June
Tyre-ing work...
Thanks once again to the Westbury squash club mob, James and Karin (providers of fab curry), Richard and Lynn (in charge of the Pimms), and Malcolm and Pat (music and beer...) for their hard work and good company over the weekend. This time the task was another go at the tyres strangling our trees. In these summer months it's easier to get across the fields with equipment, and Ian got a generator for his birthday. In combination, that means we could get the reciprocating saw (like the ones the fire brigade use to cut people out of cars)down to some of the more distant victims.
To recap, we think that when the trees were planted someone used an old fertiliser bag to keep the weeds away from the base, and a tyre (ubiquitous in the farming landscape)to hold down the bag.
Then the years past, and no-one took off the tyres....
We reckon there may be a couple of hundred of them around the place, some more urgently in need of removal than others. We've already lost 2 trees to strangulation. The trouble is the steel in the bead and in the tread itself - it's good quality stuff and not easy to cut through. You need room to get bolt croppers in to cut the bead, and you need the reciprocating saw for the main tyre.
This weekend we removed another 17 or so. If that doesn't sound like many, bear in mind the thicket of brambles to be cleared from each one first...
But it wasn't all hard work. We walked down to the nature reserve to see the pond we all cleared last autumn.
Then back up to the house for a BBQ.
And best of all, they've tenatively agreed to come back in the autumn and do some more hard grind!