Martin WW

The rise and fall… of the Arkle

Why is natural flood management so important in our neck of the woods? For those of us who lived through the devastating effects of the 2019 floods, the answer seems obvious. But some aren’t aware of just how regularly the Arkle Beck breaks its banks. This is very easy for us to observe on theContinue reading “The rise and fall… of the Arkle”

We have lift off…

Thanks to a welcome break in the rain, the heli-lifting team managed a productive afternoon’s work today, transporting dumpy bags filled with stakes and guards up to the planting site. The difficult terrain of Fremington Edge, coupled with heavily restricted access, and sheer scale of the planting site, have made the logistics of our schemeContinue reading “We have lift off…”

Beavering away…

We spent Wednesday and Thursday last week learning how to construct leaky barriers at three different locations across the cluster; each where channels begin to flow in the wetter months. The idea is to let ‘normal flow’ pass through unobstructed, but temporarily hold water back during periods of high rainfall. This water is then releasedContinue reading “Beavering away…”

Help us to slow the flow this winter…

On Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th November we will be installing leaky barriers as a part of the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust’s ‘Arkengarthdale Natural Flood Management’ project. Led by Rhiannon O’Connell from the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, we’ll use tools and bits of trees to create leaky barriers in overland flow pathways that will helpContinue reading “Help us to slow the flow this winter…”

“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow”

At least that’s what we’re hoping will happen as a result of Saturday’s workshop — when a group of 12 volunteers met outside Heggs cow byre to get hands-on with nature restoration. Led by Carol Douglas from the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust, as part of the Growing Trees Together initiative, the aim of the workshopContinue reading ““Mighty oaks from little acorns grow””

Size does matter

So we soon learned as many hands made light work yesterday removing tree shelters on The Cluster. Done alone, it can be a slightly soul destroying task. Done as part of a group and it immediately becomes tolerable… enjoyable even as you work together to liberate each tree from its outgrown PPE. This time ourContinue reading “Size does matter”

Woolly jumpers

You may remember that last winter we planted a lot of willow to try and stop some of The Cluster ending up in the North Sea? See here…https://heggscastlecluster.org/2022/03/11/how-was-your-day/ After the floods three years ago, a large land slip started which with every proceeding flood caused more to be washed into the Arkle and more landContinue reading “Woolly jumpers”

A little rain must fall…

But why does it have to be 5 1/2 inches in just over three hours? Three years ago today we had a bit of a shower which caused huge amounts of damage to both The Cluster and the surrounding area. TV crews flooded in (sorry) to the area to document and incorrectly report what wasContinue reading “A little rain must fall…”

A moist update.

It rained! Seriously. It did. Honest! It was therefore a bit muddy as we removed another few hundred meters of wire and posts from the Castle end of The Cluster. This fencing was erected some years ago to keep stock out of the alder woodland but floods and erosion had severely damaged it to theContinue reading “A moist update.”

Buses

You wait ages for a blog to come along… Just a reminder that we try and enter records of things seen on The Cluster (or indeed anywhere else) on https://www.inaturalist.org/home Its a simple to use app which has a feature where it attempts to identify what you’ve photographed. Anything that is recorded on The ClusterContinue reading “Buses”