Published: Wednesday, 28th May, 2008 12:00
Destruction in the name of conservation
By News Desk
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Biodiversity officer Guy Harewood and Louise Pearson, of the Fife Air cadets Conservation Group, get stuck in to some 'rhodi' bashing.
Pic by: Jan van der Merwe
VOLUNTEERS were in a destructive mood as they got stuck into conservation work to help celebrate Scottish Biodiversity Week.
On Saturday and Sunday, 55 volunteers cleared a substantial area of rhododendron from Woodland Park in Alva.
The rhodi was cut back to leave only the stumps remaining, with the cut material burnt on site.
The bulk of the volunteers came across from the Fife Air Cadets Conservation Group, as part of their programme of events in and around Fife. They were joined on the Sunday by a number of local residents and volunteer rangers.
Guy Harewood, Clackmannanshire’s biodiversity co-ordinator, explained, “Rhododendrons are an invasive species that, if left unmanaged, crowd out native plants from our woodlands.
“The volunteers deserve credit for the work they put in this weekend. We now need to monitor the woodland to see how the cleared areas respond and regenerate.”
On Wednesday last week, first and second year pupils from Lornshill Academy did their bit for Biodiversity Week by working at Cowpark Wood near Gartmorn Dam.
In the morning, they gave one area of this beautiful semi-natural woodland a spring clean, with 15 bags of litter removed.
They then went on to learn about woodland management and how to remove some of the unwanted sycamore saplings. The branches they removed were used to create their own Ray Mears-type shelters.
Guy added, “Both events formed part of a wider programme of woodland management through Clackmannanshire’s Woodland In and Around Town Project.
“They involved a number of organisations who deserve thanks for all their hard work – the Clackmannanshire Biodiversity Partnership and Countryside Rangers, the Fife Air Cadets Conservation Group, Forestry Commission and the Clackmannanshire Conservation Action Team (CAT).
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