and on a sweltering day like today I would have much preferred to be hiding in the shed and turning some wood but time constraints meant I ended up driving the Case (posh) tractor and clearing encroaching scrub from a section of the Serpent's Trail long distance path that passes through Lynchmere.
The aim today was to clear a alongside the path for a short section between Marley common and Lynchmere commons where scrub is growing fast and overshadowing the heather and bilberry. Swiping the scrub will not completely solve the problem but it will knock back the growth until we can maually clear the section.
This picture taken after the work is starting to look more like a heathland corridor but clearing was a hot and slow process partly because of the number of stumps hidden in the undergrowth , partly the uneven ground and partly because of the size of the saplings.
The undergrowth makes it hard to spot any obstacles and this is just the gorse, the saplings can be much taller
I wouldn't normally post on such a mechanised activity, let alone one that destroys so many young saplings. but the Serpent's Trail is a both a path and a wildlife corridor to join the remaining fragments of lowland heath in West Sussex. The serpents trail is 64 miles in length and winds sinuously from Haslemere and Blackdown down to Petersfield along the way taking in many of the remaining areas of lowland heath. You can find out more here from the South Downs website.
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