Thanks to all of the current group who seem to have got through a lot of fencing work this week; at Sherwood Forest NNR and at Ollerton Pit Wood.

You’ve all worked really hard – thank you!

Bye for now, Claire (Assistant Project Officer)

It’s so hard sometimes. Every month we have this same problem and it never goes away. There are some decisions that can really be trying at times.

Sausage or bacon?

One of life’s great mysteries. The general consensus among our volunteers is usually ‘both’. That’s either very decisive or wildly indecisive, I can’t decide which.

We had a hugely productive day this week at Thieves Wood car park (between trips to the burger van), repairing 6 broken car park rails in one visit. A big well done for that one, and for the continued work at Rufford: this week, continuing stump removal and some flood debris clearance. We were a little short on willing volunteers for that last job although, considering how rough I’ve been the last few days, that might have been a wise decision. When a job needs buoyancy aids and safety ropes, I just can’t help myself. I’ll have to work on that, although I’ve never been one to delegate.

Have a look at the photos below and the rest on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wild.sherwood.

Thanks to all our guys for their hard work this week. Despite the bank holiday, we had a record-breaking day at Thieves, and a tough day of stump work at Rufford. Special congratulations go to Marcus, the newly discovered King of Map Reading. Well done!

Bye for now,

Matt (Project Officer)

Just a quick one this week, it’s too nice to be indoors!

It looks like we’ve finally got a bit of respite from the weather, although how long it will last is anyone’s guess. Nonetheless, it’s given our new volunteers a nicer start to the month than expected, with only a couple of showers getting in the way.

Ron, Jay, John and Marcus have joined Dave, Sandy, Lee and Garry on our Robin Hood Way survey work through Eakring, our ongoing tree felling at Sherwood Pines and some refreshingly sunny restoration work on our Rufford wetland. Have a look at some of the photos below and the rest on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wild.sherwood.

If you like what you see, drop us a line using the form below. Recruitment for the next few months is already underway!

Bye for now,

Matt (Project Officer)

I’m officially soggy, saturated and waterlogged. Call it what you want, I’m sick to the back teeth of rain. Our volunteers have had a bit of a rough time of it this month, weather-wise. Today’s looking pretty good for our last afternoon of training though, so perhaps we’ll be able to put a good finish to the month.

Between the showers this week, our guys have been down on Sustrans Route 6 at Rainworth on track maintenance duty, and have renewed our bracken clearance at Sherwood Pines. Although we seem to have preempted the worst of the new bracken growth by a few weeks, there’s every chance we’ll be able to keep on top of it this year.

But what is it that makes a species invasive? Check out the latest of our Wild Sherwood Basics below.

Wild Sherwood Basics: Invasive Species

Everybody’s heard of non-native species; those that exist in the UK, but didn’t evolve here, such as the grey squirrel, or bracken. The cut-off point historically for native and non-native species was roughly 8,000 years ago, when the land bridge (known as Doggerland) between the UK and the rest of Europe became submerged under the Channel. Any species remaining in the UK at that point is generally called native, as are those that made their way here later, naturally. Those introduced by humans after this point are called non-native.

Just because a species is non-native, doesn’t necessarily make it a problem for our habitats. There are many that co-exist quite happily with our native species, without causing problems. The issues start when a non-native species is particularly well adapted to the habitat in which it lives. It is at this point that it out-competes the natives, reducing the resources available to them, and spreads itself over vast swathes of habitat. It has become an invasive species; where there was once a varied community of native species, there is now one dominant invader. This is what leaves us with fields of bracken where there was once diverse heathland; or woodland ground layers filled with rhododendron instead of the high biodiversity native community that was once there.

It is this impact on biodiversity that makes invasive species such a problem. While there is no fundamental issue with a non-native species spreading across an area, the loss of biodiversity reduces its resistance to change, e.g. climate, and risks the extinction of our native species and the collapse of the ecosystem.

While invasive animals tend to enter the ecosystem by escaping from private collections, such as zoos; invasive plant species usually escape from gardens. The Victorians are particularly guilty of bringing in invasive plants, such as bracken, rhododendron and japanese knotweed; which take vast amounts of time and money every year to try to control. The nature of invasive species makes them particularly difficult to eradicate and forms a big part of our work at Wild Sherwood.

Although it’s been a difficult month for photos (again), we’ve got a few up on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wild.sherwood. A lot this month are of different wild species we’ve seen while out on the job; most notably this month is Ear Pick Fungus, which grows solely on pine cones! A difficult find that one.

One final huge thanks to all our volunteers this month, who have put up with a lot of poor weather and rough days. Well done to Amber and Jason, Garry and Lee for putting so much effort in while with us. We’re glad to welcome back Garry and Lee next month, for a bit more experience with us; while we’ll also be joined by Sandy and Dave, two of our most enthusiastic volunteers from last year. To our returners and new recruits alike, I only ask one thing.

Bring some sunshine with you!

(Or biscuits. Happy either way.)

Bye for now,

Matt (Project Officer)

Rain, all week. I thought we were done. Oh well, our volunteers have been up to their usual tricks, working hard despite the continuing weather. Although we had to call it short on Wednesday, our car park repair work at Thieves Wood and renewed track maintenance work at Rainworth moved on well. Our bushcraft training day was a welcome day off, as always, with everyone involved taking something home and learning just a little bit more about what we do and why we do it.

We’ve finally succeeded in getting a healthy glut of photos from this, our April group, which can be seen on our Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/wild.sherwood. Some of the highlights can be seen below. If you like what you see, maybe give us a call, or use the form below to get in touch. We’re always looking for new volunteers from in and around our area. Our next intake starts on April 30th and every four weeks after that, we’d love to hear from you!

Bye for now,

Matt (Project Officer)

I have a confession to make; in all the confusion of the ridiculous rain this week, I didn’t actually take any photographs. There has been a biscuit ban enforced until I ‘get my act together’ (Claire’s words, not mine).

I am, of course, kidding, although I still have very few photos to speak of. In the meantime, have a look at Amber on soil testing duty. There’s also a picture of Echo (my bonkers dog), raiding our Sherwood Pines camp site. And before anybody writes in, don’t worry, she signed a permission slip.

Despite the weather, our jobs this week have continued apace. Between a (mostly) sunny day at Rufford and patchy day at Sherwood Pines, we made fair progress on our respective wetland and felling jobs. Our training afternoon at Sherwood Forest on Thursday was a cheerful end to the week, with all our volunteers impressing with their conservation knowledge. Keep up the good work!

Bye for now,

Matt (Project Officer)

Well, I’m back again after a few weeks off; welcomed by staff, volunteers and…snow?

In an unexpected turn this week, our new volunteers have had a bizarre few days in freezing rain and snow. We’ve made a pretty good start though: tree-felling at Sherwood Pines and footpath surveying in Blidworth. Our wetland work at Rufford was a wash-out, although we did manage to get a fire going, even in Wednesday’s shocking weather.

Not many photos to speak of either this week, but what few we got can be found on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wild.sherwood.

I’ve taken advantage of the quiet week to finish off our feature on Bow-Drill Friction Fire-Lighting, ably demonstrated by last month’s bushcraft firestarter, Shane.

Wild Sherwood Basics: Bow-Drill Friction Fire-Lighting (Part 2)

Once you’ve created your bow-drill set, you’ll need to bed-in your spindle. Place your hearth on the ground and kneel over it, with your left foot holding it steady. Twist your spindle around the string of the bow and place the domed end in the indent you carved in the heath, while supporting the pointed end with your bearing block. Once you’re set up, grasp one end of the bow, wrapping your fingers around the string as well (to keep it tight); wedge the curve of your wrist into your shin and start slow, steady movements. You should move the bow back-and-forth, using its entire length, while bearing down over it. Keep going until the spindle has created a scorched depression in the hearth.

Stage 1: The Bow Drill

You should now carve a triangular notch 1/8th the diameter of the depression and carve away the burnt carbon from the end of the spindle. Find yourself a flat piece of bark or leaf and place under the notch – this will collect your ember. You’re now ready to make fire!

Start drilling again, bearing down over the spindle. If you can hear squeaking, apply more pressure until it stops and, most importantly, keep going. As you start to see smoke, apply greater speed and pressure and, again, keep going. If, at any point, you start to get resistance or smoke from the pointed end of the spindle, you should sharpen the point and lubricate the bearing block to reduce friction. All the heat needs to be at the hearth, where your ember will form.

Stage 2: An Ember

When you can no-longer see the hearth for smoke, stop carefully. If you have a small pile of black dust, which is smoking continually, well done, you’ve got your ember! You now need to gently roll the hearth away from you, leaving the ember on your piece of bark. You can then drop this into a prepared tinder bundle and, with gentle blowing, you should be able to set it alight.

Stage 3: Fire!

There are loads of books and internet articles out there if you have trouble with this, and there is more than one way of doing it. The important thing is the keep trying and not give up. When I learnt to do this, it took me two days to get fire. Good luck!

Here’s to a sunny bank holiday,

Matt (Project Officer)

Although the last two weeks have been rather warm, we have still achieved a lot. The group have finished clearing the birch on the left side of the heath at Pines; mended the broken rails at Thieves Wood car park; finished burning the brash at Rufford and made excellent progress with clearing the reeds.  The group have also completed their Bushcraft training and First Aid training.

The highlight of this week for me has to be the recital of The Gruffalo by Rob while we were travelling from Mansfield back to Ollerton on Thursday - brilliant.

I think that is all from me, just one final THANK YOU …….

Claire (Assistant Project Officer)

We’ve had another great week with our March volunteers, albeit somewhat dominated by our impromptu friction fire-lighting masterclass yesterday afternoon. Just goes to show you, you never know what you might learn at Wild Sherwood!

Besides our training session yesterday, our volunteers this week returned to Sherwood Forest to continue work on a northern boundary hedge; this time, mulching the newly cleared area to prevent bracken and weed regrowth. Tuesday saw us putting the finishing touches to our birch clearance at Clumber Park, helping maintain the area of boggy heathland supporting a local Great-Crested Newt population. Our session at Rufford on Wednesday put an end to our tree work for the year, holding off now until the autumn to allow for regrowth and nesting.

A selection of photos from the week are below, with the rest in the usual place on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wild.sherwood. Be sure to check out those of our group trying their hand at the bow-drill, one of the most reliable forms of friction fire-lighting.

So why does friction fire-lighting remain the holy grail of bushcraft and survival skills? Not only is it a great signal when in need of rescue, but it helps makes water safe to drink, food safe to eat and, sometimes most importantly, it bolsters moral and positive thinking. Speaking from personal experience, when you know you can create fire, the world of bushcraft really opens up. There really is nothing like seeing the look on someone’s face when they achieve it for the first time.

As with the majority of bushcraft, the only way for the old techniques to survive is to pass them on. So, here’s the second of our Wild Sherwood Basics – friction fire-lighting.

Wild Sherwood Basics: Bow-Drill Friction Fire-Lighting (Part 1)

First, select a dry piece of wood from which to carve your spindle and hearth (base-board). By using the same piece of wood for both parts, you can be sure that the moisture content of each is the same, which means that they will both be consumed at an equal rate. Another school of thought is that your spindle should be carved from a hardwood, such as oak or birch; while your spindle should be of a softwood, like pine. I’ve had it work the opposite way round as well, just make sure it’s dry. You can store these pieces in an airing cupboard or near a fire to really dry them out.

Now, you need to carve your spindle. It should end up around 8 inches long, no more than an inch thick, and carved to a tapering point at one end with a shallow dome at the other. Your hearth should be carved into a flat board, around 3/4 inch thick and wide enough to comfortably accommodate your spindle.

You should next select you bow and bearing block. These can both be of green (living or fresh) wood, as the moisture content is not important. In fact, it’s better to have a bearing block of green wood, as the water content will help minimise unwanted friction. Your bow should be a slightly springy length of curved wood, roughly 2-3 feet long. You should carve indents in each end of the bow from which to secure a piece of slack string, cord, or strong natural fibre. The bearing block can be a piece of split wood, comfortable to hold and 2-3 inches wide. It will need an indent carving in the flat side into which the pointed end of your spindle will rest. Now carve a similar indent into the centre of your hearth, into which the rounded end of the spindle will sit.

Our volunteers are soon to get their chance to try this from scratch at their bushcraft training course next week. Part 2, covering the technique itself, will follow over the next few weeks. If you’re going to have a go yourself, spend some time on the preparation above, it really is the most important part!

Bye for now,

Matt (Project Officer)

Our March volunteers have made a great start to the month. Not only have they put up with me teaching ad nauseum, they’ve got through a heap of work at Rufford, Sherwood Pines and on the Robin Hood Way.

Claire, Rob and myself have been joined by Tim, Mick, Shane, Dave, John and Zak this month and have been driving them crazy with conservation, biodiversity, invasive species, and other nuggets of knowledge from our training programme. They’ve also learnt how to safely fell some pretty sizeable trees and have made a huge impact on our wet work at Rufford. It looks like it’ll be a fun, productive month, particularly as I’m not here for the last two weeks. Rest assured, I’ll be watching from the shadows, keeping an eye on things.

As usual, some of the best of this week’s photos are below, with the rest on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wild.sherwood.

Bye for now,

Matt (Project Officer)