The American Invader! Spraying the Skunk Cabbage on The Island at Elterwater.



American Skunk Cabbage becoming increasingly dominant.




Another stand of Skunk Cabbage on the island.



The invasive American skunk cabbage at Elterwater, particularly on the island, has become even more widespread.

In spite of the efforts of two of the Central and East Lakes Rangers last year, it is still spreading, and threatening to overwhelm the reed beds and native plants in this SSSI designated area.


Digging out the smaller cabbages and destroying the seed pods of older specimens is not sufficient to control the spread of skunk cabbage. (see Blog on..... Elterwater's Biodiversity under Threat?)


A canoe, kindly lent by James Archer..Area Ranger based at St. Catherine's, was the ideal means to transport the chemicals and equipment to the island.


Spraying the skunk cabbage is probably the only realistic means of getting the situation under some control. Jen Aldous from South Cumbria's Rivers Trust, and three Central and East Lakes Rangers combined forces to deal with the skunk cabbage.



For once, the weather was good, and the job could go ahead.



Jen, busy mixing and measuring the chemicals to be used in the sprayers. James is assembling a sprayer in the background.



A close up of the spray in action.



James taking on a skunk cabbage. Many fallen trees and low branches made access very difficult, especially wearing bulky, heavy back pack sprayers.




Jen in the midst of a fairly big stand of skunk cabbage.

 

Had to include an image of Godzilla from last year. The size 10 chain saw boot looks tiny and indicates how large this skunk cabbage is.

With Thanks to Jen Aldous, Invasive Non Native Species Officer...South Cumbria Rivers Trust..., for all her invaluable help in tackling the major infestation of skunk cabbage at Elterwater. Please see link to South Cumbria Rivers Trust web page.

http://www.scrt.co.uk/cfinns/welcome

American Skunk Cabbage is still a popular garden plant. Unfortunately it readily escapes into the countryside causing major harm to eco systems especially in the vicinity of rivers and lakes. Elterwater is just one of the fragile eco systems in the UK being adversely affected by the rapid spread of this plant.

Volunteers help combat erosion damage to popular Millerground Footpath.



Heavily eroded section of the lake shore,starting to undercut the footpath at Millerground. 

With the help of a keen group of volunteers, the N.T Central and East Lakes Rangers at St Catherine's continue to stone pitch  flood and storm damaged areas of Millerground, in order to safeguard the popular lake shore footpath that runs alongside Windermere.

Millerground is one of the very few public access points on the east shore of Windermere, most of which is privately owned.



 

A large cavity has formed under the exposed roots of an old beech tree that is partly undercutting the ground below the path.

 


Kate and Janet filling the void with stone and lake gravel prior to, and during the stone pitched revetment work.




Frank working on the trench that will form the key for the foundation stones. A deep trench will reduce the risk of the lake undercutting the foundations.

 



Foundation stones placed at an angle into the trench.




The pitching work in the early stages. A lot of stone still needed for filling in under the beech tree.

 

Pitching stone at an angle to form a breakwater for when the lake levels are high. The slope and the irregular shape and placement of the stones help to dissipate the wave energy.

A mixture of small stone and gravel for packing into the pitched stone.



Kate pitching stone in and around the tree roots of the old beech tree. Fiddly!



Sophie bringing in more stone for the revetment work. A large quantity of stone is needed for even a small area of pitching.  All very labour intensive!

 The revetment. Looks good, and a lot stronger than the crumbling bank it is now protecting!

A nice close up of the pitching work.

 

The Volunteers with the power barrow on the path above.

Many Thanks to the volunteers for all their enthusiasm and hard work over the two very wet days of the 8th and 9th of May 2013.................... We enjoyed working with you.

BAT BOX EXPOSED AT ST. CATHERINE'S.






Rumour has it that underneath this mass of ivy on a birch tree at St. Catherine's lurks a.... bat box!
Be worth having a look for it, even after all these years!




First step to finding the bat box is to cut through the main ivy stem... being careful not to damage the tree.





Pulling the ivy away from the tree trunk.

 

Loading up the trailer.



Rope and ladder needed higher up the tree.



Discovering the bat box.....still in good condition.



Most of the ivy removed. Hopefully bats will be able to find the bat box now
and make use of it.

 


 



 


 






 







Ben and Shirley’s Little Kingdom

…Tales from the Woodland Ranger…

If you go into to the woods today, you might not see any elves drinking tea or fairies flying round but you might just see some scarlet elf cups.  These bright red fungi are easy to see and sometimes look far too bright at this time of year and possibly thought of as litter.

A Scarlet Elf cup growing on dead wood on the floor of a Cumbrian woodland.  Photo: Nigel Gilligan.

Back in February Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre (CBDC) asked their facebook followers to be on the lookout for these distinctive fungi around Cumbrian woodlands and to report back any sightings.

In the National Trust woodlands around Windermere and Grasmere we came across quite a few and duly sent our reports in.

But the story didn’t end there, because there are two very similar looking types of scarlet elf cup which can only be distinguished by expert, microscopic analysis!  So one lucky elf cup travelled first class, snug in bubble-wrap, to Scotland for a much, much closer look.

What you see below are very close up images of hair-like structures called paraphyses which give the white furry look to the underside of the cups.  The paraphyses are connected to a layer of tissue called the hymenium.  On the hymenium are also asci, which produce the spores to help the scarlet elf cups to multiply around the woodlands. 

Images of Sarcoscypha austriaca by Peter Wilberforce



Here’s how Peter, the expert made these wonderful images:

"To get the photos of the paraphyses, asci and spores I usually use a simple "squash" of a minute part of the hymenium.  I boil a small amount of material and then mount in water. The hairs are collected by gently scraping the outside of the cup.  These are then mounted in water and viewed under Normarski contrast lighting.  The photos are taken using a Nikon Coolpix 995 digital camera held over the phototube with a x10 wide-field eyepiece in place”

Peter describes the hairs as having the appearance of "Shirley Temple's mop of golden curls"!



A lovely close up image of scarlet elf fungi. Photo: John Malley.



But if you don’t have Peter to explain this to you, then ask the wise old elf sitting under the bright red fungi, and join him for a spot of tea.

Ben Knipe

Woodland Ranger



Meet the Ranger (Rohan Ambleside 30th March 12-3pm)

Meet the RangerNeil Winder - Ambleside - Sat 30 March
Neil, National Trust Area Ranger, is most probably the Lake District's biggest fan; his enthusiasm for his adventure playground of a workplace knows no bounds. Meet him in the Ambleside store to learn about the National Trust Rangers' ongoing work to maintain the stunning landscape, and get the low-down on the best ways to experience the Lakes, both indoors and out.
12pm to 3pm. Tel: 01539 431630

http://rohantime.com/40152/rohan-shops-whats-on-this-spring/

http://rohantime.com/40293/gift-your-gear-at-your-nearest-rohan-shop-benefit-others/

 

Old Elm tree on Gowbarrow Fell

 

Close to Aira Force next to the path that leads up onto Gowbarrow fell beside Ullswater is this really old Elm tree. It is an ancient pollard that has lasted for hundreds of years. A pollard is where the crown of the tree has been reduced to about 3 metres above ground level so grazing animals would not eat the new shoots that grew from the stem, back in those days this would have been deer as Gowbarrow is an old deer park.  

As you can see the trunk of the tree is quite rotten and open and only about half of it remaining. We were worried that the weight of the crown would get too heavy for the stem to support and pull the tree over so we decided we had to reduce the weight by cutting back some of the branches.

Luckily we could do this with the high pruning saw as we didn't think it was safe to climb.

Here is one of the branches we cut off, I counted over fourty growth rings in just this thin branch and it shows how slow growing it has been. At a guess i would say it must be over 150 years since the tree was last pollarded and who knows how many times it was pollarded before that so this could easily make the tree 300-400 years old. The work we have done will now hopefully keep the tree going for another 100 years and interest the many walkers that pass by it.

THE WHITE CLAWED CRAYFISH/CATTLE PROJECT.

The white clawed crayfish is the UK's only native crayfish and our largest fresh water crustacean; its distribution and numbers have declined catastrophically in recent years, and now it is the rivers and streams of Cumbria that are its main stronghold.






 

White clawed crayfish inhabit clean mineral rich water, usually in limestone areas; this releases calcium carbonate into the water which the crayfish needs to build its hard carapace or outer shell. It is intolerant of pollution, so its presence is often a sign that the water quality is good. It plays an important role in maintaining a stable water ecology. It certainly does not thrive when cattle waste mixed in with mud and silt  threaten to overwhelm water courses.



Part of the fencing work.





For this reason, N.T Rangers based at St. Catherine's were given the go ahead to fence off hundreds of metres of a watercourse, with known populations of crayfish upstream; However, the cattle still needed to drink, and a way to reliably provide water for them from the original source was needed. -The answer was to pipe water by gravity feed from a header dam into a water trough put in place many metres further downstream.

The following images illustrate the most recent phase of the project, which is still ongoing.




Building the header dam...The fun bit but COLD!

 

The completed dam.

  

The blue alkathene pipe on its way to the water trough.





through the wall......



........and into the trough.....



....and back out through the wall into the stream again!



The water trough fills up rapidly.



a new gate was needed to allow stock movement past the fenced off beck.



The new gateway.

Ideal habitat for crayfish, with plenty of watercress for the juveniles to take cover!

The water pipe is well hidden, and the gap in the wall normally has a hurdle placed across it to deny access to stock.

The main reason for the massive losses in native White Clawed numbers was the introduction of the much larger American Signal Crayfish in the Seventies. It is a voracious predator that has annihilated the White Clawed from many waterways, especially in the South of the country.

The Signal breeds much more prolifically, outcompetes the White Clawed for food, and worst of all, carries a fungal plague that it is immune to.... but is fatal to the native species.

The Signal does major harm to the eco systems of rivers in the UK. It severely depletes fish stocks by devouring fish eggs and small fish, as well as impacting adversely on plants, invertebrates and snails.

The Signals burrow into river and canal banks in such numbers, that in the worst infested sites, people have reported seeing banks retreating under the relentless pressure. 




IMAGES FROM AN EARLIER FENCING PROJECT TO IMPROVE CONDITIONS FOR THE WHITE CLAWED CRAYFISH:

An earlier fencing project further downstream, which incorporates a new bridge for the cattle to cross the beck.

                                                                  


A series of Pasture Pumps were used here instead of a water trough.
As cattle drink their noses push the counter balanced weight back and forth.
This pumps up more water from the stream as they drink!

                     

A Pasture Pump bolted onto two railway sleepers.
A hard stand is being constructed infront of the pump.
The stream runs between the wall and the new fence.

                                
 Please help to maintain the populations of the White Clawed Crayfish in Cumbria. Check, clean and dry any equipment you may use on and around rivers and lakes; this will help reduce the risk of spreading the "Crayfish Plague", the fungus of which thrives on damp boots, fishing gear. etc.


Roland Wicksteed: Central and East Lakes.