Archive of Activities (since winter 2003 / 04)
Use the links to skip down the page to the archived section you want or go back to Recent Activities. Remember most of our activities can fit into two or more categories. Also some of our activities involve similar site management work that is carried out annually, so may be featured in the 'Recent Activities' section rather than here in the archive.
Biodiversity and Habitat Management, Landscape enhancement, Access Improvements, Community work, Promoting Understanding, Co-ordinated management
Biodiversity and Habitat Management
Elsing Churchyard (mid valley) – we are helping a group of local people to manage parts of the churchyard for wildflowers, by supervising the work and loaning tools.
Sparham Pools, County Wildlife Site - Over the past few years, the WEVOLS (Wensum Volunteers) have been helping the Voluntary Warden with habitat management here. This has included removing invading bramble, gorse and birch trees from an area of acid grassland (an increasingly rare habitat) to re-connect two other areas of acid grassland; and coppicing blocks of leggy gorse (cut stumps low so they re-grow with a bushy structure) to diversify the habitat.
Hempton
Ponds, near Fakenham – There is a series of six ponds here. One pond had become
infested by an invasive non-native weed called Australian Swamp Stonecrop
(Crassula Helmsii). The weed is ver
y difficult to eradicate (even a tiny fragment left after weeding or herbicide
treatment will start off a new colony) and the safest way to kill
it
is by burying it where it’s found.
So we filled in the pond using spoil from a new pond we dug nearby. The new pond has been left to ‘green up’ naturally and
just a few weeks after the work
was completed frog and toad spawn were found in the
pond.
Train Wood, County Wildlife Site, Norwich. WEVOLS (Wensum Volunteers) have cut back brambles and other vegetation that has been invading the valuable wildflower meadow areas adjacent to the cycle path.
Landscape enhancement
Train Wood, Norwich - We employed a contractor to coppice some birch trees between the factories and the cycle path. The trees were growing at angles and too close together, making them dangerous. The multi-stemmed re-growth from the cut stumps will help to screen the factories.
Access Improvements
No archived activities at present
Community
work 
Wensum Rivercare Group, Norwich – We helped to set up this community group in Norwich by working with ENCAMS, Anglian Water and local residents. These local people have ‘adopted’ a stretch of the Wensum and carry out regular litter-picks. The first litterpicking session was in January 2004. In the first year there were 7 meetings during which the group collected hundreds of bags of rubbish and other large dumped items such as mattresses, shopping trolleys and armchairs. Enquiries made by us on behalf of the group resulted in Norwich City Council installing 4 litter bins in the area, whereas before there had been none!
We helped to organise and lead the Housemartins Rivercare Group in Norwich. This was a group of volunteers from Bishop Bridge House, (a direct access hostel in Norwich which accommodates and supports homeless people). Over the course of four months the group carried out some valuable work in the Wensum Valley including tree planting, coppicing, scrub clearance and litterpicking.
Promoting Understanding
For the launch event of Costessey Inf
ant School’s new wildlife garden,
the WVP devised an activity for the children involving different types of native trees in the
school grounds. Over 150 children (and their parents) took part in the activity, which included learning tree names by looking at leaf shapes. A letter from April Wright, (garden
co-ordinator) said “Thank you so much for your tireless work. Your activity was very popular.”
Children from All Saints Primary School Great Ryburgh were led on a field trip in the countryside near the school, where they learnt about different types of habitat. Amongst the thank you letters received from the children. James age 9, wrote “Your lesson was really interesting. I hope you teach us again.”
1st Beetley Scouts were led on an evening ramble to learn about local wildlife and habitats. They all seemed to have fun and especially enjoyed looking for spiders and insects that live in the long meadow vegetation. They also managed to find the beautiful orchids that grow in this area.
Wild About Gardens (Norfolk Wildlife Trust event held at Costessey High School). We led ‘Secret Safaris’ in Easthills Wood, which is a publicly accessibly site adjacent to the school. Participants of secret safaris have to use their detective skills to look for signs of wildlife. This could include a pile of smashed snail shells next to a stone (which indicates a song thrush has been busy getting at the tasty snails), an empty nut shell with a hole in (something has eaten the nut inside), a cobweb or a feather. Our interpretation boards also received a lot of interest and many of our walk leaflets were taken.
Wensum Middle School (Norwich) - We took children from this school to the River Tud at Costessey (a tributary of the Wensum), where they learnt about how rivers work. We have also taken them to the Wensum Local Nature Reserve where they learnt about habitats and the landscape.
Co-ordinated management
No archived activities at present