The reserve will be open this Easter Saturday, come and explore this secret green oasis.
The reserve will be open this Easter Saturday, come and explore this secret green oasis, the spring flowers are in full bloom and if you luck might see a few butterflies fluttering about.
The Friends will be constructing some dead hedging around the meadows to create habitats for invertebrates and birds also cutting back vegetation from the paths, and doing a general litter pick. If time permitting start the yearly butterfly survey
Tools will be supplied. We have a few pairs of gloves, but please bring your own if you have them.
After a lot of hard work, the new sign for Garthorne Road is on its way. This sign is similar in style to the ones at some of the Council’s other reserves such as Devonshire Road, Burnt Ash Pond and Grove Park. It will now feel more part of the ‘family’ and it is very welcome. A huge thank you to all of the friends, the children of Dalmain Primary School who did the designs and of course Rebecca Woodall, who put the whole thing together.
The sign itself, was made possible thanks to the Kenneth White legacy Award.
Myself and another committee member (Chris) constructed these steps with sleepers and hogging, it was tough work preparing the area digging into thick clay
Before a slippery slopeWork in progress (Committee member Chris)Work in progressNearly finshedJob well doneFinshed view
The latest Friends Group minutes are now available for all to view. At this latest meeting the Friends discussed how they should spend their £2500 funding on. The grant is specifically to improve the entrance to the site, but there are a lot of options open to them.
The funding has come as part of the Kenneth White legacy. Kenneth White, ‘was a widely published author of local environmental, social and geographical issues.’ He sadly passed away in 2012, but bequeathed some money to Lewisham’s Nature Reserves. It was agreed by the Lewisham Biodiversity Partnership that part of this money should be used as grants which for local Friends Groups could bid for to make improvements to their site. The first of these grants was awarded to the Friends of Garthorne Road to improve the entrance to the nature reserve and make it more welcoming.
The Nature’s Gym spent a happy few hours in Garthorne Road last week (18th August 2016), creating butterfly scallops in the woodland. Even as we were working we saw meadow browns and large whites and a few others that refused to keep still, so we couldn’t identify them. This is an on going management plan and hopefully will result in more butterflies and with any luck some flora. We did uncover some purple loosestrife and rosebay willow herb, and I think there may be a number of other dormant plants just waiting to be uncovered!
Why create scallops?
Woodlands are fantastic habitats for wildlife and including the 40 species of British butterfly. Open space is the most important part of a woodland for butterflies, especially on its edge habitat where the warmest conditions are to be found. Many woodlands have lost this vital habitat, but they are easy to recreate. The best woodland edges support a varied habitat structure. Cutting scallops creates a varied, zoned edge structure and also reduce shading along the adjacent ride and have great potential to improve any existing ride side butterfly habitat. They will increase the overall structural diversity of the woodland and provide sheltered herb-rich grassy areas.
We have followed the ‘Linear Cutting Regime’ with offset scallops) – which creates a far more varied habitat. For more information on scallops and why they are a great way to create new habitats, you might find this leaflet from The Butterfly Conservation Trust useful.
(Lots more information can be found on the Butterfly Conservation Trust website)
Other wildlife found in Garthorne Road
The rarely seen, tree climbing reindeer of Garthorne Road
The Friends of Garthorne Road held their AGM on 19th June 2016. At the meeting the Constitution and Committee were confirmed. This is great news and a huge step forward for the group. Congratulations to everyone involved.
They have a lot of exciting plans for the Summer, including Open Days, surveys and work days to help improve the site and find out what lives there! They would really like to smarten up the entrance to the site, because it can be difficult to find and isn’t very welcoming. Keep an eye out here for future developments.
Recently, I was sent some articles from the Chair of the Friends. These articles were in the former Friends of the Great North Wood newsletter The Wood Warbler. The Great North Wood once stretched from Deptford to Selhurst. The largest remaining area of the Great north Wood is Dulwich Wood and Sydenham Hill Woods, both managed by London Wildlife Trust.
I am not sure how old this ‘Spoltlight on….. Garthorne Road Nature Reserve’ is, but the information is correct, including the overall management aim ‘to maintain a mosaic of habitats.’!
Article from Wood Warbler
There are a number of other articles which you might find interesting. These are about the same tract of railway (New Cross – Forest Hill) and the water courses of the Great North Wood.
There will be a formal meeting to establish a committee it will be held Devonshire Road Nature Reserve on Saturday 27th February at 3pm. At the meeting we will elect the following committee posts; Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Media & Communication and four other Committee members. We will also to agree to a Constitution (which I have two different copies of) and also set the agenda and timetable of work to be carried out at the reserve. As mentioned below and in an earlier post we would also like to establish a rota of people who are willing to open the site once a month If you are interested in becoming a committee member or would be keen to help in other ways, please email the group.
Where: Devonshire Rd Nature Reserve, 170-171 Devonshire Road, SE23 (The entrance to the site is opposite Tyson Road). When: Saturday 27th February 2016 at 3pm
Friends Group off to a successful start
The group was set up by Jess Kyle(Lewisham Conservation) with the help of Ernie Thomason in late 2015 and we had a inaugural meeting on the 23rd January. Plenty of happy people braved the cold winds to join in with a walk around this wonderful site. Jess wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that came and for all the enthusiasm. She have high hopes that we can establish a group and get the site open on a more regular basis. On the day Jess recommended that we start the process by having a open day once a month to help build capacity. If we increase our numbers it will be easier for us to establish a group and become constituted.
Garthorne Road Nature Reserve 