Rumblings in the jungle?

Folk walking along the coast path will have spotted some strange goings on in the undergrowth at Starney Bay yesterday.  In fact, it was so strange that I ended up having shouted conversations with several people explaining what was going on.

Well, what WAS going on, I hear you ask?  Volunteers Ernie, Dave and myself were carrying out a little bracken control.  Being a conservation organisation we don't like to use chemical control where we can avoid it, so we were bashing the bracken using bamboo canes.  Now, this is not just a strange method we have come up with, it is tried and tested.  The idea is to damage the bracken as much as possible so that it has to expend a lot of energy healing rather than growing.  We will aim to bash it twice a year, and after three years it should be gone.  Its the same principle as using a tractor towed roller, or using cattle to trample the bracken.  But, of course, neither of these two methods are going to work on the 45 degree slopes above Starney!

I must admit, it must have looked really rather comical to passers by - like people talking out their aggression on the undergrowth with their walking sticks in a Fawlty Towers kind of way.  Ah well, a double whammy then, conservation work and entertainment all rolled into one!

Here's a couple of photos of Dave (top) and Ernie (bottom) to literally put you in the picture!