GET INVOLVED

We have a schedule of events for the year ahead. Join us on one of our practical days which offer the chance to learn new skills and get your hands dirty doing conservation tasks. Come and learn more about species in the park on our wildlife walks or become part of the Friends Committee which meets to discuss the functioning of the group.

FoSNCP hold a practical workday on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month and every Tuesday morning and/or afternoon to undertake conservation projects within the park.

At present we’re meeting at the council compound – the locked gates right by the tramline, on the vehicle access road at 10 AM. We usually finish around midday and enjoy a hot drink & biscuits.

Training and tools are provided. Please wear clothes suitable for outdoor activity and the weather, bring your own gloves if you have them.

We recommend sturdy footwear. Activities are subject to change at short notice.

If you would like to register to join us, please contact us by email – friendsofsncp@gmail.com. We can then let you know if we can offer you a space on one of the workdays.

WORKDAYS 2025

For previous years – see the archive!

6th January 2026

Our first workday of 2026 on a beautiful frosty morning which turned to snow showers mid morning. We were continuing with coppicing this winter’s section of blackthorn as part of our butterfly conservation project. Coppicing blackthorn is not everyone’s favourite task because it is very thorny and difficult to process into manageable habitat piles. However, reminding ourselves of the benefits of improving this habitat for the Brown Hairstreak butterfly keeps us going. 

24th January 2026

3rd and 10th February 2026

Our Tuesday workdays throughout winter have very much been taken up with coppicing blackthorn. Despite this thorny subject, our volunteers keep coming back which is dedication for you! Maybe it’s because they appreciate the importance of coppicing the blackthorn as part of our butterfly conservation project. We have mentioned in previous reports how we are improving the habitat for the Brown Hairstreak butterfly. Once we’ve finished this last section of blackthorn, we will return to the first section we coppiced a few years and start again next year. It should be much easier now that we’ve done so much to get the blackthorn under control.

14th February 2026

We were in luck with the weather today as beautiful blue skies and sunshine replaced the rain. Our task for today was, you’ve guessed it, blackthorn coppicing! There is definitely light at the end of the blackthorn tunnel – we could literally see each other through the gaps. The dead hedge which we are making with the cuttings is getting longer. This hedge will help protect the birds on the wetlands meadow where there are gaps in the hedge along the seasonal path. We will be laying some sections to close these gaps but will have to plant new trees where the existing ones cannot be laid as the wood is dead. To stabilise the hedge, we used stakes that we made from some of the coppiced blackthorn and cut points into the end to make it easier to put them into the ground.

24th February 2026

A change from blackthorn coppicing today saw us head to this winter’s willow coppice coupe near platform 3 at the lake. Most of the coppicing has been done by TCV with some help from the Friends. There was still a small area to finish to the left of the path that runs down to the platform. However, the final task is to keep building up the dead hedge around these coupes to protect the wildlife that lives in and around the lake from unwanted visitors. Where possible, we pleached willow and laid it into the hedge. This will prolong the life of the dead hedge having some living material amongst it. TCV were going to be working in the same area over the following two days so would continue with the same task.

1st March 2026

No Saturday workday this weekend as we had our AGM but, instead, we held a whole day tree planting session on the Sunday. We were very pleased to have a great turn-out despite the rather inclement weather. We have been given free trees by CPRE London, the majority being hazel, hornbeam and some hedgerow trees such as dogwood and hawthorn. Ian’s plan is to create blocks of coppice coupes which (for the hazel) will be mature enough in 7-10 years to coppice. The hornbeam will need a little longer, say 10-12 years. The blocks will be coppiced on a rotational basis with the stems being used for stakes for fencing and hedge laying. We began with the hazel trees, planting them at a distance of around 2.5 metres from each other alongside the Ryelands Field area of the park.

10th March 2026

After Tree Planting Day comes after-care. We don’t want all that hard work planting the trees to go to waste when the young trees are smothered with soft vegetation and cow parsley as the weather warms up.  To prevent this, we create a large halo around each tree clearing vegetation and then adding wood chip mulch to help suppress weeds and retain moisture.  There are a lot of trees so we’ve made a start with today’s workday but there will be more to do on subsequent workdays.

14th March 2026

For today’s workday, we were joined by a group of volunteers from Croydon Mountaineers. Tree planting was the task again but on the other side of the path from last time and in Ryelands field which is now part of the Country Park. Another team of corporate volunteers from AECOM had already planted a large number of Hornbeam on 11th March. Again, Ian’s plan is to create these coppice coupes for the future although the Hornbeam will grow less quickly than the Hazel trees. Four of us continued planting the rest of the Hornbeam. The rest of the group planted two staggered lines of hedgerow trees to create a clear boundary for the coppice coupe.

24th and 28th March 2026

Our Warden, Ian, was on holiday for a week so left us with a list of instructions for our workday tasks in his absence. For both days, we had plenty to do along the seasonal path which runs alongside La Motes meadow. One of our volunteers bravely tackled the clay soil along the right hand side of the path (from 5 ways) and planted the last lot of hawthorne trees filling gaps in the hedge that is taking shape. Many of the hedgerow trees along the path are maturing well, having been planted a few years ago. Now that the spring vegetation is growing, some aftercare is needed to prevent these trees being smothered. A few volunteers got down on their kneeling mats to clear a metre wide halo around the trees while others cleared vegetation from around the roots of the laid hedge. The final task on the list was to create some dead hedges to fill gaps leading into La Motes meadow. These gaps will eventually be filled with hedgerow trees but until then, we need to discourage visitors and their dogs from entering this sensitive habitat and disturbing wildlife. We used blackthorn stakes as supports and filled the hedges with the blackthorn cuttings from this winter’s coppicing. 

Tuesday 31st March

With Ian back from holiday, we returned to the ‘seasonal’ path for today’s tasks. We’d previously applied for disease resistant Elm trees through a scheme run by Elms4London and had been given two mature trees about 3 metres in height. Ian had decided to plant them on the La Motes meadow side towards the end of the seasonal path to replace Elms that had succumbed to Dutch Elm disease. Four of our volunteers were tasked with doing this. A couple more volunteers pollarded branches on some of the oak trees in the meadow which were preventing light getting onto the laid hedge. The rest of us finished making dead hedges to fill gaps in the existing hedge towards the start of the seasonal path.

14th April 2026

Saturday 25th April

5th May 2026

9th May 2026

12th May 2026

19th May 2026

26th May 2026

13th June 2026

We headed to the path leading down to platform 2 for today’s task. The soft vegetation has been growing thick and fast with the recent wet weather and the smaller paths around the nature reserve are getting overgrown. We used shears and loppers to cut the nettles and brambles away from the path and a pole saw to cut overhanging branches. We raked up the arisings and added them to the dead hedge around the lake which protects the wildlife from unwanted visitors.

16th June 2026

A beautiful day and a beautiful part of the park next to the reedbeds at the lake for today’s workday. Our Tuesdays are becoming very popular with both new volunteers and newly-retired existing volunteers. Ian had the help of 9 of us working along the path that runs alongside the reedbeds near platform 4.  This path is only meant to be walked along in single file so we didn’t need to widen it too much but just enough to stop the nettles and cow parsley from hanging over the path. Some of us cut overhanging branches out of the way and cut back vegetation that was encroaching on platform 4. Once those tasks were finished, we moved to the main path running towards Elmers End to cut overhanging branches.

27th June 2026

It’s that time of year for stream clearance on the Elmers End side. The extreme heat curtailed Tuesday’s workday and TCV had to cancel their planned visit last week so not as much has been done so far. However, good progress was made this morning. Despite the heat, a few downpours have stopped the stream from completely drying up so some of us wore wellies and got into the stream while others worked from the banks. We cleared soft vegetation and overhanging branches which clog up the waterways in our nature reserve. More work to be done and fingers crossed the temperature goes down so we can get it done.

30th June 2026

The last day of June and the last bit of clearance of the stream at Elmers End. TCV came in yesterday and got a lot done and then three of our volunteers cleared the last bit down to the bridge towards Goals. The other volunteers were working around the corner scything the soft vegetation back from the path. The arisings were collected and added to the dead hedge around the lake.

7th July 2026

Our third heatwave calls for some shade to work in so, fortunately, Ian had this in mind when he decided on today’s task. The ‘seasonal’ path provides some shade and is so called because at certain times of the year, it becomes very overgrown. It’s not a main path and isn’t meant to accommodate cyclists but our visitors on foot need to be able to navigate it. The blackthorn in the hedge we laid along the path is growing well. We used loppers and secateurs to cut back the stems creeping out onto the path as well as the suckers growing on the path itself. We left the vertical stems growing close to the hedge because these can be laid into it at a later stage. Using shears, we also cut back soft vegetation like nettles from the path. Some of our volunteers braved the sun at the more exposed start to the wetlands path to cut back soft vegetation. All the arisings were added to the dead hedge which protects the wildlife in La Motes meadow from unwanted visitors.

11th July 2026

As the heatwave continues, the hazel trees we planted earlier in the year are desperately in need of water. Ian had already filled a couple of water hogs at the kiosk before we arrived for our workday. We took them over to the work site near Ryelands field together with the rest of our tools and watering cans. Ian split us into 3 groups – 4 volunteers to start clearing paths through the nettles and thistles so that another 4 volunteers could get to the trees to water them. The third group was lucky enough to work in a bit of shade along Route 666 clearing brambles and soft vegetation which was growing over from the tram tracks and impeding access along the path.  A couple more trips back to the kiosk to fill up the water hogs gave us plenty of water to give those poor trees a chance of survival. Some of them were already suffering from the adverse weather conditions but we were fortunate to find many which were thriving very much against the odds.

21st July 2026

Despite the lack of rain, it doesn’t seem to have prevented the soft vegetation growing over the smaller paths.  We were back at platform 3 at the lake to cut back nettles and brambles from the edge of the path. As well as this task, some of our volunteers used loppers and a pole saw to cut back some more of the branches that had begun to hang over the platform obscuring sightlines over the lake. As some of the branches could only be accessed from the lake itself, it meant that one volunteer had to put waders on and get into the water. All the arisings were added to the dead hedge along the path.

25th July 2026

The hot weather continues with no sign of rain so we have to continue to water our young hazel trees by hand. The trees are a long way from the water supply so it means filling our 3 water hogs from the tap in the kiosk and pulling them over to the planting site. Then we need to transfer the water into   trugs to make it easier to pour them into watering cans. This whole process has to be repeated a few times before all the young trees have been watered. Those of us who weren’t involved with watering got to work on cutting back soft vegetation from the two small paths that connect Ryelands field to the main path that runs around the wetlands.

8th August 2026

The heatwaves continue so the last few weeks of Tuesday and Saturday workdays have meant repeat performances of watering our young hazel and hornbeam trees. With so many trees and not enough hands, we concentrated initially on the hazel to, at least  try and ensure a good survival rate for these trees. When we were able to turn our efforts to the hornbeam, we were concerned that many would have succumbed to the drought. However, as  we began to make our way through the soft vegetation, cutting back nettles to uncover the trees  we found many flourishing, against the odds. We were able to weed and add mulch before watering to give our young trees the best chance.

11th August 2026

Still no prospect of rain or lower temperatures but our Friends’ volunteers could take a break from watering trees today as Ian had a couple of corporate teams booked in this week who could take over this task. We were grateful instead to head for the shadier stream which runs adjacent to Goals. Sadly, this stream and the culvert that feeds the lake are bone dry. Although, far from ideal  it does give us the opportunity to clear leaves from the bed of the stream and culvert as well as cutting back overhanging vegetation. Doing this work before the rain comes reduces the chance of the leaves and soft vegetation breaking down and forming silt which depletes oxygen levels and adds excessive nutrients to the stream. Let’s hope it won’t be too long before we see water in this area again because the lake is getting very low.

22nd August 2026

Still not enough rain to fill all the streams in SNCP which are looking very dry. It does give us a chance to do some work in the streams though before we need to don wellies and waders to do it. For today’s workday, we headed to the stream closest to the Elmers End tram track side of SNCP. We’ve always referred to this stream as part of the Chaffinch Brook although it’s unclear whether it is a branch of it or not. Either way, the name of the stream doesn’t affect the conservation work we do. TCV were in the park last week clearing the banks furthest away from the path as well as overhanging branches. We continued this work by cutting back the vegetation where it was thickest on the bank nearest the path. We had to cut back about 2ft of brambles in some sections as well as raking up leaves and bits of branches from the bed of the stream. The reason for doing this is to reduce the amount of silt in the stream caused by fallen vegetation that breaks down. It helps improve the flow of water along the stream and improves oxygen levels which is important for the wildlife that live in and around the stream. Workday completed. Now we just need rain!

1st September 2026

We split into two groups for this morning’s workday. One group continued working further along the stream which is looking a bit wetter following the recent rain. As with recent workdays, volunteers continued to clear  branches and other loose vegetation from the banks and stream bed. The other group began work on the channels in the wetlands. Some of the water that flows downstream is diverted via a pipe into the wetlands. It then flows along specially dug channels  with some water filling the wetlands pool and some providing a wet habitat for wading birds. The channels do get overgrown with bulrushes and flag iris so this needs to be cleared each year to ensure an unrestricted flow of water.