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 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 a Saturday morning.

WORKDAYS 2024

For previous years – see the archive!

January 13th 2024

January 27th 2024

Our second workday of 2024 saw us welcome another three new volunteers. Sixteen volunteers in total tackled two tasks. The smaller group of 6 went over to the Harrington Road brook area to do some more path restoration. This is the area where The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) repaired the path last summer using roadstone purchased by the Friends from a Thames Water grant. Due to time constraints, they were unable to complete every damaged section so the Friends volunteers are completing those areas when they can. It’s a hard job because the volunteers have to transport the roadstone in wheelbarrows from where it is stored. It is worth it though as we can see how, even after so much recent rain, the restored path is so much easier to navigate.

The second task for our workday was to remove a fallen elder tree that was partially blocking one of the paths and also to cut back back some vegetation – mostly brambles and tree branches, from alongside the path. There were two reasons why the vegetation needed cutting back. One was to allow access for a tractor that will need access to mow the meadows later in the year and also to allow clear ‘sight-lines’ for people walking along the path. We used saws & loppers to cut the tree into manageable pieces which were stacked well back from the path and the more untidy brambles were formed into a pile on the other side of the path. Both of these will create suitable homes for insects during the winter months and maybe encourage some fungi too.  We noticed how the trunk of the elder had beautiful rings as these became exposed when the trunk was cut up.

February 10th 2024

March 9th 2024

With another good turnout and two new volunteers, we headed to the seasonal path. The last workday report detailed our full day of hedge laying on one side of the path. The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) had continued hedge laying on the other side of the path on their workdays in SNCP. Three FoSNCP volunteers did a bit more work on this section of hedge laying. The other volunteers processed blackthorn that had been previously cut back behind the newly laid hedge. The processed blackthorn was then used to make hibernacula or habitat piles and a dead hedge.

March 16th 2024

April 13th 2024

May 11th 2024

A mixture of rain and sunshine over the last few weeks has seen a rapid growth of vegetation in SNCP.  The beauty of our nature reserve is how it changes so quickly from season to season with an expanse of white cow parsley currently dominating the landscape. Keeping the paths open for visitors is a job for the Council’s contractor’s tractor. One of our volunteer jobs is to make sure its route is not impeded by overhanging branches. Our warden, Ian, had already mapped out the route for us along some of the narrower  paths running away from the car park.  Using shears and loppers, we cut back around 2m of any densely wooded areas from the path. The overhanging branches required a variety of saws including pole saws for those higher and harder to reach ones. As we were finishing our morning’s work, we heard the tractor behind us making it perfect timing for our efforts.

May 25th 2024

Following on from our last workday, we continued clearing along paths to ensure the tractor can get through to mow the edges and keep them open for visitors. We headed to the network of paths in the centre of the park where it is easy to get lost but where you really feel like you’re in the middle of the countryside. We removed overhanging branches and cut back vegetation about a metre from the paths to widen them and improve sight lines for the tractor.

June 9th 2024

June 22nd 2024

For today’s tasks, we headed to an area easy to forget as part of SNCP because it is cut off by the tram track which runs behind the old pitch and putt. The path running the length of the other side of the track is well used providing access from Harrington Rd and Westgate Rd. As with other paths in our nature reserve, they need to be kept clear of overhanging branches and encroaching vegetation which is abundant during the current growing season. This type of regular maintenance keeps the paths open for park users providing clear sight lines into the distance. It also means the tractor can get through to cut the grass uninhibited by overhanging branches. The tools for doing these jobs range from traditional grass scythes to more modern shears and loppers for the smaller tasks. For the harder to reach branches, we use a pole saw and to make cutting through the vegetation a speedier task, we use strimmers and petrol powered brush cutters. As with our last workday, Ian, our warden, trained two more volunteers to use the brush cutters. Thank you to our newest volunteer, Kelly, for taking some of the photographs. Thank you also to the Victory Club for their kind donation of their two strimmers. 

July 13th 2024

Continuing our summer time tasks of path widening, we made our way to the path that runs between the wetlands and the meadows adjacent to Route 666 next to the tram track. This path has not been accessible to Council maintenance vehicles for several years having become narrower particularly with blackthorn bushes encroaching the path. Much work had already been done the previous week thanks to a group of corporate volunteers organised by TCV. Our task for one group was to finish off that work by sawing the blackthorn stumps down to ground level. Another group had the task of donning helmets and using the pole saw to cut back the uppermost overhanging branches. A third group processed the remaining blackthorn arisings into habitat piles and filling a hibernacula created on a previous workday.

July 27th 2024

For the last nine or ten years, the FoSNCP volunteers have been planting trees (mainly whips) in an area between the cemetery path and the path alongside the lake. The aim is to extend the woodland on the Elmers End side with native species. Over the years, we have tended the whips by clearing brambles and soft vegetation from around them to give them the best chance of survival…. and, indeed, many of them have survived, sometimes against the odds. Have a look at the photo of the Small Leafed Lime with the bent trunk. As a whip, a year after planting, this tree was bent over by bramble and we thought it was lost but look at it now … thriving albeit at an odd angle! Our woodland is really taking shape helped by the addition of some more mature trees donated by London Wildlife Trust a few years ago. Even these mature trees need some help as they are in danger of being suffocated by bindweed. The big white flowers of this convolvulus do look pretty but is relentless in the way it wraps itself around trees and plants in its way. It’s very satisfying to cut away that mass of bindweed and find a thriving tree beneath.

August 10th 2024

Stream clearance is an important conservation task in SNCP. The streams in our nature reserve flow in from Chaffinch Brook and feed the lake and wetlands area. Soft vegetation and overhanging branches fall into the streams causing them to silt up and preventing them from flowing freely. For today’s task, some of us donned waders to do clearance work from within the streams. Those who prefer to keep their feet dry worked from the banks clearing the vegetation from the stream using cromes. These are long handled, long pronged tools used for clearing soft vegetation and muck from streams and ditches. 

August 28th 2024

September 14th 2024

This week TCV had arranged for a group of corporate volunteers to carry out work in the wetlands area. They had removed a large amount of bulrushes and flags (yellow iris) which made the pond visible. We want to leave the cleared area open to give visible access across the pond to view birdlife and dragonflies. However we want to deter dogs from going into the pond (they should always be on a lead in this sensitive area, especially during bird breeding season). To do this we erected a dry hedge across the gap, using stakes that we had saved from earlier coppicing and woody material found in the area. We created points on the stakes with an axe and drove them into the ground with a sledge hammer. The stakes were driven into the ground in two rows so that short logs, fallen tree branches and other woody material could be built up to form the hedge.

28th September 2024