Shooters Hill Woodlands Working Party

Saturday, 10th May 2025

What could be better for the soul than to be in the woods on a beautiful sunny day with like-minded individuals doing your very best to improve the woodland?  Sounds perfect doesn’t it! 

Oxleas Wood - Bluebell Area

On Saturday, our twenty volunteers were split into two main groups to carry out two completely different activities around the bluebell patch adjacent to Shooters Hill, mainly decided upon by the type of footwear they were wearing!

For those sensible enough (or foolish enough) to bring wellies, it was another pond maintenance day.  One of the ponds created with Froglife in March, close to the bluebell area, had had some rubbish and some logs thrown into it since then, so the morning was spent hoicking those out and digging the pond a bit deeper. This should mean the pond will hold more water back during wet weather, providing more water for wildlife and giving the plants in the area a little more of a buffer against subsequent dry periods.

Mud and logs from the pond were used to create two hibernacula adjacent to it (refuges for amphibians and reptiles).  The morning was finished off by repairing the dead hedge to the north of the pond.  While everyone's boots and some people's gloves got very, very muddy, only one person got stuck this session!

The second group had a much drier, though more prickly time of it.

The tree-popper was put to good use removing some sycamore saplings, some rhododendron, and the usual mountain of holly, from up the hill.  Another group worked further down the path, beyond the bluebell patch, cutting down isolated invasive trees – cherry laurel and holly.  More light can now reach the woodland floor in both areas and will provide better conditions for the bluebells and other woodland flora to spread further. 

The dead hedges protecting this special area had rotted down substantially and, sadly, a couple of desire paths had already formed.  One gentleman and his dog even chose to walk right through the bluebells as we worked!  As usual, none of the vegetation went to waste; it was dragged along the pathways by a couple of volunteers, chopped down into smaller, more manageable lengths then knitted into the dead-hedging by a third group.  While this group managed to stay clean and dry, they certainly used up a lot of shoe leather and gained a huge amount of steps on their trackers.

What a satisfying morning’s work by all involved.  Thanks again everyone!