Header image by Peter White; all other images taken in the park by FoSCP members and attributed in the viewer.
Bloomin’ ‘eck
Tree planting
We have been making what might seem to our followers like a great fuss about the planting of just a very few disease resistant elm trees. Here are parts of a post from March 2020, which explain what disease our precious saplings are resistant to, and why we are so eager to get them established in the hedge between Cornfield and Sleepers.
Continue reading “Tree planting”
Disease resistant elms
Progress report
by Ian Bushell
On April 10th we checked the fifteen Dutch Elm Disease Resistant trees, donated by Peter Shallcross and Frank Crosier, that we had planted in April 2021.
Continue readingWe’re on the BBC!
Mail from Ian Bushell to @bbc.co.uk: April 12 2023
Continue reading “We’re on the BBC!”Chain Saw Gang
Pictures and a message from the Friends at work on Wednesday:
Continue reading “Chain Saw Gang”Southwick Show
Volunteers from the team of conservationists who care for the upkeep of the Park had a stand at Southwick Show on Bank Holiday Monday August 29th. To the relief of the volunteers, the weather was lovely and the visitors were very supportive.
Thanks to all the contributors, we had an excellent selection of goods for people to buy – which they did and we raised £200 for the purchase of additional plants for the Park.
Joan Jones (Chairman FoSCP)
Chainsaw
by Ian Bushell
As promised, a report on the chainsaw course that ran for four days from Tuesday 30th August to Friday 2nd September at Roland Heming, Fox Ridge, Motcombe. Clive Knight, Phil Riddle and myself attended.
Continue reading “Chainsaw”Buzz
by David Feather
Donations power The Friends
On Wednesday mornings in the Nature Reserve you might be hearing some new sounds. The Friends of Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve have moved fully into the 21st century by purchasing battery powered hedge cutters and a brush cutter. We have managed to do this with financial help from Wiltshire Council Central Area Board and some thoughtful and generous donations. On Wednesday of last week, we had the opportunity to meet and thank the local couple who have paid for the training of five volunteers in the use of our new power tools.
Continue reading “Buzz”
Wednesday’s work party task for the Friends was to cut back the tussocks in the set-aside at the top of Kestrel Field and to slow down the advance of the brambles from the hedge between the set-aside and The Arboretum.
Continue readingOn the ninth day
We can’t find nine ladies dancing. Come spring, we will have daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze, as per Wordsworth, but feel that the link is tenuous. We will also have ladies’ smocks flowering in the meadows but we used them up yesterday by calling them eight milkmaids.
Continue reading “On the ninth day”Plastic free park
The Friends have planted hundreds of trees in the reserve over the years but a new study has concluded that we should be planting our trees without plastic tree guards. Research has shown that there are significant carbon emissions from the manufacture of plastic guards, they are not always collected after use and, left in the environment, they break down into damaging microplastics.
Continue reading “Plastic free park”
Wednesday Work Party
Not a bad morning, not overly sunny but at least there was no rain.
Continue readingEmergency crew
Mail from FoSCP to Ian Bushell, Clive Knight, Simon Knight. Fri 30/07/2021 16:58
Subject: URGENT
Julie Newblé has sent a message: “Fishing line has been strung up in the trees in the far corner of village green. It could be very dangerous to people and wildlife. I have nothing to cut the line with and I won’t be able to come back. I have to meet the children.“
It’s in the clearing where the ash poles were burned last year. Can anybody respond?
Things to do
Let’s focus on the environment this summer; let’s learn a little, make a contribution of some kind. Here are some ideas.
Continue reading “Things to do”We need volunteers
The park has been so important to so many during this last locked-down year. People have come here for permitted exercise, to run their children and their dogs, to walk off their worries or just to stay sane in an increasingly insane world. Now that we are promised an end to the craziness, it is the park that needs a little help.
Continue reading “We need volunteers”Happy Birthday Pat
This is Pat, our champion litter picker; yesterday was her 91st birthday.
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Pat”SCP on the Beeb!
By Ian Bushell
News of Southwick Country Park achieving Local Nature Reserve Status reverberated in high places!
Continue reading “SCP on the Beeb!”Damplugger!
An update from Ian Bushell:
Continue reading “Damplugger!”
The last work party before lockdown
Yesterday was FoSCP’s last work party in the park until after this period of lockdown ends. If all goes well, we will next meet on Wednesday, 9th December.
Park users, if you see that there is something to be fixed or damage to be mended, please contact us and we will do our best.
New species
Wed 15/07/2020 18:48; mail and pictures from Clive Knight
Walking round this afternoon spotted these. The first two pics are of a plant in Sleepers Field – no idea what it is and the bottom pic I found in the pathway through the woods at the top of Village Green. Both single plants.
Sent from my iPhone
National Insect Week – Day 4
Butterfly Transect
Mon 22/06/2020 13:05
Mail to Mike Fuller, County Butterfly Recorder, from Ian Bushell
Mike,
Attached is the latest transect at Southwick Country Park – the Meadow Brown numbers are if anything an underestimate. The warm May, lower footfall in the park, plus the fact that the hay/silage crop had not been taken could well have contributed to the general increased numbers.
Cheers
Ian
Watering the hedge
With the loan of Hope Nature Centre’s mobile water tank (thank you Caroline) and armed with as many watering cans and buckets as we could muster, FoSCP set about watering the new hedge in Simpson’s Field. Not quite a work party, more a socially distanced rescue mission.
Checking the park
by Ian Bushell
I took the chance this afternoon to drive to the park and park on that bit of verge by the entrance. There were three cones across the entrance at 1pm but only two when I left at 2:30! Somebody is still breaking the rules.
Continue reading “Checking the park”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 