Our brilliant volunteers from the South Downs National Park. We spent Saturday working with them coppicing two sections of blackthorn from the north margin of the meadow. It is part of our blackthorn rotation plan which allows areas of fresh blackthorn regrowth to provide habitat for the rare Brown Hairstreak butterfly (see several posts below). It also helps us to manage blackthorn encroachment in the meadow in general. We are leaving some older grows of blackthorn to provide bird habitat in spring and summer. Hopefully we will have the cuttings removed by the middle of the week. A huge thank you to Phillippa and her team, it is always a pleasure to work with you.
