Tuesday 12th November & Wedensday 13th November 2013 Clearance TCV Team

Tuesday the 12th

The first thing I knew about the works was a poster in the Park. I was a little surprised because together with the Friends of Surrey Square Park I had several meetings with Nils (the CGS project manager, charged by the Council to make the project happen) and the contractors for the CGS Award works in the WildLife area. The schedule had slipped a little but I thought it was beimg redrawn.When I got there, I met some very nice volunteers from the TCV Trust (the Wildlife Trust is the contractor for the works) under the guidance of a quite friendly team-leader, Tom, that I however had not met at the last meeting with Nils and Ben (the TVC manager for the contractors) and the young man that should have been the volunteer team-leader for the forthcoming works, and with whom we (the representative for the Friends of Surrey Square Park) had agreed how the area should have been prepared, what and where should have been cut, etc. As it happens, it turned out to be one of those organisational error that sometimes plague even the best organisations. The original volunteer team could not make it and a new team (from far away, actually) was drafted in, instead and the date was changed to accommodate the shift. Everybody involved thought that others had informed the Friends and so... Things happens ;-). The volunteer team had started the cleaning and work-preparation of the area but of course had not had the benefits of our previous detailed consultation and have cleared the vegetation following common sense and the general direction of their brief. This has resulted in a larger loss of vegetation but not a major disaster. Some 20% of the original busheland (in the central part of the area, perimeter green cover has not been touched) still remains and will be the starting point of regrowth and a "safe house" for some of the animals and insects.

Julian was on site as well on the 12th and we took the occasion to take stock of what the big wind storm of last week has caused on the site. We were aware of only one tree, a 5 year old sally tree (Salix cinerea) and a large buddleja clump were overturned. The latter crashing on the parking space outside the Wildlife Area, we reported to the park authorities but in the intervening days the clump was still resting on the parking area.

So Julian decided to take the matter in his own hand and I helped cutting it away.

The sally (the sapling was planted) showed how the root-holds of most planted trees and shrubs can only become shallows . This is due to the substratum of uncleared rubble from two buildings that were demolished here in the 60s. Nature has colonised the ruins and in time it created its own soil layers but the slowly decaying brick and mortar act as a sort of regolith and only plants that evolved to exploit rocky environments, like the buddleja, have had a better chance to force their root-ways though the hard pan.

Together with Julian we were able to talk to Tom and the other volunteers to explain our concerns and agree a clear direction on what vegetation we wished to be retained and how to utilise the cutting and other material collected.

Wednesday the 13th

Tom and his team work continued unabated all through Wednesday. I could join them only later in the day and I was impressed by the dedication and care that each of members showed. I could see a real love for nature and painful attention to try and limit the disturbance caused by the works.

I was particularly touched by how the team was transplanting all the cuttings they thought valuable to the environment, like the rose bushes, hazelnut saplings and other plants in parts of the WLA that will not be touched by the forthcoming transformations (unfortunately few days after the pictures were taken, some vandalism damaged some saplings, so sad...).

We took the occasion to do some cleaning (and collect the usual motley assortment of odd objects, including a perfectly good pair of snickers!!) and lined the Kinglake site of the WildLife Area (the retaining wall needs attention there because it has sustained some damage on its topping brick layer) with a continuous stack of material from the vegetation clearing. This side of the WildLife Area is not travelled, and should remained as untouched as possible to provide a hearth of wilderness were animal inhabitants of this little plot can feel secure and feel happy to make a home in it. Fortunately hardly anyone ventures up the wall and into the scrubland beyond, so that this patch has been one of the more successful conservation habitat for the site, in the past years.

Unfortunately this does not mean that we had no problems: some of the less enlightened residents from nearby blocks, wanted to open a path that would have cut the space in two and profoundly disturb this most valuable aspect our beloved nature garden.

The spot thanks to its relative isolation from human interference (a miracle in this densely populated part of our inner-city) still look beautiful and will become in time a tiny patch of mature woodland, continuing to be home for generations of squirrel, resident (hopefully) woodpeckers and maybe few more mammals.

After the rubbish had been carefully cleared up, a corner of the future woodland habitat, was dedicated to the formation of a log-garden. The logs were the accumulated woods from several years of park maintenance. They were originally on the front of the WLA but the volunteers removed them (some very heavy) and moved them in the new location, adding the more suitable produce from the clearance. The logs form a fantastic environment for fungi and all kind of wood boring insect. We especially hope that they'll become the "motherlode" of a future thriving colony of stag beetles, in addition to the already successful populations of lesser stag beetles and cockchafers we have enjoyed for many years. The logs provide also a protective habitat for hibernating animals and refuge spaces for small birds.

The oak too will have to be moved in this part of the WLA and it is hoped to be able to arrange (using the mechanical digger that will be needed to complete the work on the front part of the site) for it to be placed in a large, capacious excavation. Big enough for our little treasure to grow roots strong enough to be able to break through the rubble layers.

Still, even in the knowledge that the area will flourish in future and that sometimes clearance and controlled growth is needed, it is always sad to see the product of years been taken away in a moment. Whom cannot find a little tinge when looking at the stump of a 11 year old butterfly bush and think how it looked in a glorious spring day... One cannot but think how irreplaceable is of the time it'll take for all to regrow. But regrow, and more vigorously than even it will!!

On these consoling thoughts our volunteers (with a little coaxing) at last posed for a group memento and I felt sorry I could offer them only thanks and commendations.

Perhaps has been a fault of the Friends of Surrey Square, that the forthcoming remodelling of the WildLife Area has not been publicized as much as could have been. perhaps as a consequence some residents, from the surrounding estates, have shown concern about the scale of clearance they have suddenly discovered.

There is no doubt that some reshaping needed to take place, it is not the first time. Under the BBC Spring/Autumn Watch 2008 (in a program called "Breathing Places") some complex works have been carried out. However the space has needed a more radical approach to long term sustainable level of maintenance.

The vegetation needed to be contained and cared, volunteers have cleaned out tons of inorganic detritus, rubbish-dumping and other unwanted refuse (plus the occasional burning car) from the site, year in, year out. Clearing and pruning of the vegetation has been labour intensive and sometimes dangerous.

Even with all their dedication, fires have broken out on dry summers, antisocial behaviour, from prostitution to out-of-control kids using the site to camp and building bonfires, have had to be weathered out. The future of the site has been constantly in danger from attempts to have short-cut paths built on it and from all the tearing and wearing that a thick humanity has constantly inflicted on the place.

The fact that the area exist, is a miracle on itself and its value, although appreciated by a great many is lost on those that harbour irrational fears of the wild.

The works will provide the area with a more probable positive future and will integrate it further with the rest of the Surrey Square Park. Some maintenance will become co-opted in the maintenance regime of the park (together with the other wild spots in the other parts of the Park) and the "protected" parts of the WLA, a little better conserved. It is obviously sad to see green spaces, some of us, especially the long time residents, have become accustomed to, but it should be remembered that these were the fruits of much efforts and at the end probably one unsustainable (continuous efforts wears on even keen people and unsurprisingly those more vocal in lamenting past facilities are often the less available to maintain them!!). New delights will be opening up in the new and revamped Nature Garden and they will be even more remarkable, in terms of biodiversity, different habitats and quality od green spaces. Places to come out and sit in summer evenings, surrounded by a speck of countryside, in the middle of a mind boggling mountains of concrete.

A little heaven with birds singing, butterfly dancing in the warm air, the verdant smell of nature filling the visitor nostrils and flower bushes like jewels on a canvas of soothing dreams.

The site is a little sad at the moment, deprived of it summer coat and bereft of it winter spine, more again will it suffer the cruel hand of overbearing mankind, in the following days and weeks. The bottom part, the one behind the park sign will be excavated, to become a rain garden (this is a type of wetland environment, and one of the stepping stones for wetland birds and plants that helped them spread from the valley of the Thames) and the rest of the Albridge Street abutting part, will have to be remodelled as well, to allow the rain to naturally flow into it. The mature sycamore will have two of the side-brunches (the ones marked with the ribbon) lobbed off. They are been pushed out, fissured, by a third central brunch and will, in time, break off naturally and probably kill the tree, so for its for the plant own good that they have to go.

Still there is much pain in seeing these old friends and their environs, some of them we created laboriously over the years (but also enjoyed many times), going away, but the the world ways teach us: new and better ones will resurge.

Lastly it is maybe useful to return and compare the previous works that the area was subjected to and remember that all this is but temporary and quicker than ever, it will all be mended by a better, stabler, stronger nature rebounding.