The hardy bunch

The point of this post is mainly to celebrate the effort of some superb volunteers who came out to help us at Corehead yesterday.

We were continuing to remove an old stretch of fence line in Tweedhope (that we started just before christmas). The forecast was perfect but we did have a good few inches of snow underfoot.

We had a long walk in, and up, and started from where we had left off last time. 

The dots at the top of the picture are the volunteers! We had to bring all of the old posts and wire down to the bottom

And here are some of the volunteers

A view from the top. We were bring the materials down to the path which you can snaking along the bottom of the hill

It was hard work with everyone taking on different tasks: staple removal, rolling barbed wire, rolling wire netting, removing posts and carrying materials to the collection points. 

The view from our 'office' for the day. Not too bad really

And then we nearly reached the top....

....where we quite literally turned the corner. 

This was an amazing achievement to get to this point. It meant that we could work on much flatter ground and bring materials to a closer point. We didn't quite get to finish the whole fence line but we don't have that much more to do. We also found the remains of an old dam which had been built to hold back the natural flow of water. We began to remove this (to be finished on our next day) but the difference even a little work made to it was amazing. It was great to see the water flow through naturally down the channel. Reinstating natural features like this are all a key part of what we are trying to achieve in helping the landscape of Tweedhope to feel that little bit wilder.

A huge thank you to all who helped - I hope muscles weren't too achey by the end of the day.

Lynn

Site Officer