Tag Archives: Walthamstow Marshes

Tasks

June 2017 Task

On Sunday 4 June 2017, LBCV will be doing invasive species management on Walthamstow Marshes(SSSI). We will be removing Goat’s Rue from the North Marsh.

Conservation Task Details

Walthamstow Marsh is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI, pronounced “triple S, I”) declared under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. Covering 55.4 Hectares (136.9 acres), it is part of a Green Flag Awarded Nature Reserve that also includes Coppermill Fields and Leyton Marsh. This Nature Reserve is a remnant of London’s once widespread river valley grasslands and is especially important for its plant and insect life containing a national rarity in creeping marshwort along with long-stalked orache, black poplar, brookweed, penny-royal, water vole, bats; soldier-flies, snail-killing flies, orthoptera, reed bunting, linnet and song thrush. The marshes are former Lammas lands, in that commoners had rights to graze there from 12 August to 6 April.

The aim of the task is to help keep the Marshes free from invasive species.

Goat’s Rue is an invasive plant that for several years, until 2013, LBCV, was devoting a summer task to pulling goat’s rue on South Marsh. This year’s pulling of Goat’s Rues will be on North Marsh. Goat’s rue is so called as it was given to nanny goats to increase their milk yield but it was found to be toxic to ruminants with the potential to induce a build-up of excess fluid in the lungs, low blood pressure, paralysis and death.

How is it invasive ? It is a non-native hardy perennial that forms dense crowns, each plant can produce over 15,000 seeds that remain viable for 10 to possibly 26 years.

Why remove ? Walthamstow Marshes are under Higher Level Stewardship in that they are being grazed by traditional bred cattle, Belted Galloways, so having goat’s rue growing where cattle are grazed is not ideal and the area is also surround by bridle paths so there is a need to control the goat’s rue in these areas.

Join Us

As always everybody is welcome to volunteer with LBCV. No  experience is required. Please wear sturdy footwear and appropriate clothing for the work and weather.

We can provide wellingtons in the morning and you must return them. So please arrive in plenty of time to select your pair. Please bring some lunch.

LBCV will provide tools, training, gloves, tea, coffee and biscuits.

Please arrive from 9:30am onwards at the Waterworks Centre Lammas Road, off Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, London E10 7QT, for a 10am departure. The meeting place is the former golf centre across from the former Greyhound Public House on Lea Bridge Road. We will leave at 10am for a walk to the task site. Volunteers are welcome to meet us on site, before the tools talk, please text 07757 766950, before 9am on Sunday, so we can provide enough tools and gloves.

Please lock bicycles to the stands in front of the Waterworks Centre. There is ample free car parking there too. Dogs are not allowed on the Nature Reserve so please do not cross the bridge with dogs or ride bicycles in the nature reserve. Dogs are still welcome on some tasks, including this one, we just request that their owners wait with the LBCV catering team at the Waterworks Centre, while the tools are loaded. Please read this article if you think we are being draconian http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6978272.stm

As usual we will have post task refreshments in the Hare and Hounds on Lea Bridge Road.

Volunteering and doing a conservation task with LBCV in North East London, is great way to meet new people, learn new skills, use old skills, be more active, get closer to nature, make a difference and have some fun with like minded people in the Lea Valley Regional Park.
If you use the Facebook like us at either www.facebook.com/lbcv.org.uk or https://www.facebook.com/groups/119714882254/ if you want to be sent LBCV invites to our tasks via Facebook. LBCV is now on Twitter so if that is your social media channel https://twitter.com/LBCV_London.

Tasks

May 2017 Task

Task Report Sunny day to remove a patch of reed and grass that could over shadow any creeping marshwort in the scrape.

[foogallery id=”246″]

On Sunday 7 May 2017, LBCV will be doing a practical conservation task on Walthamstow Marshes(SSSI) to help the nationally rare Creeping Marshwort, Apium repens (Jacq.) Lag., Apiaceae. It is classified as Critically Endangered in the UK and classified as Vulnerable in Europe.

Creeping marshwort
Creeping marshwort on Walthamstow Marsh May 2017

Conservation Task Details

Creeping Marshwort, Apium repens (Jacq.) Lag., Apiaceae, is a small, creeping perennial that is listed under the Habitats Directive because of its scarcity and decline in Europe.

Creeping marshwort, Apium repens (Jacq.) Lag., Apiaceae, is known in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and in the Canaries. In Europe it is widely scattered, being found at sites in the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Holland. It grows in a wide range of habitats from mown graves in Austria, riverside gravel banks in Slovenia, under water in Italy, to slightly saline pasture and dune slacks in Holland.

Creeping marshwort has always been rare in England and Scotland with sites in Essex, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Fife and Argyle. During the 1960s it was only known at three sites in Oxfordshire and by the 1970s it was only observed at one site in the whole country. In 2002 it was discovered growing on Walthamstow Marsh, by botanist Brian Wuzzell, near a ditch created by former LVRPA Ranger Dave Miller to help the dragonfly populations. The same ditch is now also supporting a colony of Water Voles. This North East London site is often referred to as Essex in the Oxford Meadows SPAC writings.

The one site known in the UK in 1995 is now designated part of the Oxford Meadows Special Area for Conservation. A Species Action Plan was drawn up in 1995 and the Rare Plants Group of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire was funded to carry out fieldwork under the Species Recovery Programme. The task LBCV is doing on Sunday is drawn from this work and is following a management plan from Natural England.

Join Us

As always everybody is welcome to volunteer with LBCV. No experience is required. Please wear sturdy footwear and appropriate clothing for the work and weather.

We can provide wellingtons in the morning and you must return them. So please arrive in plenty of time to select your pair. Please bring some lunch.

LBCV will provide tools, training, gloves, tea, coffee and biscuits.

Please arrive from 9:30am onwards at the Waterworks Centre Lammas Road, off Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, London E10 7QT, for a 10am departure. The meeting place is the former golf centre across from the former Greyhound Public House on Lea Bridge Road. We will leave at 10am for a walk to the task site. Volunteers are welcome to meet us on site, before the tools talk, please text 07757 766950, before 9am on Sunday, so we can provide enough tools and gloves.

Please lock bicycles to the stands in front of the Waterworks Centre. There is ample free car parking there too. Dogs are not allowed on the Nature Reserve so please do not cross the bridge with dogs or ride bicycles in the nature reserve. Dogs are still welcome on some tasks, including this one, we just request that their owners wait with the LBCV catering team at the Waterworks Centre, while the tools are loaded. Please read this article if you think we are being draconian http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6978272.stm

As usual we will have post task refreshments in the Hare and Hounds on Lea Bridge Road.

Volunteering and doing a conservation task with LBCV in North East London, is great way to meet new people, learn new skills, use old skills, be more active, get closer to nature, make a difference and have some fun with like minded people in the Lea Valley Regional Park.
If you use the Facebook like us at either www.facebook.com/lbcv.org.uk or https://www.facebook.com/groups/119714882254/ if you want to be sent LBCV invites to our tasks via Facebook. LBCV is now on Twitter so if that is your social media channel https://twitter.com/LBCV_London.

Uncategorized

Countryside Live 2016

Once again we will be at Countryside Live on Leyton Marsh, just behind the Ice Centre on Lea Bridge Road.

Details below are from the Lea Valley Park  website

Walthamstow and Leyton Marshes
Event:
Countryside Live
Venue:
Walthamstow and Leyton Marshes
Address:
Lea Bridge Road
Leyton
London
E10 7QL
Date:
Saturday, 24 September 2016 to Sunday, 25 September 2016
Time:
10:00 – 17:00
Price:
Adult £5 (two day pass £7), child FREE. Cash only

Countryside Live

The countryside comes to town!

This family friendly event, bringing the countryside into London, has something for all ages and all interests.

The weekend is packed full of arena displays, falconry, sheep dogs and ferret racing and the infamous dancing sheep show.  There’s also a range of traditional countryside activities to come and try including willow weaving and wood turning or if you just want to watch, you can marvel at the blacksmith demonstrating his trade.

There’s animals galore too! From the more traditional farm animals of sheep, goats, and calves, we’ve also got some smaller animals for you to have a hold of including rabbits, guinea pigs and tortoises. We’ve got some shy and unusual visitors including bats and otters and some critters from foreign places too!

Make sure you pop into see many of the local wildlife groups and organisations who can tell you all about their work in and around the Lee Valley.

If you need to take a break, then why not grab something to eat from our onsite caterers and pull up a straw bale for a well deserved rest.

Nearly all of the activities are free, but there is a small charge for a couple of them.

Please see our ‘How to find us’ page for directions and transport links. The site is located behind the Lee Valley Ice Centre and there is limited chargeable parking on site in the Lee Valley Ice Centre car park, so why not jump on the bus or your bike to come and see us.

Please note it is cash-only entry. There are no cash points on site or in the immediate vicinity.

Tasks

August 2016 Task

LBCVSCY14
Scything Workshop 2014

The LBCV August task is a week early to coincide with the Community Haystacks Weekend, on Sunday 31st July 2016.

The Rangers have arranged for LBCV Volunteers and other volunteer groups in the LVRPA to have a free scything workshop with scything expert Clive Leeke from 10:30. In the afternoon there will be a chance to practise scything or to join the site ranger for a leisurely paced walk exploring Leyton and Walthamstow Marshes.

Details of the whole weekend are below. Please note the Sunday morning scything workshop is not mentioned as it is just for volunteer groups. If you cannot make Sunday morning other workshops are available on Saturday at a cost of £15 per session.

LBCVAUG2016 LBCVAUG2016b

Tasks

July 2016 Task

On Sunday 3 July 2016 Lea Bridge Conservation Volunteers will be doing a task to help manage the invasive species encroaching on the Water Vole Refuge. We will be removing seed heads and pulling plants from the South Marsh of Walthamstow Marshes.

Water Voles have a conservation status of protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, and are classified as a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Please wear sturdy footwear, wellingtons if possible and appropriate clothing (long trousers) for the work and weather. We will be working in long wet grass.

As always no experience required, all are welcome.

Please bring some lunch. LBCV will provide tools, training, gloves, tea, coffee and biscuits.

We will meet at 1 Connaught Close, Leyton, London E10 7QS (across from the Horse Riding Centre) from 9.30am to gather the tools and leave just after 10am for a walk to the task site.

Indoor bicycle parking is available at Connaught Close. We will return at 4pm.

Uncategorized

Join Us Doing Practical Conservation Tasks

If you have an interest in nature or environmental conservationism, then volunteer with us on the first Sunday of any month doing practical conservation tasks in North East London’s largest open space, the Lea Valley Regional Park. We have done volunteering tasks from The East India Dock Basin on the Thames to Coppermill Fields in Waltham Abbey. These practical tasks range from woodland management, such as coppicing, the countryside skills of hedge laying and dead hedging to the removal of invasive vegetation with a traditional Bramble Bash.

Everybody is welcome to volunteer with LBCV doing hands-on practical conservation tasks in North East London, on the first Sunday of the month. No experience is needed; we provide the training and tools along with the tea, coffee and biscuits, bring your own packed lunch. Please wear suitable clothing for the weather and stout footwear. We will endeavour to do the planned task, no matter what the weather is doing; a task will only be changed if the weather makes it unsafe to do the planned work.

From April 2017 we have a new meeting location – NOT Connaught Close and a new postal address LBCV c/o Hornbeam Environmental Centre and Cafe,  458 Hoe St, Walthamstow, London E17 9AH

Please arrive from 9:30am onwards at the WaterWorks Centre Lammas Road, off Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, London E10 7QB, for a prompt 10am departure. The meeting place is the former golf centre across from the former Greyhound Public House. Bus numbers 48, 55 and 56 run along the Lea Bridge Road, alight by the Riding Centre. There is cycle parking available at Waterworks Centre. If you are going to be late, or wish to join us on site at the start of the task, please email or text 07757 766950 before 9am on the task day, so we can provide enough tools. Unfortunately we lost our number during lockdown, Email will be monitored on task mornings

Please provide a contact number so we can inform you if the task has to be changed at the last-minute.

If you have any queries please contact us by email, or call once the task reminder email has been sent out, usually a few days before the task weekend.

The monthly newsletter no longer contains local green events, training sessions, other groups’ volunteer work days but is now a reminder of the task sent closer to the date, please sign up for the monthly LBCV task reminder, over on the left.

Thanks for visiting.