10th January 2016 was a lovely, sunny, cloudless and crisp winter Sunday.  It was also the day of the first Scrub Clearance – a joint venture between Sefton Council’s Coast & Countryside Team and Rimrose Valley Friends.

The objective of our Scrub Clearances is to look after Rimrose Valley, to maintain it’s beauty and habitat.  To do so requires ongoing maintenance by clearing back scrub, lopping back small bits of vegetation and cutting back undergrowth. It’s a big job to be done by one or two people and because of this it hasn’t happened for quite a long time to the detriment of Rimrose Valley’s environment, however with enough volunteers we know we can make a big difference very quickly.

We had a wonderful turnout of 25 volunteers and between us we amassed a total of over 60 hours of labour over a 2-3 hour period, and we were served much welcomed hot drinks and food by Karen, Anne and Stella.

Ralph briefing some of the volunteers at the start of the afternoon’s activities (his aeroplane impression moment!)

Between us we managed to make a really good start on clearing back years of overgrowing woodland and it’s looking so much better for it.  Ralph, Rimrose Valley’s remarkable ranger, led the event and both trained us all in what to do and supervised to ensure our safety.  He did a brilliant job and afterwards he said the turnout and results were far better than he’d imagined and the day has been an outstanding success.

We’ve made great progress cutting back growth in several coppice areas near to the Derwent Road entrance in Waterloo (a coppice is an area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate growth), and for those of us who took part we enjoyed a refreshing afternoon with great company, good exercise and the rewarding feeling that we’re making a real difference for the good of our cherished Rimrose Valley Park.

A huge thanks to all those who came out to help.

The improvement in the areas we tackled is noticeable, however our work has only just begun and there is much more to do, so we’ve got the date of our next Scrub Clearance event. It will be on Wednesday 23rd March between 1pm and and 3.30pm and we hope to see some of you there!