Fire on Pule

On Tuesday evening a fire on Pule Hill started. These two photos of the fire were taken from our office near the Station in Marsden, and a bright glow can clearly be seen.





Our team of survey volunteers went out the next day to survey the damage and walk round the edge of the fire to determine how big it was. This photo shows the damage the fire caused. Luckily, it is just the top layer of vegetation that was damaged and not the peat underneath.
















The map shows the area that the fire spread to, which was larger than we had imagined it would be.



The season for burning on the moors has now finished. If you see a fire on the moors, telephone 999 to let the fire brigade know. Fires can start easily, particularly in dry weather and can spread fast. Please be aware of this in the months ahead.

Plants Needed!! Can you help...?

National Trust estate at Marsden Moor is looking for some help with plants. Not the usual moorland variety but the common or garden type. Every week a group of dedicated volunteers gather in the yard at the estate office in Marsden to tend and grow garden plants. These are then sold at various local events throughout the year. All proceeds from the plant sales go towards the moorland restoration work that the National Trust do on the 2500 hectares of land surrounding Marsden village.

This year the big Plant Fair is taking place on the 16th of May and due to the hard winter they are a bit low on plants to sell. If anyone is changing their garden or clearing out for the spring then donations of plants would be gratefully received.
To donate plants or for further information on volunteering with the Trust, please contact the estate office on 01484 847016 or email marsdenmoor@nationaltrust.org.uk

Helicopters and Heather

You might have spotted the white bags spread out over Buckstones and White Moss as you've been passing. These bags are full of heather brash, which has been cut from the Peak District and is to be spread over the bare patches of peat which will hopefully improve the conditons. The brash will help to prevent the peat from being eroded away by wind and rain, and should also encourage plants to grow.

The bags were sat at the edge of the road for a number of days until the weather conditions were good enough for an airlift to transport the bags out on to the moors. (Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures from the airlifts, so this is one from last time and the weather looks lovely!)

All 500 or so bags have now got to be emptied and spread, and several groups have already started working on this with more groups coming to do some in the coming few weeks. By the end, the moors should look lovely!

Bird Box Successes!

It was a beautiful sunny, cloudless morning for the half term Bird Box Building event. Having had the chance to practice putting a box together with the first visitor, we were then suddenly swamped with people wanting to come and build a bird box.



We had to keep getting out more tables to accommodate everyone, yet there was still barely enough space! At one point it seemed that we might run out of bird box kits as it was so popular. However, we had 5 to spare at the end.

We had not anticipated so many people coming, so it was a good thing that the youth offenders were so productive cutting up the wood for the kits! It was a very successful event, and hopefully there will now be many more happy birds around Marsden with a new home to live in.

Fencing in the Snow

The Oldham Youth Offending Team had their first visit to Marsden Moor, and were able to experience it in it's full winter glory! The task was to repair the fence around White Moss. We did manage to do a fair few repairs, but there will be plenty more to do once the snow was melted.

There were plenty of grouse about to see, and evidence of other wildlife too. Doing fence repairs in the middle of nowhere (and as there was such poor visibility it could have been anywhere) seemed to be not quite what the group were expecting, but it was enjoyable. Definitely better than delivering leaflets, we were told!

Bird Box Bonanza!

Last Saturday the workshop was a busy place, with the Kirklees Youth Offenders busy cutting up wood for bird boxes. The session was spent sawing up numerous planks of wood and making stacks of bird box packs, ready for the half term bird box making session of Friday.

To break up the day, we each made a box, and as the wood had been cut so expertly, each box that was made looked totally fabulous!

Don't miss your chance to put one of these designer packs together between 11am and 2pm this Friday!

Foggy Scenes from Buckstones

Some pictures of views from Buckstones, looking down towards Marsden with the cloud in the valley, on the first Thursday of February.

It was very foggy with poor visibility in Marsden, but once we go out it was a much nicer day and we could see these lovely views.

The pictures look across March Haigh reservoir and across to Pule Hill.

Cotton Grass in the Cold

The Kirklees Youth Offending Team were out again on Saturday, planting the last of the cotton grass plugs on murky Buckstones. Another chilly day, and most of the gullies were still full to the top with snow.

The clouds did eventually clear, and it turned into a rather nice day. With the last of the cotton grass in the ground, the bare patches on Buckstones now look rather more healthy.

Another enjoyable day on the moors!

The White Moors of Marsden

Here are a few pictures to show what parts of the Wessenden Valley looked like covered in Snow. It was incredibly deep, and very hard to walk through, but there were some very impressive sights.

Fixed Point Photography

On a cold Saturday in December, a group of young people from the Kirklees Youth Offending Team came out on to Buckstones to do some fixed point photography. Splitting into 2 groups, we walked about the moors in the partial sunshine taking photos from particular spots.

These photos all help to make up a portfolio of images of the same spots so that we can monitor how the moors are changing, and particularly on Buckstones, so that we can see how quickly plants are starting to grow again after the fire a couple of years ago.

After stopping for a breezy lunch, we then went off looking for potential spots for gully blocking, following our noses that were following the GPS.After a few windy hours on the moors, we then headed back to Marsden.