Nature enhancement is a key part of our ongoing work to conserve and enhance the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape.
Here is a round-up from all of our nature enhancement projects and volunteer work parties for September 2024.
For more information about any of our nature enhancement work, you can email [email protected].
1 Tree Maintenance in Sizewell
Our volunteers teamed up with Freedom Group at Sizewell to help with tree maintenance on tree saplings planted recently. In addition, they helped restore wet grassland habitat through the removal of alder saplings using tree poppers
2 Suffolk Wader Strategy
Things are progressing really well in the partnership Farming in Protected Landscapes project between the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, RSPB, National Trust and the National Landscape.
Key items of machinery and monitoring equipment is starting to arrive. Rotovators, a flail mower, a new excavator bucket, electric fencing and monitoring equipment such as wildlife cameras and drone with thermal imaging camera have been delivered and they will soon be put to good use.
They will be shared between partners who own reserves in the Suffolk Wader Strategy area which will help to streamline conservation efforts making things more cost effective and increasing conservation outputs.
3 Shotley Gate – Ringed Plover Project
An incredible effort by the volunteers who managed to take down both enclosures in a day. This was a lot of work to get through and fortunately the rain kept at bay.
It was a successful breeding season for both ringed plover and oystercatchers and this project couldn’t happen without the amazing volunteer work and landowner input.
4 Upcoming tasks
- 04/10/24 – Blackthorn hedge coppicing at Golden Wood in Shotley Gate
- 11/10/24 – Rhododendron / snowberry control at a wood in Polstead
- 18/10/24 – Heathland management, clearing gorse and cutting heather at Bixley Heath, Ipswich
- 25/10/24 – Lodge rhododendron control in East Bergholt
- 01/11/24 – Heathland management at Sizewell
- 08/11/24 – Lodge rhododendron control in East Bergholt
- 15/11/24 – Plantation thinning at Trimley Marshes