A hard day's work

I was at the nature reserve all day. It might have been the 1st October, but it was more like a summer day. I was joined by our wonderful midweek conservation group from BBOWT, the Wildlife Trust. They raked and collected scrub that I had mown over the last couple of weeks and then coppiced some hazels along the woodland edge. Here you see part of the group working their way across the meadow plots where Miriam Rothschild began what was probably the first systematic experiment in chalk scrub clearance and control in the mid 1960s. The fact that we are still working hard each year to control the scrub tells a very important strand in that particular story!