The increased variety of flowers and grasses in our gardens and green spaces creates a beautiful rich tapestry of colours, as well as a valuable source of food for insects and butterflies. Often overlooked in favour of the bigger view, this year they are an ideal way to connect with nature’s pollinators. Grassland feeding stations In damp meadows and hedgerows, wild grasses are coming into flower. Often grown as early grazing and hay, they provide shelter and food for aRead more
Spring is here
Now our window onto the world is smaller, the view is more precious. Reassuringly nature is following her seasonal rhythm and April is full of new arrivals. In your gardens or local green spaces (on your daily exercise) you’ll see weekly changes as trees come into leaf, spring flowers open and more birds return. Summer’s canopy is on its way. Starting as a hazy green tinge the familiar leaves of ash, beech, birch and oak are adding their weight toRead more
Sun, Trees, Tools and Tall Tales
You can’t organise the sun, but if we could, we couldn’t have planned it any better. On the 25th March we had the sun, we had warmth and we had lots of people having fun and learning about how and why we manage our woods (in the past and in the present). Down in the glade – where the sun kept everyone warm – there was a lovely relaxed atmosphere whilst people ate their picnics and took part in variousRead more
Fungi Foray Fun -A fabulous afternoon looking for poison pies and crumble caps, angels and devils…
So what was going on in the woods a few Sundays ago? A group of about 20 of us were on a Fungi Foray in Yarner Wood with the Moor than meets the eye landscape partnership project. We were ably led by David Farley, a local fungi specialist, and colleagues from Natural England and the Woodland Trust. We had great fun finding different species and collecting them in our willow baskets. We really began to notice how many, and howRead more
Bovey Beauty
On Sunday 25th Sept there will be opportunities to take part in Family Friendly volunteering activities or for the more adventurous take part in the the Bovey Beauty Fell Race. The Bovey Beauty has been running for a couple of years now enticing runners from Devon and further afield. It is a challenging 10 mile fell race through the beautiful Bovey Valley incorporating a tough and hilly terrain. The volunteering activities take place along the route enabling family and friends andRead more
Learning to Drive
Working on the East Dartmoor NNR often means that we need to get to remote parts of the reserve that would take ages by foot and sometimes we are carrying awkward and heavy equipment. Few of the tracks are accessible by car which is why the land rovers and other 4×4’s are so useful. However before we can jump into one of these vehicles we need to know how to drive them off road. So a few of us have recently beenRead more
East Dartmoor Woods blog 