Improving the environment

As you may know we have an HLS agreement (click for a link). This is a sort of descendant of the Hedging Initiative, Countryside Stewardship and other schemes - which Strickley has been involved with for many years. We already had an ELS (Entry Level Scheme), then OELS (Organic Entry Level Scheme), before being accepted onto the HLS (Higher Level Scheme). It's a ten year process and we've spent a lot of time getting this far. Some of it rewards us (by payments) for what we are already doing (hedging etc), and some encourages to do more. Over the past few years local schools and playgroups have spent time at Strickley, but now they do so in a more structured way (led by Michelle). Over the winter we hope to improve the facilities.
Next week we will be starting hedging (we used to reckon we did a mile a year), now the leaves have mostly fallen. This past week, as part of the scheme, we have been felling a group of trees in the wood. These are conifers that were planted about 40 years ago and now the tree canopy is too dense. So down they've come, to let in light and encourage vegetation to grow underneath, providing a habitat for flora and fauna

We've also been busy on The Lots digging out two small ponds to encourage different wildlife - e.g. Redshanks (apparently we're on the flight path) - pictures to follow when/if we take some.

And of course muck is always with us, so plenty of that had been flung as well