This is a quick heads-up with dates for future volunteer Working Parties:

These CDC-led working parties have been set for the second Tuesday morning in each month, making it easier to remember (or work out) the date. If you would like to help out, please complete the form here. Sessions will range from physically strenuous to observational, so there should be something in the programme to suit most people.

It was great to take part in our first volunteer working party on Tuesday 13th June, identifying both Portuguese and Cherry Laurel and starting to understand how they work (spreading both by seeding and by layering). Six of us made a tiny dent on low-level branches within the capacity of our loppers, avoiding disturbing higher foliage where it was impossible to check for birds nesting. Arisings were laid on rafts of previously cut deadwood, to minimise the risk of the newly-cut foliage making roots.

This email is being sent to everyone on our Friends' e-mailing list as well as those on our Working Party (was Green Gym) e-mailing list as part of the Friends' efforts to promote conservation and biodiversity in Brandy Hole Copse and its immediate surroundings.

With best wishes,

Paula Chatfield
Co-Opted Committee Member, Friends of Brandy Hole Copse

email fobhc@treesinchi.org (please note that this is an incoming email address only - replies will come from my personal email which is paula@parklands-chichester.org )
tel. 07788 140698
www.treesinchi.org/brandy-hole-copse

Photo below: Portuguese laurel (on the left) and Cherry laurel (example on right) are invasive and suppress light needed for a wider range of species to grow.