Spring has arrived at last in Winchester, and in St Giles Hill Park, bulbs are blooming, green buds forming and, soon, work will begin on a new programme of park maintenance and improvements. There are considerable plans afoot for for the park in 2024 -- from the removal of more diseased ash trees, to shoring up crumbling banks, painting railings and repairing and replacing broken benches. Read on for some highlights of what's to come:
Further ash tree removals
The removal of the diseased ash trees in the area as you look ahead across the grass from the end of Northbrook Avenue is planned by Winchester City Council using contractors for Autumn 2024. The removal of the mature trees which are covered in ivy will change the view quite a lot, and the current plan is that managed regeneration of desired tree species will be the replacement. There had been a consideration to undertake this work earlier this year but the sheer volume of ash removals in the City has meant that Autumn now looks more likely, after the nesting birds have flown. The habitat loss will be sad but the disease remains a problem that has to be sorted.
There is hope for ash returning but not quite yet. Organisations across the World are working on it with grafted genotypes being bred to find resistant ash. Forestry England is part of the drive to plant and find the dieback resistors. They have considerable ash plantations at places such as the Alice Holt Research Centre and you can help. As part of their Living Ash Project they are wanting to hear about areas of ash dieback where a particular tree seems to stand out looking healthy and resisting the disease. They then want to see what genetic characteristics such trees have and see if breeding from them is a possible route forward.
Hill stabilisation
A second major project planned by the City Council using contractors -- work to stabilise the Hill and reduce the landslip and erosion risk -- currently looks likely to happen in April. There have been slips in the past. One was shortly after railway opened on the lower part of the Hill. A second one some of you may remember was in the 1990s and major works were entailed in closing the path and renewing the support and drainage on the lower path from Bridge Street to Quarry Road. This time the preemptive work will mainly be around the area where log seating has been created recently. The intention is to install supporting gabions to create a solid resolution to the problem. This will be a challenging area in which to operate due to difficult accessibility for machinery. For this reason the job will be costly. There will be route and area closures for a while, no doubt, but the work needs to be done.
Seats
A survey of the benches and seats in the Park will be completed soon and the Friends, WCC and the Probation Service are looking to see a way forward to improve the seats and benches.
Railings/Fencing
This is another area for attention with the main focus being on painting especially around the main viewpoint. Again a plan is being worked on by Park Friends, the City Council and the Probation Service.
The green-scape
The City Council will continue with implementation of its Park Management Plan whilst the Park Friends will continue to work to enhance the Park, concentrating on those areas where major works have been undertaken by the Council and Friends in the last six months. From a Friends' perspective, the area covered and the detail of the work undertaken will depend on the amount of volunteer hours we can put in.
Volunteers welcome
Dates for volunteering opportunities are listed on our web site (see Events).
Our main work is nurturing the plants and trees that we need in order to create a diverse and attractive Park. Paradoxically, the nurturing means a lot of vegetation removal too. This week a small group of volunteers did just that and after a lot of work removing invasive sycamore and clematis for instance it was pleasing to reveal the more desirable hawthorn, yew and rose. Loppers are well and judiciously used in many a volunteer session.
Diary note: Friends meeting on evening of 22 May 2024
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