Anyone fancy a pint?

Unfortunately no, I'm not talking about alcohol. Sorry. 

On Monday, Jen, Sam, and I headed off to the student accommodation blocks at Kirkstall Brewery. The weather on Monday was terrible. It rained pretty much constantly so we definitely needed our waterproofs and wellies on. 

We went here to check on the trees planted over the last couple of years. 

Some were planted in November and the team were lucky enough to see some deer grazing in the area. 

The trees are still attached to posts to keep them stable in bad weather conditions, and to ensure they have the support they need to grow straight and become established. Once they are well established we will remove the ties completely.

We needed to check the supports because the tree trunks can grow so fast that the ties become too tight and then choke the tree. You can see from the picture below what happens when a tie is too tight. This was only one years worth of growth, so we need to pop down at least a couple of times a year to check the trees. 

It's very unlikely that the tree will survive with such extensive damage, but we'll keep an eye on it just in case. 

So Sam and Jen went round cutting the old ties and then replacing them with new looser ones. 

We managed to get all the ties replaced and not get too wet in the end, so all in all it was a very satisfying afternoon. Although it would have been amazing if we had seen the deer grazing this time. 

(Photos of the deer taken by Rach in November, the remaining by myself on 8th February 2016)

#wildlife #biodiversity #groundsmaintenance