Highams Park Lake Needs your help and Volunteer Work Schedule

As some of you may be aware Highams Park lake had some problems with oxygen levels recently and some of us helped out with aerating the lake. The Epping Forest Conservators were very grateful for the assistance and five of us have now been trained up as task leaders by the Epping Forest Conservators and we have agreed a scope and schedule for forestry works around the lake to take us up to the next bird nesting season in March 2016.

The first date is now set for Saturday 12th December from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm (possibly with a venison lunch) and we are looking for volunteers to assist. We then aim to have regular sessions on the second Sunday of each month. We have called ourselves the Highams Park Snedders (from the word snedding which means to lop branches of trees). We already have some volunteers from our Greenspace group but more helpers would be very welcome. So, if you would like to have a break from Christmas shopping and mince pies please come along and help. Please let me know my 10th December if you intend to come along to the first session on 12th December.
Alison Tapply from the Epping Forest Conservators will lead the sessions.
Alison is also looking for volunteers to help look after the lake and has asked me to enquire if anyone would be interested for pond wardens, tree wardens, butterfly monitors ans/or litter pickers. I have copied an email from Alison below which tells you more about these volunteer roles and when the work will be going on.

If you want to get involved please email Gordon Turpin at:  highamsparkplan@gmail.com

Find out more about the Highams Park Planning Group at www.highamsparkplan.org
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From: Tapply, Alison
To: ‘HighamsPark Plan’

Subject: Highams Park Lake needs your help!

Hello

May I firstly just take this opportunity to thank you all for your help and continued support with Highams Park Lake, the aerators appeared to have worked. I tested the dissolved oxygen recently and they are at 30% (average around the lake) – this is a great improvement from the 3% reading we got during the period of deoxygenation. It should now continue to improve naturally and we are putting together plans to hopefully make some long term improvements to the lake which will sustain the acceptable oxygen levels. The aeration project would not have been a success without your help, so thank you.

It got me thinking….what else could we do together? After chatting with Gordon we have come up with some practical workdays and some longer term volunteer projects. We wondered if you were interested in helping out? All the details are below, but please do get in touch if you require any further info. For the project work you will need to be registered as an Epping Forest Volunteer to be covered by our insurance. You can do one / more than one role if you like and the volunteering can be carried out at your convenience – weekends / evenings (when it’s light enough!)

Volunteer Pond Warden

• Monitor the health of the lake on a regular basis to look for early signs of oxygen depletion and monitor the lakes recovery
• Training and equipment will be provided
• To be carried out monthly (minimum) throughout the year
• Two volunteers required (minimum)

Butterfly Monitoring

• Developing a transect route through the area
• Particularly interested in the woodland glades that will be worked on by HPP volunteers over the winter – the transects could be an indicator of the success of your work
• Results will feed into the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, we currently have two transect routes set up in the central Forest area
• Training and equipment will be provided
• Two volunteers will be required for the set-up of this project during the winter 2015 / spring 2016
• Transects take place on a weekly basis from April to September (inclusive) – more volunteers could help out during this stage of the project.

Volunteer Tree Wardens

• Monitor the health and condition of the large significant trees surrounding the lake
• Reporting any findings to the Forest Keepers
• Training and equipment will be provided
• To be carried out monthly (minimum) throughout the year – starting January 2016
• Two volunteers required

Volunteer Litter Pickers

• Not the most glamorous task but essential!
• Litter picking the lake edge and surrounding area
• Training(!) and equipment will be provided
• To be carried out weekly all year round

As many volunteers as possible for this one, the idea would be to have the area picked a few days a week.

Practical Workdays
Your group now has some freshly trained sparkly new Task Leaders and together we have designed a few workdays over the winter to get stuck in to some practical conservation work to improve the habitats around the lake. The group will meet on the second Sunday of the month and can accommodate up to 20 people. The workday will run from 9.30am – 2.30pm. You do not need to be registered as an Epping Forest Volunteer for these workdays. But please note the first workday will be a Saturday on 12th December.

I look forward to hearing from you and meeting you again on 12 December….I’m looking forward to a welcome break from Christmas Shopping!

Kind Regards

Alison

Alison Tapply
Epping Forest Keeper (Central Team)