Nine volunteers, donned their gloves and tooled-up with litter pickers, spades, brushes, loppers and saws and set to the grounds of Hawthorn Junior School.
The event was organised by Llandaff North Residents Association in partnership with Keep Wales Tidy and Cardiff County Council.
Initially, the job looked quite easy, but after we scraped out weeds from cracks, cut down and loppered up buddleia which were set into the many walls, scraped up moss and bagged up plenty of litter including dumped bags of used nappies we were quite knackered. Three hours later, we had ammassed 40 bags of rubbish and green waste.
However, there is still more to do and we will return at some point in April (TBA) to properly finish off the last few parts.
For more information visit Llandaff North Residents' Association here.
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Friday, 18 February 2011
18.02.11 Cardiff Friday Mornings Project: Pentwyn Woodland Access Work
Today, 6 volunteers turned out at last minute notice to continue the path widening exercise which we had started on 2-previous occassions. Today we focused just on the path widening which involved coppicing and bramble bashing to make sure we didn't affect the impending bird nesting season.
This time we used loppers, shears, secateurs and saws to widen the path to allow Land Rover access for the tree team. We were a little saddened to see some fresh fly tipping in the woods (including a Christmas tree), but not on the scale we witnessed on our first trip here. It was nice to see the signs of spring with the floor much greener than on previous trips and some of the buds were showing signs of green. Now the widening and associated tree work has finished on this side, we will be able to continue on the litter removal side in the coming months.
View 18.02.11 Woods in Pentwyn in a larger map
Map of path widening.
Just 2 photos today!!
This time we used loppers, shears, secateurs and saws to widen the path to allow Land Rover access for the tree team. We were a little saddened to see some fresh fly tipping in the woods (including a Christmas tree), but not on the scale we witnessed on our first trip here. It was nice to see the signs of spring with the floor much greener than on previous trips and some of the buds were showing signs of green. Now the widening and associated tree work has finished on this side, we will be able to continue on the litter removal side in the coming months.
View 18.02.11 Woods in Pentwyn in a larger map
Map of path widening.
Just 2 photos today!!
Friday, 11 February 2011
11.02.11 Cardiff Friday Mornings Project Coppice willow on Grangemoor Park
Five volunteers braved this early rain threatening day in Grangemoor Park and were rewarded with a fantastic days coppicing of willow in the sunshine. The early layers were quickly removed as we set to some of the willow along one of the ditches in this fantastic and tranquil green open space asset.
Altogether we worked for a bout 2 hours and partially cleared a stretch of about 50 metres in length. We left some of the trees intact to allow some dappled shade along these seasonal wet areas. All the brash was stacked along the adjacent fenceline in a light dead hedge. There were definate signs of spring in some of the early flowering willow hybrids as the sap could be seen glistening from some of the coppiced stumps.
Ranger Alec will hopefully recover from his incapacity soon and we'll be able to run another event here before the bird nesting season.
Anyone can come along to Cardiff Friday Morning Project activities, but we like to know in advance so we can bring along enough tools.
The next event will be hedgelaying on the 18th of February and the site will be shown on the blog soon.
Altogether we worked for a bout 2 hours and partially cleared a stretch of about 50 metres in length. We left some of the trees intact to allow some dappled shade along these seasonal wet areas. All the brash was stacked along the adjacent fenceline in a light dead hedge. There were definate signs of spring in some of the early flowering willow hybrids as the sap could be seen glistening from some of the coppiced stumps.
Ranger Alec will hopefully recover from his incapacity soon and we'll be able to run another event here before the bird nesting season.
Anyone can come along to Cardiff Friday Morning Project activities, but we like to know in advance so we can bring along enough tools.
The next event will be hedgelaying on the 18th of February and the site will be shown on the blog soon.
St. Mellons Skate Park Sweep Up with the Arts and Crafts After School Club
St. Mellons Saints, who are assisted by St. Mellons & Trowbridge Communities First identified the skate park behind the Community and Education Center in St. Mellons as a site for an environmental project. Here, bottles are often smashed and litter collects which makes the area unsafe and unsightly.
Skillfully, the Saints delegated this action to the after school Arts and Craft Club who meet in the aforementioned centre. Enthusiastically, this youth club picked up the mantle and lapped up this responsibility to help look after their community’s communal area. Keep Wales Tidy were asked to come in and assist in this tidy up. Eight brand new brushes were assembled by the children (aged 8-12) and they set to the whole skate park. Moreover, the nearby area was also subjected to a mini-litterpick. The children swept up all the broken glass safely disposing it into glass bags, never using their fingers, but sweeping it onto a shovel. The children then suggested that we do another litter pick very soon concentrating on the adjacent stream which was described as “stinking”.
Several parents watched us at work and were very impressed. Following the clean up a couple of spokespersons from the group prepared written statements on the event (direct quotes):
Chloe B said, “It could make the world safer Because therr will be no more glass or rubbish and it will be safer for anmails in the wild”.
Chloe D added, “I will make the world better when people would stop throwing rubbish on the floor and drunk people would stop throwing glass on the floor. so it wont hurt people”.
Chris Partridge from Keep Wales Tidy reinforced this by adding “We hope that the sight of children taking a stand and active interest in the quality of the environment around them would help to convince others that dropping litter is wrong and isn’t wanted or needed in St. Mellons, or anywhere else for that matter”. Further litter picks will be organised and advertised in the Community and Education Centre and here on this blog on http://cardiffkeepwalestidy.blogspot.com
Skillfully, the Saints delegated this action to the after school Arts and Craft Club who meet in the aforementioned centre. Enthusiastically, this youth club picked up the mantle and lapped up this responsibility to help look after their community’s communal area. Keep Wales Tidy were asked to come in and assist in this tidy up. Eight brand new brushes were assembled by the children (aged 8-12) and they set to the whole skate park. Moreover, the nearby area was also subjected to a mini-litterpick. The children swept up all the broken glass safely disposing it into glass bags, never using their fingers, but sweeping it onto a shovel. The children then suggested that we do another litter pick very soon concentrating on the adjacent stream which was described as “stinking”.
Several parents watched us at work and were very impressed. Following the clean up a couple of spokespersons from the group prepared written statements on the event (direct quotes):
Chloe B said, “It could make the world safer Because therr will be no more glass or rubbish and it will be safer for anmails in the wild”.
Chloe D added, “I will make the world better when people would stop throwing rubbish on the floor and drunk people would stop throwing glass on the floor. so it wont hurt people”.
Chris Partridge from Keep Wales Tidy reinforced this by adding “We hope that the sight of children taking a stand and active interest in the quality of the environment around them would help to convince others that dropping litter is wrong and isn’t wanted or needed in St. Mellons, or anywhere else for that matter”. Further litter picks will be organised and advertised in the Community and Education Centre and here on this blog on http://cardiffkeepwalestidy.blogspot.com
Glan Morfa Eco Club and South Splott Residents Association Moorland Park graffiti cleanup and litter pick
Moorland Park February 2011
Participants: Chris Partridge(Keep Wales Tidy), Rhiannon Simms, Anthony Simms, Rhys Palmer, Debbie Gray, Karen Dummett (observer) , Mrs. Thomas (Head Teacher) and most importantly Glan Morfa Eco Club.
The activity began with a Health and Safety discussion by Chris (Tidy Towns Officer) explaining to the children why they only pick litter up with litter pickups and the reasons behind clearing the graffiti. He then talked to the children about the graffiti clean up kits, how they work, why we should wear gloves, old clothes, tabards and why the solutions don’t work so well when we add water to it. It was then explained that we need to wash the equipment using water from our watering cans and that the chemicals were all biodegradable.
We then left the School and headed towards the Library Garden.
Graffiti makes people think that the community is unconcerned about its appearance and this can affect Ysgol Glan Morfa as the children use this Park on a daily basis during school time and in their spare time. It was therefore included by the children as part of their School ground audit, which will be a step towards becoming an Eco School, a campaign run by Keep Wales Tidy. Data shows if we can remove the graffiti within 24-48hrs it discourages it reoccurring and therefore gives the children a sense of ownership and pride.
All the children had been told to wear old clothes, were given a tabard and wore protective gloves throughout the event, the gloves were often replaced 3 or 4 times at the request of individual children!! The 14 Eco warriors were then split into groups of 3-4 with one adult to help and supervise during the activity.
Chris then gave out the anti graffiti wet wipes and we were all told to rub the paint off. We soon found we had to rub quite hard, which made us need a couple of pairs of gloves. He then gave four children protective eye goggles to wear in order to ensure that no chemical would have an adverse effect on the children's eyes before using a spray bottle of graffiti removal solution which helped to remove all traces of the graffiti. Water was then poured over the surface and the equipment was wiped dry.
Participants: Chris Partridge(Keep Wales Tidy), Rhiannon Simms, Anthony Simms, Rhys Palmer, Debbie Gray, Karen Dummett (observer) , Mrs. Thomas (Head Teacher) and most importantly Glan Morfa Eco Club.
The activity began with a Health and Safety discussion by Chris (Tidy Towns Officer) explaining to the children why they only pick litter up with litter pickups and the reasons behind clearing the graffiti. He then talked to the children about the graffiti clean up kits, how they work, why we should wear gloves, old clothes, tabards and why the solutions don’t work so well when we add water to it. It was then explained that we need to wash the equipment using water from our watering cans and that the chemicals were all biodegradable.
We then left the School and headed towards the Library Garden.
Graffiti makes people think that the community is unconcerned about its appearance and this can affect Ysgol Glan Morfa as the children use this Park on a daily basis during school time and in their spare time. It was therefore included by the children as part of their School ground audit, which will be a step towards becoming an Eco School, a campaign run by Keep Wales Tidy. Data shows if we can remove the graffiti within 24-48hrs it discourages it reoccurring and therefore gives the children a sense of ownership and pride.
All the children had been told to wear old clothes, were given a tabard and wore protective gloves throughout the event, the gloves were often replaced 3 or 4 times at the request of individual children!! The 14 Eco warriors were then split into groups of 3-4 with one adult to help and supervise during the activity.
Chris then gave out the anti graffiti wet wipes and we were all told to rub the paint off. We soon found we had to rub quite hard, which made us need a couple of pairs of gloves. He then gave four children protective eye goggles to wear in order to ensure that no chemical would have an adverse effect on the children's eyes before using a spray bottle of graffiti removal solution which helped to remove all traces of the graffiti. Water was then poured over the surface and the equipment was wiped dry.
The children had a great time and 3-letters of thanks have been sent already to the school by local residents as a result of this work.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
09.02.11 Woodland tidy up and coppice in Chapel Wood
Fourteen apprentices from BT were supported by 2 supervisors and 1 manager in clearing rubbish followed by coppicing of hazel stools from Chapel Wood, Cardiff. They were supervised throughout by Chris Partridge from Keep Wales Tidy.
We visited and performed some coppicing here in January as a Cardiff Friday Mornings Project. One thing we noticed was how stinking this woodland was with rubbish. Hopefully the pictures here (before the litterpick) demonstrate this. The aim was walways to return here, perform more coppicing, but importantly remove as much of the rubbish as possible.
Altogether we removed 30 bags of recycling and 5 normal rubbish bags. This clearly demonstrates how wasteful we are in parts of our society. Moreover, we collected about 1/ tonne of other larger pieces of material including 2 chairs, 1 burned out cigarette machine, 1 tv, various pieces of plastic and scrap metal, 2 cones, 1 football, 1 rugby ball and 2 golf clubs. All of this waste was taken away by Cardiff Council Parks Services.
Following this, the group learned about coppicing, its history, its importance for wildlife (especially dormice) and how to perform the coppicing safely and carefully to give the plant a good start to its latest rejuvination. A local resident told us that the last time the hazel was cut was 30 years ago!!! We then processed the wood into stakes and binders for hedgelaying and the top brash was cut or pea sticks to be used in Bute Park.
The team were fantastic and even created a novel way of mass transporting the hazel to the pick up site.
Well done and a credit to BT. Hopefully with the really hard work done, it may be possible to raise interest in a local group to help manage this true gem in Cardiff.
For more information call Chris Partridge on 07717 412 270 or chris.partridge@keepwalestidy.org.
We visited and performed some coppicing here in January as a Cardiff Friday Mornings Project. One thing we noticed was how stinking this woodland was with rubbish. Hopefully the pictures here (before the litterpick) demonstrate this. The aim was walways to return here, perform more coppicing, but importantly remove as much of the rubbish as possible.
Altogether we removed 30 bags of recycling and 5 normal rubbish bags. This clearly demonstrates how wasteful we are in parts of our society. Moreover, we collected about 1/ tonne of other larger pieces of material including 2 chairs, 1 burned out cigarette machine, 1 tv, various pieces of plastic and scrap metal, 2 cones, 1 football, 1 rugby ball and 2 golf clubs. All of this waste was taken away by Cardiff Council Parks Services.
Following this, the group learned about coppicing, its history, its importance for wildlife (especially dormice) and how to perform the coppicing safely and carefully to give the plant a good start to its latest rejuvination. A local resident told us that the last time the hazel was cut was 30 years ago!!! We then processed the wood into stakes and binders for hedgelaying and the top brash was cut or pea sticks to be used in Bute Park.
The team were fantastic and even created a novel way of mass transporting the hazel to the pick up site.
Well done and a credit to BT. Hopefully with the really hard work done, it may be possible to raise interest in a local group to help manage this true gem in Cardiff.
For more information call Chris Partridge on 07717 412 270 or chris.partridge@keepwalestidy.org.
Friday, 4 February 2011
04.02.11 Cardiff Friday Mornings Project Volunteers Tackle Woodland in Pentwyn
Map
Today, 5 volunteers from LS Healthcare and Cardiff Rivers Group in partnership with Keep wales Tidy and Cardiff CC's Park's Department took over from work carried on in this wood with volunteers from Barclaycard before Christmas.
The aim is to improve access for the Woodland Rangers by widening the internal path.
This also makes it easier to extract the rubbish which was mostly domestic flytipping. Items removed included; vacuum cleaners, car parts, broken skateboards, a tv stand, plastic sheeting, scrap metal, a football and a broken toddlers bike. Alongside this we collected 19 bags of rubbish...Not bad for a Friday morning's work.
Next week (Fri 11th Feb) we are in Grangemoor Park, working with Community Park Ranger Alec to lay a footpath. For more information call Chris on 07717 412 270 or chris.partridge@keepwalestidy.org
Today, 5 volunteers from LS Healthcare and Cardiff Rivers Group in partnership with Keep wales Tidy and Cardiff CC's Park's Department took over from work carried on in this wood with volunteers from Barclaycard before Christmas.
The aim is to improve access for the Woodland Rangers by widening the internal path.
This also makes it easier to extract the rubbish which was mostly domestic flytipping. Items removed included; vacuum cleaners, car parts, broken skateboards, a tv stand, plastic sheeting, scrap metal, a football and a broken toddlers bike. Alongside this we collected 19 bags of rubbish...Not bad for a Friday morning's work.
Next week (Fri 11th Feb) we are in Grangemoor Park, working with Community Park Ranger Alec to lay a footpath. For more information call Chris on 07717 412 270 or chris.partridge@keepwalestidy.org
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