Nature

River Mel Restoration Group

This month we have turned our column over to one of our working-party volunteers, Norman Shippey. There is no such thing as a ‘typical’ volunteer, nor are they all local. Norman travels from Cottenham to join us and you could count the number of working-parties that he has missed on the fingers of one hand. Being a fisherman he understands the river and its importance both to wildlife and the wider community. Over to Norman…

‘Most residents of Melbourn and Meldreth will be aware of the River Mel Restoration Group. A dedicated environmentally aware group, who in 2006, began the process of consulting with the various interested bodies, gaining their permissions, drawing up plans and, most importantly, seeking agreements with the many riparian owners along the course of the river. I am privileged to be a member of the Group having joined early in 2007 when the physical work in the river was about to begin and as a fly-fisherman was immediately attracted to a conservation project restoring a chalk stream.

It is a sad fact that many water authorities during the 1950s/1970s with good intent and little forethought canalized and dredged many of our rivers from which many have still not fully recovered. The Mel has remained neglected for too long, fifty years perhaps, and it is evident by the blossoming membership of the Group that a significant number of residents think so too and are prepared to give up their spare time for the river and for the flora and fauna that it supports.

Nothing demonstrates the enthusiasm for our local environment than how the project, which started in Meldreth, was so quickly extended into Melbourn creating such a strong mutual endeavour. Much of the early work has now matured and with vegetation restored softened some of the raw visual aspects of the river. I have in mind

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a very old willow tree and in danger of falling into the river. A heavy branch angled over the water was removed and the tree pollarded quite severely. This treatment may have caused some comment at first but now, perhaps two years on, the willow is fully recovered and will enhance the river bank far into the future.

It is an encouraging fact that whilst we have an active core of members who turn out regularly every three weeks or so either in the river or acting in support on the bank but also many more members who have joined the project to provide funding and moral support for the Group’s future work. All are valued and necessary as the project is still many years from completion. The RMRG has received so much encouragement and support.

In 2009 after our Committee received our Conservation Award from the President of the Wild Trout Trust, Shaun Leonard, commented ‘there are two types of people in conservation, those that say what should be done and those that see what should be done and do it.

To the Group as a whole it has been most encouraging to have received so much local support from businesses and individuals with funding and material and especially school children who have been involved with planting up the restored banks. I’m sure that in years to come many of them will remember being involved and will be proud to have taken part.’ Norman Shippey

Bare Beauty

A crisp day in deep winter brings out the structure of a garden and highlights the mass, patterns and colour that trees can bring to the winter landscape.

Bark patterns come to the fore from the armoured silver plates of the towering Scots pines to the fluttering coppery strips peeling away from the paperbark maples, from the burnished tones of alabaster white through orange and pink to deep mahogany red of the many birches in our collection to the chevrons of the snakebark maples. Larger specimens like beeches, oaks and black walnuts create vaulted domes of bare branch lattices, silhouetted against silver skies.

Glorious and graphic, the trees nevertheless – at first glance – seem static and dormant but a closer inspection of the branch tips hint at the life about to burst out – indeed once leaves have been shed in autumn and in the absence of flowers, tree shape, branch tip buds and bark patterns are key identification tools.

The enormous treacle-covered sticky buds of horse chestnuts are already swelling – if in doubt, look further down the branches to find large shield-shaped scars created when last year’s leaf stalks dropped. They are sometimes thought of as horseshoe-shaped and there are even seven ‘nails’ clearly visible indicating where the vascular bundles that transport food and water around the tree were severed during autumn leaf fall.

The smooth grey trunks of common beeches and the domed shape are usually enough for identifying the tree in winter, but if in doubt the slender whippy twigs now end in clusters of shiny coppery brown slender, pointed leaf buds, looking rather like chrysalises and with a clear criss-crossing pattern. Even tighter clusters of pinkish buds now adorn the tips of most cherry trees, like little rosettes, and on most species the twigs have a distinctively wrinkled surface. Ash trees are very different, with the buds in dark charcoal grey, held close in to the branch tip and shaped like tiny hooves. Perhaps most uplifting at this time of year are the rainbow shades from crimson to bright yellow of the whippy new growth on limes and willows; the buds of the lime sometimes described as ‘like a boxing glove with one small red bud scale and one large red bud scale’, and fringed with fine hairs.

An added bonus of bare branches is being able to see the great industry invested by the birds and squirrels in making their nests and drays; their shapes and textures almost as varied as the host trees themselves, so do get out and test your knowledge of the winter treescape.

The Botanic Garden is open 10am–5pm through February and March. Admission is £4.50, Giftaid admission £4.95 or join the Friends, get free admission and help the Garden grow! For news and events, detailed information about the Garden or to discover this week’s Plant Picks from the Head of Horticulture, please visit the website at www.botanic.cam.ac.uk

Bare Stemmed Beauty