A - Z of Conservation Tasks
The following is a brief A-Z of the tasks necessary on the hill, that may be done by management, volunteers, or usually both.
Some links will take you to more detail, either in text or additional images, in other parts of the site.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- A - augering (that 'augurs well')
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A huge advance on hand-digging - providing we can get the AEBI and auger to the places we want the fence posts.
This is not always possible, as many fences run down steep slopes, but where there is access, this helps a lot. - B - burning
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Although we salvage as much usable wood as we can, the rest must be burned to avoid the organic matter rotting down and adding unwanted nutrients to the soil. The remaining ash is then removed from the site.
- C - cattle-leading
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One of the many exciting jobs we get when grazing Highland cattle on the site was moving them from one compartment to another.
This involved shaking a bucket of feed, and fending them off with a stick.
Which was perfect protection from those horns.
- D - digging up stumps
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Whilst the flail very effectively clears the scrub from the surface, roots must also be removed to limit regrowth.
This may be manual or mechanical.
- E - education
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Although the populous city of Portsmouth is close by, few people seem to know of the rich ecological heritage overlooking the harbour.
To increase awareness and education, guided walks are often led over the area, school trips occasionally organised, and stands are held at shows. - F - fence-erecting
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As grazing increases, so too does the length of fencing.
In this case, the fence posts started out as trees on our site, and never moved further than local Fort for a bit of processing before returning to the site for use.
- G - gate-construction
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Fences need gates - to give us access, and keep other vehicles out!
- H - hedge laying
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Hedges are traditional field boundaries.
- I - ice-breaking
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With cattle on the hill in late winter, ice from their water troughs needed to be cleared every morning. - J - junket
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Every Christmas, we get sit-down tea :-) - K - kit
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Since Autumn 2003, Portsdown has been able to purchase a fair amount of kit, which has made scrub clearance and associated tasks significantly easier.
Scrub can be flailed, collected and transported with machinery, far more efficiently than before.
The image shows the (red) Aebi backing the (green) collector unit to the (blue) trailer, which the (big red) tractor will then take away to deposit the organic matter onto our nearby compost heap. - L - litter picking
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Sadly, a large amount of litter gets dumped onto the site, especially near the local carparks and access points into the site.
However, we believe the problem is getting better as a major effort has been made to clean up the accumulated detritus.
- M - mowing
Unless and until we establish sufficient grazing over the whole site, other means of control are also needed, such as mowing.
- N - nutrient-removal
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Having eaten the organic matter, cattle tend to deposit concentrated patches of nutrients.
These we do not want, so they must be removed from the site.
- O - oops
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Due entirely to my own carelessness.... it was not the tree that lost its limb. - P - post-making
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Part of the complete fence-making story is the shaping of logs from our site into posts for our site. - Q - quadrat measurement
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Whilst we know we are 'doing good by doing well', the surveys of plant species is the only way to monitor the changes.
Randomly-chosen 2 metre-square areas known as 'quadrats' are marked out with string. By counting the number of species and their density, and the height of the grasses within, records can be compared with existant surveys and will be available for comparison in the future with others yet to come. - R - raking
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Although the machinery has taken away some of this chore (hooray), it is still necessary to rake some areas, even if only into heaps for the collector to remove. - S - scrub clearance
Clearance of fence-lines is often done by hand, especially in spring and summer.
- T - tree felling
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The invasive holm oak is an exotic species, so must be controlled.
It is also a useful resource, providing fence posts amongst other things.
- U - uncovering the soil
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By removing all of the organic matter from the surface, we leave bare soil.
With root-removal as well, we leave a habitat for the regeneration of the rare species that we want to encourage. - V - VOLUNTEERS
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From 8 to 18 volunteers meet every Wednesday and some sundays.
"Voluntary work makes life safer and healthier, study says: ...There is psychological evidence that if people take part in volunteer activity, they feel better...Research [has] identified a strong link between voluntary activity and life satisfaction"The Vegetation survey is shown under 'ecological survey' - W - Water-pipe laying for new water troughs
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The introduction of the cattle into new compartments means the laying on of water for new water troughs.
Website. You are here :-) - X - eX-traction of burnt-out vehicles
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A regular but unpleasant task is the removel of burned out cars and other vehicles from the site.
- Y - yew tree crown-raising
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Cattle enjoy the poisonous yew, so its greenery must be out of grazing-reach - Z - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz at the end of a day
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ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
