Skegness failed to live up to its reputation on 1 July, as it definitely wasn’t ‘bracing’. Instead it was a beautiful sunny day for our visit to the ECO Centre – exactly a year since our first workday there.  

There were several possible jobs so I was delighted that there were fifteen of us to tackle them. For Paul (the Centre Manager) the priority was a log wall around an area where they want to create a raised pond especially for frogs. The other ponds have been taken over by newts. Unfortunately, as they eat frogspawn and tadpoles, the frogs have disappeared from those ponds. The pond site, a glade in the wood, was a bigger area than we had imagined, and we realised that creating the log wall would take most of us all day. An additional task here was to create a structure to house a bee hotel.

We had such fun with this project. Some logs were already on the site, and just needed to be cut to size, but others had to be collected from around the wood. We also felled two sycamores that had been marked for removal to provide more logs. (Paul had already checked that no birds were nesting in the area.) While some of us created a wonderful, sculptural curving wall around the glade, the design and construction team (aka Julian, Steve and Jeff) got to work on building a frame between two trees which had rectangular bottom section for the log wall and a triangular section above for the bee hotel. And what a hotel it will be! Unfortunately we didn’t quire have time to complete it but other groups using the Centre will do that, filling the space with drilled logs, hollow canes, bricks with holes in them, and other materials that bees (and other insects) will want to nest in.

Another important job for us was to help restore the habitat piles beside the paths in the wood. A base of small branches is covered with soft clippings from shrubs and conifer trees, and the whole lot is topped with piles of mown grass. They are only 2-3 feet high but that is enough to keep young children safely on the paths. And they are homes and transport routes for many insects! Particular thanks to Philip and Melissa for restoring several metres along one of the main paths, just across from the new pond area.

​In our spare time (!), we put a coat of woodstain on the front of a hut in the frog pond glade.
 
The Centre was a ‘hive’ of industry all day! Tea and lunch breaks were taken in the welcome shade of a covered seating area, and we finished the day with marshmallows toasted over a camp fire.

Paul sent this message: ‘Thanks for your help today. What an amazing group and a fab achievement! The area looks really superb and the things people achieved today are incredible (even in the heat!!).’
 
​Jude
 
http://www.visitburghlemarsh.co.uk/eco-centre.html
http://www.ecoskegness.org.uk/