BTCV Day 5 - Loch Lomond Special Protection Area

Day 5 of the BTCV placement - Today we were in Loch Lomond helping out with Scottish Natural Heritage.  We were clearing away willow trees which had been previously cut down by workers with chainsaws.  The land we were on was a wetland area next to Loch Lomond which in the winter floods over and actually becomes a part of Loch Lomond!!  The problem this then poses is that as the water rises, it picks up the loose trunks and vegetation and carries it away possibly causing damage to fences or affecting farmers land and all in all making it harder to collect when it's all spread out.

We were working with Stuart and Nick from SNH.  We had to move the cuttings from one side of a stagnant pond to the other and lay it at the back.  We made some remarkable progress in our first day there this year, looking back on it I'm sure it was 1/4 of a mile!!

The pond itself was really deep in some places, up to 6 feet.  The grass growing through the top made it deceiving because it was only a thin layer and wouldn't support your weight, whereas it looked as sturdy as a lawn of grass.  I was caught out though, not through negligence but wrong footing, ha ha, up to my hips in freezing cold water..certainly woke me up anyway!!

The land is home to many animals but mainly Geese.  I'll have to look up the specific breeds of Geese as one particular breed that inhabits this land in the winter is very low in population.  In Loch Lomond alone there are 200 of them, this is 1% of the total world population!!  I couldn't believe how low the numbers were.  In some or most other survey areas the population numbers have been dropping steadily, whereas in Loch Lomond the numbers are staying constant.

The area we were in as said earlier is a Special Protection Area (SPA) which is a higher status than any other in Europe.  This basically guarantees against ANY development which could be possibly suggested, not even the government could build on this land as it is protected under EEC Directive.

We will be back in the same plot tomorrow to continue the same work as today and hopefully will clear the rest if not most of the vegetation.  If it comes to the point where we're not making enough progress then we will burn the rest of the willow.

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