Day 8 of BTCV Placement - Loch Lomond

Today we were again inLoch Lomond to help the SNH guys with some work on the wetlands.  The areas we'd been working on were now flooded with about 4 foot of water and the places we were working in last week weren't even recognisable. 

To start we had to park and set off on foot about 2 or 3 miles from our original position.  Once ready we set off on a 20/25 minute walk to get to the only accessible part we were working on last week.  Today we had to use the steel chromes to remove the floating grass from the pond.  To start with it was rather easy but as we began to move onto the deeper and essentially more tangled parts it took maybe 2 or 3 of us to remove just one clump.

Once the grass was loose and dragged up the embankment we had to leave it to drain for a while, it was so absorbed with water that it weighed a tonne!!  The blisters at the end of the day show the effort that had to be put in!! ha ha.

After lunch we moved onto another area.  We walked to this plot through a beautiful woodland and some of the boggiest ground i've ever had to negotiate.  The most interesting part was walking over the soft and spongy ground which I soon realised to be spagnum.  This was very interesting as the Langlands Moss area I'm doing just now is being worked to promote spagnum to grow, but I've only seen it growing under the surface of the water in the reservoir.  It was certainly an experience to see what it's like when fully formed.

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