Last week a team of nine from the Health and Safety department descended on LionMouth Rural Centre in Ushaw Moor for an afternoon of removing the invasive bracken which was taking over the top meadow.
Bracken, a large and coarse fern, rapidly expands at the expense of other plants and wildlife. There's a two week window where if pulled out of the ground, the whole stem and root comes out so it's less likely to grow back the following year.
After a quick read through and agreeing with LionMouth's risk assessment, the team set off for a three hour stint of bracken pulling. The meadow consisted of two bee hives and a swarm of bees; there were a few tentative glances at the bees in the beginning and one team member was stung - luckily bee stings were on the risk assessment!
Even though it was a short afternoon, the amount of work done was incredible. In amongst a few grumbles of it being tiring work and being too humid, the team thoroughly enjoyed getting out of the office.
Before...
Clearing
The collection of bracken at the end!
After...
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