Offside vegetation cutting this winter – West Midlands area

[Grassman]

 

 

 

 

Just to make you aware that starting in October there will be a joint IWA & CRT offside vegetation cutting programme (all volunteers) on the T&M between Fradley Junction and Great Haywood, then down the S&W as far as Gailey.

 

There will be another operation starting in Coventry and heading north to Hawkesbury, then to Fazeley then on the B&F to Curdworth.

 

Obviously neither will require a stoppage (although there is one at the Great Haywood end of the S&W in January for weir maintenance), nor will there be any formal navigation restrictions in place. However if any of you are moored in those sections and hear the cutting being carried out approaching your boat, it would help a great deal if you would move forward or back briefly if asked to do so.

 

Many of the spots with encroaching vegetation are opposite popular moorings so it’s in everyone’s interest if we can pay particular attention to dealing with those.

 

As you all know, the encroaching vegetation on many parts of the system has been neglected and is probably the worst it’s been for years. Unfortunately in order to help catch up we need to make enough progress to complete the whole of those sections if possible, before we have to stop in early March when the wildlife begins nesting. We will be working Monday to Friday.

 

 We will therefore have to just concentrate on the significant places such as on bends, sightlines, opposite popular moorings, bridge and lock approaches, narrow sections etc, and on the straighter sections we will have to leave sporadic tree encroachments on the basis that if two boats meet, one will have to hold back briefly, and on some sections just create passing places.

 

I also ask for you patience if you come across us and we are unable to move out of your way straight away. We are usually pretty good at doing this, but occasionally it may take a few minutes for us to tuck in out of your way.

 

Afterwards you will no doubt see some places and wonder why we haven’t addressed them, but I’m afraid that in the circumstances this will be the best we can hope for, at least in the short term anyway. And it will certainly be much better than it is at the moment!

 

 

[Sea Dog]

Awesome! Thank you to all involved. 

[matty40s]

Great work , well done to you all.

If it's any help, I do both our local winding holes twice a year, for totally selfish reasons of course...and last week the overhanging Alder on the towpath side which was blocking the A5 bridge sightlines.

Edited August 14, 2023 by matty40s

[Hudds Lad]

We snap off bits of willow we cruise under, although i'm now banned from it as i grabbed a bit on the Ashby and an entire branch dropped on me  

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, Hudds Lad said:

We snap off bits of willow we cruise under, although i'm now banned from it as i grabbed a bit on the Ashby and an entire branch dropped on me  

I carry a pair of secateurs in the "ticket" draw. I don't use it for tickets

[Hudds Lad]

20 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I carry a pair of secateurs in the "ticket" draw. I don't use it for tickets

I have an old pair of folding ones on the boat that i used to carry when walking/geocaching (daughter wasn't keen when brambles were across the path), but the handles are not kind to your hands so will look at getting a nice pair for the boat.

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

I have an old pair of folding ones on the boat that i used to carry when walking/geocaching (daughter wasn't keen when brambles were across the path), but the handles are not kind to your hands so will look at getting a nice pair for the boat.

I trimmed some overhanging bramble on the towpath after a young lady nearly got them in her face

[Grassman]

Every little helps. I carry some shears too, and snip away as we cruise along, or pull/snap branches with my hand. Last week when grabbing a weeping willow as we went under it, a load of black bugs came down with it and we were covered in them 🙁.

 

On the subject of weeping willows, unfortunately we can rarely reach the actual branches even with a long reach pole chainsaw or hedge trimmer. So we are only able to give them a 'haircut' and in no time they re-grow so quickly.  

[ditchcrawler]

31 minutes ago, Grassman said:

Every little helps. I carry some shears too, and snip away as we cruise along, or pull/snap branches with my hand. Last week when grabbing a weeping willow as we went under it, a load of black bugs came down with it and we were covered in them 🙁.

 .  

I had the same thing happen, hundreds of the little blitters 

 

[Francis Herne]

Great to see this. Hopefully it's a success and can be extended in future years.

 

BCNS do quite a bit of cutting-back from Phoenix. At one point someone backed the boat out unexpectedly, and I found myself dangling from the outer end of the half-sawn-through branch, saw still in hand. I'm sure I've seen that cartoon...

Edited August 15, 2023 by Francis Herne

[Grassman]

On 15/08/2023 at 10:37, Francis Herne said:

Great to see this. Hopefully it's a success and can be extended in future years.

 

 

 

We've been doing it for the last 6 years but this will be the first time we will be doing to 5 days a week and have two operations on the go at the same time. Fair play to CRT because despite all their faults they seem to be backing us more this time than they have in the past because, despite the 'free labour' there's still a necessary investment in the equipment and training etc.