Rackleaze Wetland, Cam

Stroud Valleys Project has been working on this Cam Parish Council-owned site for more than 10 years. The site is tucked away behind the Cam supermarket and provides a haven for wildlife of all kinds. We work with our volunteers and the parish council to maintain the site in the interests of encouraging biodiversity, allowing multiple birds, mammals, reptiles, insects and plants to flourish.

There are boardwalks, bridges, picnic benches and places to sit and enjoy some peace and quiet and watch the wildlife that makes this site its home.

Spring 2024: Partners at Rackleaze by Richard Lewis

Stroud Valleys Project continues to work in partnership with Cam Parish Council at the Rackleaze Wetland site. At the end of last year, we had been able to clear the large growth of Comfrey that had grown up over the summer months. Onsite, we try to leave the Comfrey to grow as long as possible giving much needed feed to insects in the last summer and autumn months. This annual buildup of Comfrey has once again been composted in our large recycling compost bays on the nature reserve.

During these colder and wet months leading up to spring and summer, we have focused some of our time cutting back bramble scrub. If left unchecked, the bramble would out-compete some of the smaller flowering plants found around the boggier edges of the wetland site.

Also another of the group’s tasks has been the continued management of hedgerow project that SVP created, laid and enhanced. This season, volunteers had the creative opportunity of laying in new Hazel bindings (heatherings), once again giving the hedgerow further support and structure for the season ahead.

What was great about this season’s work on the hedgerow is that the group were able to source all the bindings from a number of Hazel clumps onsite that SVP has been managing over the last few years – a really truly sustainable bit of habitat management.

 Autumn 2023: Cutting a fine figure at Rackleaze by Richard Lewis

The habitat management at the wetland site has continued this summer with the brush cutting of grassland in and around the picnic bench areas as well as starting the annual cutting of the large comfrey areas. The new compost bins we built in spring are now being used to compost down the arising grass cuttings, which will make the area inviting and tidy for people to enjoy and a place for wildlife to thrive.

The picnic area was cut with cuttings piled up to be bagged and composted onsite. A big thank you to Cam Parish Council, who’ve joined forces with local firm Kerry Foods, who come along every couple of months or so to lend a hand raking, bagging, and composting cuttings. As you can see from the picture, the compost bins are well placed for cuttings to be dragged just a short distance to be composted down.

This year we were again blessed with another good display of Southern Marsh Orchids with over 16 flower spikes, such as can be seen here.

Spring 2023: Working together for Cam by Richard Lewis

The habitat management at the wetland site has continued this autumn with the building of further compost bins where arising brush cuttings will be placed.

A big thank you to Cam Parish Council, who were able to pick up and deliver the pallets to make the compost bins to the council offices so that we could transfer them onto the site.

These new bins will allow us to compost as much arising cutting as possible, making the area inviting and tidy for people and for wildlife to thrive.

On SVP’s visits to the wetland site, many walkers using the public footpath have commented on the great work that we as an organisation are doing to keep the green space attractive for all to enjoy. We regularly refresh the footpath with woodchippings to keep it from mudding up.

The wetland site is surrounded by a supermarket carpark, open fields, the River Cam, and a small woodland area. As part of our work, we must be aware of potential health and safety hazards to people visiting the wildlife area.

On one of our regular visits at the beginning of February, a large Crack Willow had fallen across the river and was hung up in a Hazel coppice. To make this tree safe, we chainsawed up the top part of the tree (known as the brash), leaving the larger pieces as wildlife log habitat as can be seen in the photo.

Autumn 2022

At this time of year, we’re in the process of managing the large amount of bramble and comfrey that springs up annually at our Rackleaze site. The amount of arising comfrey this year has been incredible, and we’ve installed a further three compost bays to accommodate it. A big thank you to Cam Parish Council for getting hold of the pallet timber we’ve recycled to make the new compost bays.

Readers of our newsletter might remember me writing about the hedge laying project (a 40-metre section of hedgerow planted by SVP a decade ago). The great news is that the newly laid hedgerow grew well over the season, even with the short heatwave we had in the summer, and we’ve now given the hedgerow its first strim/shaped cut this autumn. This piece of work will once again provide hedgerow habitat for foraging, cover and movement of wildlife.

And finally, I’d like to thank Rose (local resident, dog walker and enthusiastic supporter of SVP) who has purchased two of our hedgehog refuges for a local population of hedgehogs living around the local Cam area.

 


Previously

Volunteers improving the path

Work has been continuing here at the wetland site, with the volunteer group laying fresh woodchip (which was provided by Cam Parish Council) onto the public footpath that crosses the site. On our visits to the wetland site, many walkers have complimented us on the great work we as an organisation and our volunteers are doing to keep the area a wildlife haven.

Our work has improved access as the footpath was becoming quite a muddy and well-trodden path by walkers and dog walkers alike. The group has also finished the large job of cutting back bramble and clearing scrub that has been encroaching onto comfrey and open grassland areas. This clearance work has also allowed the group to install two new recycled plastic benches provided by the parish council. This area is now clear and gives people the opportunity to sit, rest and enjoy the peaceful surrounding of a small but important wildlife oasis.

As it’s the time of year for laying hedgerows, the group hopes to embark on laying a 40-metre section of hedgerow that we planted a decade ago. This piece of work will once again provide hedgerow habitat for foraging, cover and movement of wildlife while also giving visitors to the site an aesthetic view of the art of hedge laying on their doorstep.

Some history of the project

Habitat management work here includes the annual comfrey ‘bash’ (cutting back) which is scythed (less messy than a brush-cutter), and also the management of our planted hedgerow. This often suffers over hot summer months when a number of plants die but we replace these during the autumn. The hedgerow restoration project focusses on the clearing and coppicing of isolated old hedgerow shrubs along a boundary ditch adjacent to the public footpath that runs across the reserve. This work takes a number of sessions to complete and clear. It has been double row planted with native hedgerow species that include hazel, guelderose, hawthorn and wayfaring tree.

The volunteer group has also completely rebuilt the footbridge that crosses the ditch on site. As a result of this fine piece of work by the volunteers, we were asked by the parish council to draw up plans and quote for another extension for the boardwalk on site. This will create more disabled wheelchair access on to the wetland areas. We are hopeful of securing further funding in the future to complete a circular boardwalk around the wetland site.

Our management of the wetland site as well as the adjacent balancing pond has opened up these green spaces for people to enjoy and wildlife to thrive.

Good examples of wildlife seen or heard have included; two Grass snakes (Natrix natrix) on different occasions (1 adult, 1 juvenile) and a Reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) heard by our own bird expert, Barbara Wood. She has said that we are very lucky to have the Reed bunting as their numbers have been on the decline over the past years mainly due to habitat loss. We also keep a close eye on the Southern Marsh Orchid plant community during May in the hope of seeing further flower spikes.