“War and pieces” 

The Saga of Sammy Roy’s Pond, Bunting’s Wood, Thorne, South Yorkshire

Written for Urban News (now defunct), and appeared in the BTCV in-house magazine.

 In 1994 a voluntary group was formed with the catchy title (?) of The Friends of Bunting’s Wood, FOBWO for short. The group was and is composed of various volunteers from the surrounding towns and villages, (including the far away great metropolis of Doncaster).  It works in conjunction with Thorne - Moorends Town Council, (who purchased the land on which the wood is situated in 1993), and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council (DMBC) Leisure Services.

 Buntings Wood is a 79-acre area of former farmland where the aim is to develop a community woodland to enhance the local environment for residents and visitors alike.

 FOBWO undertake a task on the first and third Sunday of every month, and quite often on another Sunday every month. The tasks range from helping the trees grow to improving the range and quality of habitats and enhancing the visitor facilities.

 The Pond

One of the jewels in the crown of Bunting’s Wood is Sammy Roy’s Pond (created by the builders of the embankment of the Hull - Doncaster train line), it is nestled between one of larger planted areas of the wood and the railway line. Sammy Roy’s pond is one of a string of small water bodies created when earth was dug up to form the railway embankment. These filled with water due to a combination of factors including the heavy clay soil of the area (which holds most of the water in), and the relatively high local water table due to the old course of the river Don running through the wood.

 The pond is named after it’s former user, who leased the pond and used it for fishing. When active management to benefit fishing ceased, the pond became overgrown by Willow and Lesser Reed, the water level became very low, and most of the pond bed was dry, covered with leaf litter from the mature trees. The ecological process of succession was already active in the pond and willow had invaded the bed that was rapidly developing into woodland. (Willow carr.)

 The pond was in a truly terrible state when the group first started working on it, with approximately half of its area over grown by willow and invading weeds, and the rest filled by a dense clump of water based plants. The Willow trees are very effective straws, they tend to draw the remaining water from the pond bed and, in conjunction with the Autumnal leaf fall, reduce the oxygen levels and create stagnant water.

 Pre-Battle

The first stage was to ensure that any future operations would not jeopardize flora and fauna present. Supported by Shell Better Britain campaign, FOBWO commissioned an ecologist report to ascertain what was present and what the impacts of the planned operations would have. The group also had to look at its tool base and acquire the necessary items, including a boat.

 Battle Commences

Work began on the pond in early 1999, on thinning the willow.  This was continued in later tasks throughout 1999 and 2000; Hard work.  As more of the willow was cut, the pond level ceased to drop, and each spell of rain helped to fill the pond. The proximity of the newly planted woodland, sometimes tinder dry during the summer months, and the probability of vandalism and arson meant that stacking all the cut material on the pond side was not a viable option. It was decided to burn the branches and green matter in a controlled manner at the time of cutting, whilst larger pieces of wood were stacked as habitat piles.

 Many of the group’s tasks in 1999 were spent at the pond and referred to jokingly as “Slash and Burn”. At first, the procedure evolved in a tentative manner until the group became more practiced and confident. Initially there was very little space in which to work, and the wood had to be dragged out of the pond and onto the bank to be burnt. The stumps were cut close to the ground so that as the pond level rose over the winter it would hopefully drown the trees and prevent regeneration. The trees were felled using bow saws and bill hooks and limbs removed using loppers; easy to use tools.

 Mother Nature helps -The trees Strike Back

 Over the winter of 1999 -2000 some of the larger trees were blown over by high winds. One day was spent cutting as many of these down as could be reached safely, since the cutting meant wading into the turbid water with uncertain footing. The falling of the trees showed how shallow the root base of most of the willow is and when discussed later offered a solution to the removal of the stumps once they had been cut, they could simply (well not that simply!) be dragged out.

 The group returned to the pond later in 2000 to find that not only had the high water level water not killed the willow, but that every cut stump had sprouted anew. The speed of re-growth at Sammy Roy’s is truly exceptional. As more was cleared it became apparent that a losing battle was being waged, every time the group went to fell the trees the stumps showed new shoots. The trees were fighting back; nature does!  From the on-set it had been agreed not to use chemicals because of the risk to aquatic life; the idea of burning in the now reasonably large cleared area of the pond bed was suggested. Firstly not only would this prevent the risk of fire spreading to the wood, but water was easily available to extinguish the blaze and the fire could be built around the stumps in the hope of stopping or reducing re-growth until they were pulled out. To aid in the future removal of the stumps and root balls, three to four feet of stump was left to act as a lever in removal. To our horror, amazement, frustration and wry amusement (?) even the most heavily burnt of the stumps showed green shoots within two weeks! Despite the effort (and success!) of the willow to re-grow, over half of the willow was removed between 1999 and 2001.

 At the end of the cutting in 2000, and with over a third of the willow removed the group decided that rather than let the trees re-grow, meaning much more labour and repetition of work it would be best to bring forward the program of stump removal. Various ideas were suggested, including block and tackle and winching the stumps out or the use of a Bobcat. However the one decided on was old fashioned horse power.  Environmentally friendly, and without the risk of bogging down that machinery may involve.