Portway Hill, Blue Rock Quarry, Rowley

It was another cold day with broken cloud, a light breeze and some light rain showers when we met at St. Brades Close at 10.30. Tom Hartland-Smith from the BBC Wildlife Trust was standing in as our supervisor and once again volunteers from the Friends of Rowley Hills joined us for the day.

Continuing on from our visit in May, we worked at clearing spoil from the base of the main dolerite exposure. Friends Group members quickly whisked the spoil away to use for improving the footpaths crossing the reserve.

On noticing that the plaque on the Wildlife Trust’s interpretation cairn had been removed, we were informed that this was due to local kids vandalising it once again. We were also told that there was an on-going problem with local youths riding motorbikes across the reserve. With continuing government cuts and issues with land ownership either side of the reserve, problems such as this are not going to go away anytime soon.

Hopefully we will be back soon with more volunteers to keep up the fight against vegetation – and to shift more spoil!