The big burn

We were forewarned as we were notified through social media that a section of the Reserve had burned on Friday but we were not prepared to see the devastation it had caused to all our hard work with the Arboretum, the pipe line, newly planted trees and various signage.

It may be a case of ‘I told you so’ but for the past year we have been pushing for the controlled burning which would have avoided this disaster and have tried to fight the lack of interest and will to do anything about it. The question now is how we can keep the motivation going in our small group because of one thing we can be sure, if we don’t fix and replant things the whole arboretum will be abandoned.

The entrance to the Arboretum with the Widdringtonias and Cupresses burnt to a crisp.

The sorry sight of the signs.

The hut with its thatched roof and piles of grass totally destroyed.

The bird hide which Neil took many hours to build partially destroyed.

The water supply burnt in at least three places.

At least this will recover by itself including the alien seed bank.

What the plants need now is water, a little more than I could provide.

Fortunately in spite of all this our monthly meeting was a success, unlike the previous one everybody got stuck in and the accomplishments were:

• part of the Nymph Trail was mown and cleared.
• the shade cloth was stitched to the side of the shade house
• a lot of shelves were covered with plastic in the greenhouse
• some of the leaks in the water pipe were fixed
• part of the traffic circle was weeded
• the door to the Fovs room was trimmed to fit