This is a six week project involving TCV staff and volunteers near Wick, I attended during week 2 of the project.
The idea is to move already established marram grass to an area of newly created dunes to help stabilise them and avoid the sand encroaching into the nearby Subsea 7 plant. In addition to the marram grass, several fences are being constructed to help create the dune structure. The marram is planted in rows, each plant 500mm from it’s neighbouring plant and 500mm from the next row which is slightly offset from the last to create a matrix of plants.
The previous two sections that had been planted in week one were starting to show signs of the sand building up around the base of the plants so the technique seemed to be working as planned.
A view of the dunes from the railway track, the tow head is visible in the distance.
First job is to dig out the existing plants from the established dunes, we took care to only remove a few so we didn’t decimate an area.
Next job was to get them over to the planting area, a planting sack proved ideal for this task
A string line was laid and 500mm measurements marked along the length.
Once marked the holes were created with a pinch bar, approximately 30cm deep.
Once the planting holes were created each one got a pinch of fertiliser
Then came the plants, we had to make sure they had feathery roots showing on the main root otherwise they would not grow.
This is our first line going in, only another 200 or so lines to go…
At the end of day one we managed 42 lines with 42 plants, a little over 1600 put in.
Near the end of day 2 and we’d made some good progress and were on the downward slope.
We made good use of our breaks and managed to fit in a bit of environmental art
Being that this was the most northerly point I’d ever been in the UK I couldn’t resist a visit to John O’Groats to get a photo to prove it 🙂
The proof!
With 4 weeks to go on the project I’ve no doubt it will be finished but I for one would enjoy a trip back up next year to see how well our hard work has paid off.