Friday, 5th June 2009
Clayfield Copse, Caversham ~ Building loggery (for BBC South filming)
The weekend of 6th and 7th June 2009 was designated by BBC Breathing Places as "Dirty Weekend" with events across the country to encourage participation in conservation - Reading is a Breathing Places Town for the year commencing April 2009
The regular monthly task at Clayfield on 7th June was registered as a "Dirty Weekend" task and it was decided to build a loggery, a habitat for stage beetle larvae. (The stag beetle is a protected species and a priority on Reading Borough Council's Biodiversity Action Plan.)
Saturday, 6th June also happened to be Forbury Fever an annual event in Forbury Gardens, this year with the theme "Unite to combat Climate Change". For the first time Econet had a stall at this event to promote wildlife conservation in general as well as the activities of Econet and in particular Clayfield's Dirty Weekend task.
Despite dismal weather with light rain for much the day, Econet's stall was a great success with the stars of the day being the slowworms, especially with younger visitors.
On Sunday the action moved to Clayfield Copse and the building of the loggery.
This is the second loggery on the site, the first was built on Friday for filming by BBC South TV as part of the promotion for "Dirty Weekend" and made a brief appearance in that evening's edition of "South Today".
The brevity of the TV appearance did little to promote the group or Sunday's event, neither being mentioned, although details where available on the Breathing Places website. More successful was Judith's live interview with BBC Radio Berkshire on Sunday morning from the newly built loggery.
Earlier in the week CROW had been at Clayfield to prepare the sites for both loggeries and in particular, that for the filming...
The site...
The hole...
On CROW navvying duty that day, Mary and Laurence with Dave supervising and Phil capturing the scene for posterity.
Other CROW members on site: David, Judith, Margaret, Mike and Alan.
The logs...
Fortunately Dave, the Chief Inspector of Loggeries, was on hand to give his approval.
All that remained to be done was to remove the logs, refill the hole and await the arrival of the TV crew...
Friday morning (a little later than expected)
And then they were gone, off to Poole to film the building of a pond for newts.
Econet would like to thank everyone who helped make these events possible, including the BTCV for the loan of their gazebo and Berkshire MS Therapy Centre for the use of their tables at the Forbury Fever.