If the work was being done on one of the parts of the fishery where the land is owned by the Estate then this fire would not be lit. The brash would be laid in special, elongated piles in a loose thatch. Such a structure is simply known as a "Beetle Bank". I have some in Duck Holds Wood. They break down slowly and provide great habitat for beetles and their larvae, this brings the wrens, dunnocks, robins and other insectivorous birds to feed here.
There is one Beetle Bank near where I sling my hammock in high summer. I doze off. Wake up and there in the Beetle Bank I can watch a wren picking his way carefully through the juicy delights that live there and then he flits up to the top of the brash and sings his head off in stout proclamation that all this is his, all the females hereabouts are his, all the territory around this bounteous castle are his and don't anyone forget it...
Not here though. It's a popular walk and folks like to see everything neat and tidy. They wouldn't recognise the value of a Beetle Bank. There would be complaints about the place looking untidy. So the keepers are requested to burn up the brash even though as green wood it will take some getting going. The turf has been cut away and carefully stored. When the burning is over all will be cleared up and made tidy and the turf relaid leaving no sign that there had ever been a fire there.
Still there will be light on the river bed and the Ranunculus fluitans can regain ascendancy like it has just here.
The river and its inhabitants will benefit and so, therefore, will we!
Regular Rod
Lower Lathkill fishing hut ranunculus bed?
ReplyDeleteNo, its on the Wye, on the right bank about 150 yards downstream of the confluence with the Lathkill.
ReplyDeleteRegular Rod
The burning looks like upstream of the bridge in a well-known Derbyshire town... Let's hope that the insanity of micro-hydro schemes doesn't undo the good work that maintains and inproves habitat
ReplyDeleteHappy 2012
La_jolla1
I have never heard of "Beetle Bank". Very interesting stuff. I would be baffled if I came across a keeper on the creeks over here. Sometimes they are so hairy it makes for some hard casting, but some wonderful specimens:) Thanks for sharing. Tight Lines.
ReplyDeleteHi there Trout MaGee!
ReplyDeleteIn a crowded island like ours, keepers are vital.
The keepers aren't there to make our casting easy! Far from it. They are there to make the most of a scarce resource in England, a clean river. Their work is one of habitat creation, maintenance and protection. It's a complicated process of husbandry that leads to bigger populations of fish and the species connected to them. Their work has a positive influence on life in everything from the rivers to their banks, then the land in the vicinity, the hills beyond and even to the sky itself!
Whenever I get all bubbling with excitement over seeing something wonderful in the way of wild life that I know has arrived here thanks to the rich pickings created by the keepers, I might remark on it to Warren, the Head River Keeper on the estate where I love to fish most weeks in the season. He once woke me up by simply saying: "Yes. It's good, and it's all paid for by anglers!"
Regular Rod