Planting Day 14 May 2010

Our group of ‘Alien Invasion’ volunteers went to the Mini Reserve at the edge of the park, an area worn away by flood, and erosion due to quad bikes, cycles and so on - when the marked track is muddy people seek another route.

The aim of our work is to restore vegetation in this area at the side of the track – it can be seen on the photos to the left of the rope.

Park employees laid a mixture of plants out for us to use. Today we were concentrating on four species of native plants which can survive in extremely saline conditions.

Cuttings were taken from plants in the area near to the lake, then brought on to suitable size in a plant nursery. Today we planted them out.

It is hoped that they will increase and over time cover the bare area.

We stopped for a sandwich break in the middle and still finished in record time - just before the rain came!!

Representatives of the Comunitat Valenciana were extremely impressed at the speed of our work and the effort we put in, especially as conditions were far from ideal – it was windy and cold at times. They are very grateful to our group!

Jesus has lots of photos which he will share with us soon. Many thanks to everyone involved – it was very satisfying to continue our ‘hands on’ work for our beautiful park.