EFOG takes a banana to Aldersbrook Wood

Aldersbrook Wood has been a neglected small area of woodland adjacent to Wanstead Park, and acting as green barrier between it and a 1970's housing estate. (see here for more information)

It seemed to have been forgotten by its owners, the London Borough of Redbridge, and although much used by birds and animals - including a pack of foxes that seem to live in it, it was either mostly unappreciated or even abused by local people. The abuse mostly takes the form of the depositing of casual litter, fly-tipping or garden clearance throw-outs.

I managed to get the attention of L.B.Redbridge partly by the psychological ploy of giving the wood its name - it is very much part of the Aldersbrook area so Aldersbrook Wood seemed quite appropriate and quite nice sounding. An Internet search for "aldersbrook wood" now even brings up one or two references in addition to my own! So - together with the Borough's Conservation Ranger Francis Castro - we marked out the wood for a practical work day on April 12th.

This was to take place with LB Redbridge staff and anybody who wished to attend. It was a bit unfortunate that I was allocated an important hospital appointment on the very day, so it was a bit of rush for me to get there, and because of the nature of the treatment was inhibited from getting stuck in.

However, when I arrived I found that there were three Redbridge staff, two people from Leytonstone that do conservation work with other groups, one member of the Wren Conservation Group who lives very near the wood, and Sue and Jim and Ann and Duncan from EFOG. From work we have done at Copped Hall, Chigwell Riding Trust and Snaresbrook in particular, it can be assumed that EFOG's contribution to the work was substantial. It was a warm day, but the wood offered some shade, and banana breaks notwithstanding, a quite incredible amount of rubbish was cleared between 11am and about 2.30pm. This included most of the component parts of a motorcycle, a boat's paddle, various bits of electronic equipment and countless drink cans. (well - they could've been counted, but there wasn't much point)

I assumed that probably it wouldn't be noticed by many that anything had happened, but at least got an e-mail from somebody who knew that it did saying they couldn't find any rubbish there anymore. We did do a bit of vegetation clearance along the main path through the wood, but because of the time of year thought it prudent not to do too much of that because of disturbance to wildlife at this time of year. It is hope that another work day will take place much later in the year when some bramble can be cleared, and glades and paths opened up.

Aldersbrook Wood is almost contiguous with "my" pet project, which was the old Redbridge Southern Sewage Works site - which became part of Epping Forest. The wood is tiny even if compared to that, but it's so important that green spaces such as this are retained and cared for, so they can act as a barrier to development, a public amenity and a place for wildlife to live. Thanks to those members of EFOG who helped towards achieving this.

Paul Ferris, 20th April 2011