Autumn 2023

www.sandridge-pc.gov.uk 26 AUTUMN 2023 F riends of Jersey Lane (FoJL) was inaugurated just three months ago, its primary aim being to work in partnership with residents, the County Council and other organisations, to promote conservation of the Lane’s natural assets and enhance its biodiversity. Encouragingly, much has been achieved in a relatively short space of time. Membership is open to all, and, to date, in excess of 50 residents have expressed an interest in working with us. Objective We are working closely with the Herts County Council Countryside Management Service (CMS) and Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust (HMWT), whose expertise will be invaluable in assisting us to ful!l a number of our objectives for the Lane. We know, for example, that a variety of bats inhabits several stretches of the Lane so, with HMWT’s assistance, we installed a bat detector at a suitable location for one week to !nd out which species are present. We now aim to repeat this procedure in other likely spots. We are grateful, too, for the Parish Council’s loan of an additional bat detector, together with the bene!t of Parish Councillor Jenny Robert’s extensive knowledge of this aspect of the Lane’s wildlife. Looking a"er the wide variety of trees and vegetation is another of our major priorities and we want, of course, to ensure that any work done by volunteers is carried out in a wildlife-friendly manner. To this end, three Committee members, kindly assisted by Mark Carter, who assists in managing the trees in Jersey Farm Woodland Park, recently walked the Marshalswick section of the Lane and identi!ed a number of particularly valuable trees. This contributes to our aim of determining how we might best proceed, and future projects to be considered could include managing tree heights, removing ivy to prevent weakening, identifying suitable sites for hedgerow-planting and removing unsightly, dumped garden waste. We are also very keen to involve members (and, indeed, any interested residents) in building a picture of the variety of the Lane’s birdlife. A ‘bird walk’ is envisaged for the future, but for the time being you could make a really helpful contribution to our e#orts by downloading the Merlin Bird ID (Cornell) app and sending us reports of the bird songs identi!ed and when and where (using lamppost numbers) these occurred. Email your !ndings to: friendsofjerseylane@gmail. com