Joe's post (Fixing the Fells.)

Hi, my name is Joe Cornforth. I am the guest blogger for Ranger Roy’s blog this week. I am the upland ranger working in Borrowdale, Buttermere, Ennerdale and Haweswater. I work in a three person team. We work through the summer months building and repairing paths in the uplands and during the winter we do estate work (walling, fencing hedging etc.)

We work with a dedicated group of Fix the Fells lengthsmen once a month doing various tasks. Last weekend we had them in for three days building a bench path on Carlside.

We were using a full bench path construction technique. We cut the full width of the tread into the hillside and used the excavated soil in the erosion scar from the old path. The tread is out sloped so that water runs off the path surface and the bank above the tread is then profiled and turfed.

A large erosion scar has formed on the hillside so we are putting this new sustainable path in and landscaping the scar so that it re vegetates. We also put some drainage ditches in to stop water and gravity further eroding the scar.

 Over the weekend we had fifty volunteers helping us. The work they did would have taken our team two weeks to do.

                                                

As well as the Carlside job we are working on Dale Head building a stone pitched path using stone that we flew in with a helicopter, The stone is bagged up from nearby screes.  We will be doing the same technique on Honister tramway later in the year.