MEMBERS of Norley Wildlife Group have been helping to restore land to a wetland moss.

Wickentree Waste is off Blakemere Lane, Norley, and group members are supporting a project led by Cheshire Wildlife Trust.

“As part of the Delamere Lost Mosses project headed up by Cheshire Wildlife Trust, the lowest ground at Wickentree Waste is being restored to a wetland moss and we are doing our bit to help,” said wildlife group chairman Phil Gifford.

“We were spending time restoring the protective barrier around the restoration site, pulling up plants that would impede that process of change and removing rubbish.

“The area is not strictly off limits, and we would encourage anyone to take a peek and investigate the variety of valuable plants that are getting established.

“We do, however, want to minimise footfall in the area to help plants grow and to stop the ground becoming compressed.

“Unfortunately the barrier made of trunks and branches is all too tempting for young industrious hands who want to build dens.

“At least the youngsters are out there interacting with the environment.

“The plants we have been removing are primarily bracken and birch seedlings. Both grow extremely quickly, supress other plants and dry out the ground.

“In a few years when the wet ground is better established they will find it harder to get a toe-hold, but for now we need to offer a helping hand by carefully digging them out.

Norley Wildlife Group is planning to plant 10,000 snowdrops along the route of a wildlife walk and in the village.

The planting is one a number of projects being undertaken by the community group, which created a wildflower walk last year to commemorate the Norley men who died in The First World War.

There are memorial plaques sited around the walk, and poppies have been sown around them in remembrance, as well as wildflowers with which the men would have been familiar when they walked around the village more than a century ago.

A guided walk takes place on Saturday, July 2, starting at St John’s the Evangelist Church at 2pm, to commemorate Norley’s contribution to the Battle of the Somme.