Twenty one DPA members and friends met at Drakeford Bridge on Tuesday 25th June for a walk in the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve (NNR) at Bovey Valley Woods, where Natural England and The Woodland Trust work together. The weather was overcast, warm and dry.     Drakeford Bridge is not easy to find for…

  On Wednesday 12th June we had the annual orchid count at Pudsham Meadows.       Twenty-two DPA and Devon Wildlife Trust Volunteers set off in pairs or small groups, each surveying one species in one of the four meadows. A total of 4184 flowers were found.     In some areas, the orchids…

Six DPA volunteers spent two days receiving an introduction to stone walling from tutor Martin Stallard                                   There  is still work to be done on this wall.  We hope to continue to use what we have learnt, both at…

On Saturday 18th May, one week early because of the DPA AGM, 17 members and friends met at Meldon Dam car park. It was a rather grey day but we were dry! The walk started with a fairly steep slope down to the woods.     On reaching the woods, just at the entry, there…

  DPA land at High House Waste, north of Cornwood, includes an area of oak woodland, with a profusion of moss and lichens on the trees and a ground layer mostly of bluebells. In 2009, naturalist John Walters found the wood had a population of a very rare beetle – the blue ground beetle. Ten…

Twenty-two DPA members and friends gathered near the Warren House Inn on Thursday 25th April to visit Hurston Ridge double stone row. The weather was not the best, in fact, it rained occasionally and there was a breeze.     The first item of interest was a WB stone near the road, seen while walking…

On Monday 25th March, twenty-nine of us met at Swallerton Gate car park for a walk to two of Dartmoor’s most well-known sites, Jay’s Grave and Bowerman’s Nose.  The weather was a little grey at first with a cold wind but during the walk the clouds became more dispersed and the sun shone, making it a very pleasant walk. The…

On February 27th the Mardon volunteers enjoyed beautiful weather for the Spring work day. We divided into two groups. One group re-cut the ends of the T-shaped reeve and explored its possible continuation. They then moved on to re-cut an area of second world war trenches on the east slope. The rest of us worked…

What a day!  29 DPA members and friends met at Yellowmeade track car park, the old Mission site across the road and the old Pump House up the road for a walk to Foggintor quarry  on Monday 25th February. The weather was simply gorgeous – blue sky, wall-to-wall sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures. Our car was indicating 16°C…

In a new departure for the volunteers, last Friday 15th February, we joined the DNPA ranger, Ian Brooker, at Moortown Bottom (SX 663 892) to work on habitat for damselflies. The National Park is working alongside the Commoners and landowners to manage the habitat for Southern Damselflies, the lovely bright blue damselflies that we see…