The 14th of December was the last workday of the year for the DPA conservation volunteers, so we chose a section of the Devonport Leat that has a very good rest area which is also large enough to maintain social distancing, plus giving some protection from the wind. The work consisted of finishing the tidying…

Our calendar of events and conservation workdays is displayed below. Please note that due to inclement weather it is occasionally necessary to postpone or cancel events. You are strongly advised to contact the organiser of the event beforehand to check the details of the day and the meeting time and place. You can click on…

The Dartmoor Conservation Garden is a wild-planted conservation garden showing some of Dartmoor’s typical habitats and native plants. It is sited directly behind the DNPA’s National Park Visitor Centre in Princetown, within the Jack Wigmore Garden and is free for everyone to visit. It hosts important archaeological features including a 4,000 year old Bronze Age…

Pearl-bordered Fritillary butterfly. Photo: Jim Asher DPA volunteers started work on this project on 19th Nov 2012 in bad weather, there were no photographs and no report on the DPA blog! The project is butterfly conservation at Common Wood, “near Horndon”. This is an isolated woodland with scrub extending up the valley sides of the…

Dartmoor Preservation Association has worked on conserving the leats on Roborough Common for several years. Not long ago we finished a section of Plymouth Leat after five years work. Now, on 28th February 2013, we completed a section of Devonport Leat – it was commenced on 2nd Sep. 2011. The photograph above shows the final…

Photo – Jim Asher. The DPA Conservation Volunteers are working hard at Common Wood to improve the habitat for the Pearl Bordered Fritillary. You can read all about it (and our other conservation projects) on our blog site at The DPA Blog.

Devonport Leat This article illustrates the “before” and “after” of scrub clearance on Devonport Leat. The work done by the DPA volunteers can have dramatic results. Looking over the parapet of the bridge that carries the road to Chubb Tor across the golf course and over the leat – but where is the leat? The same…

The first work day on this new conservation project. Twenty-three volunteers turned out on Fri 2nd September 2011 for the first work day on the old Devonport leat where it crosses Roborough Common. We congregated at Clearbrook car park beside Drake’s Leat, which supplied old Plymouth. The team walked to the site along the cycle…

The DPA owns this area of Dartmoor, on the southwest of the Moor, north of Cornwood, centred on grid reference SX610625. There are gates and information boards in both the north and west walls, and stiles on the south and north east (all entrances are shown on the information boards). The land is a Site…

Anyone who has waded through a sea of vegetation looking for ancient hut circles or a burial cist will be very aware of the way in which bracken hides surface archaeological remains. But bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) does far more damage underground. Unlike most ferns, bracken does not rely on spores to spread. Instead it depend…