The country-side rangers duties include regular patrols, usually on a weekly basis, of the lake-shore properties to check on any problems and deal with them.
Litter picking and pulling out invasive himalayan balsam takes up a fair amount of this time.
Whilst checking Galava, located at the head of Windermere, we discovered that there had been a collapse over the covered culvert through which Fisherbeck runs; sometimes the culvert is unable to contain the volume of water, after heavy rainfall, and it will find a weak spot and punch a way through.
As this culvert is close to a very popular footpath to the Roman Fort, and the fact cattle graze this area we needed to repair it as quickly as possible!
We put in place a large traffic cone to warn of and at the same time cover the hole.
Luckily we were able to locate a large slate to cover the hole.
With the recent heay rain it wasn't possible to effect a full rebuild of the collapsed culvert but this will be done when the water levels have dropped.
This sort of problem does highlight the importance of regular patrols, particularly of the most popular sites!
