Wilder Woods

We would like to congratulate Henry, Mark, Ryan, Korey, Ashleigh and Neill for achieving their John Muir Awards for conservation. Henry, Mark, Ryan and Korey will receive the second tier of this award – the Explorer Award and Neil and Ashley have completed the first level ‘Discovery’.

Part of the Explorer Award involved a days coppicing work for the National Trust at Ivythorn Wood. The boys have also built a coracle.

The Discovery Award has focused around the bird life at Hallr Wood. The boys have learnt more about the birds we have there and have made fat logs to help the birds through the colder spells.
We had a great term – to see photos check out the Hallr Wood gallery.

http://wilderwoods.org/gallery/wilderwoods/?albumid=5552324218775637089

We had a wonderful day in Drayton Woods on Sunday November 7th and lots of jobs got done.

15 adults and 9 young people helped. With 24 helpers this was the largest turn out at Drayton so far.

A new canvas shelter was put up with the expert guidance of Martyn Huxter  This has created an outdoor wood craft working area.

The new shelter stood up excellently to the storm we had on Sunday night/ Monday- it went up just in time!

Over the day lots of people planted 200 bluebells, 50 anemone and 50 narcissi bulbs.  We checked our bird boxes in the wood.  Two nests were found and the identification of egg remains revealed that coal tits had been using the boxes. The boxes were repaired and strengthened and put back with some new additions to make them more waterproof.

5 ash trees and a small leafed lime were planted, compost and wood ash was the woodland garden put on the woodland garden and bulbs planted. Brush & brambles around the fire area were cleared and logs sawed for firewood. Young volunteers put down woodchip around the campfire area in preparation for the wet weather & mud.  A vice that had been donated to the Forest School was cleaned & freed up ready to be set up in the new woodworking area.The weather was sunny all day!  As the tarpaulin went up the sun set, and it got a lot colder.  We were glad to gather around the blazing campfire to drink a toast of hot spicy cider to all our hard work and to a Winter well prepared for!

250 trees from the Woodland trust have now arrived so watch this space for further opportunities to come and plant some of them!

Photos of the day can be viewed on our website:  http://wilderwoods.org/gallery/drayton-woods/

Thanks once again to all involved

We had a wonderful day with 19 young people who came and helped with woodland tasks. We planted woodland bulbs, moved wood, put up nest boxes and also enjoyed a visit from National Trust wardens.
Many thanks to all those who came and also to Somerset County Council who support us.

We were delighted to have a visit from David Heath over half term. His clear enthusiasm for the project was a boost at this difficult time waiting for our planning application to go in.

The Western Gazette reported on the visit. Here is a link to the article.

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Bid-branch-woodland-classroom/article-2807234-detail/article.html

Peter has also been to a meeting with Nick Hurd through the Directory of Social Change in London on 27th October. We were invited by Jay Kennedy, Head of Policy at DSC after I wrote to Nick Hurd as Minister for Civil Society. Jay Kennedy said,

“I was struck by your example of the planning regulations inhibiting your work with children in woodlands, it’s a unique one compared to many of the other things that have been submitted, but a perfect illustration of the kind of thing that needlessly gets in the way.”

Over 100 people of varying ages came to our sunny Woodland Open Day in West Charlton. Some were visiting forest school practitioners but most were local people.
We had plenty of help all day. Bryn, Henry, Ed, Mark, Andrew, Dec, Brendan, Sue, Corrina and Neill got the fires going, put up signs and trails, did last minute path clearing. Tom and Martyn set up the spring pole lathe and shave horses. Lynda and Peel set up the bottom camp with spinning wheels and Peel’s shave horse. Many brought delicious cakes. Jane, Sally and Maggie worked tirelessly serving teas and cakes. Becky brought marshmallows (very popular). 42 children went around the woodland trail and claimed stickers for their efforts. The swing was in constant use.
We were really impressed at the number of people who walked and cycled. There were 26 bikes and a disabled buggy parked among the trees at one point.
It was an opportunity for villagers to see the project and have a go on the spring pole lathe and shave horse and Lyndas’ spinning wheels. It was wonderful to feel the high level of local support for our planning application for mixed forestry/ educational use which the wood needs to survive.

It will be our third attempt this year to secure correct permissions. The application includes small scale/ sympathetic parking commensurate with low level use (groups mostly come by single mini bus) as Highways/Planning won’t accept use of the parish car park.

If our application is successful we can restore visits to pre-school/ school/ continue our small group forest education work alongside our restoration of the plantation. Although we didn’t want to provide parking, it will make it easier for those with limited mobility to get involved.

£60 was donated for bulbs and trees from teas. Thank you to everyone who helped, or came along and supported us, making yesterday such a wonderful event.
P.S. Many many thanks to Ingrid Crawford for her superb photos which are now up in the Hallr Wood gallery. There are more on our facebook page.

Members of the team have been busy this summer with outreach stalls at a variety of fetes and open days. We started off helping Simon Beard and Simon Clarke at Shapwick Heath on their Avalon Marshes Open Day in May. Thanks to Jane for getting together our youth groups exhibition in time for this event. We have a long history of co-operation with wildlife groups and we enjoyed meeting lots of people. We had decided to take a break from attending the Bath and West Show – because it is four intensive days it is hard for such a small group to cover it and I was busy with forest school at the Sunrise Festival. Perhaps next year we will have more willing helpers and be able to do both.

In June Jane, Martyn and myself supported Hannah with a CSOLP stall at the Green and Scything Fair – a wonderful sustainable event which grows every year.

During July Martyn had a well attended stall at Priddy Folk Fair and also later that month at the Barton Carnival – helped by Henry. I was unable to help as I was helping at Paddington Farm Open Day.

Martyn cobbled together a superb rustic stall shelter using hazel poles and the off cuts from our main tarpaulin in time for the Charlton’s Village Day on 24th July. We had a great day toasting marshmallows (worth the 3 page risk assessment!) and were very encouraged by the interest from local people, many of whom signed our petition.

We were also invited to Farm Fest at Gilcombe Farm.

Our main summer effort was attending the Wilderness Gathering at the Bison Farm in Wiltshire from 19th August. This is a 3 day extravaganza of bushcraft enthusiasts. Hannah and Lynda offered a tranquil antidote to all the khaki and knives with their peg loom weaving and spinning, whilst Martyn and I housed the main group display and his wonderful collection of bows and spoons. We all came back inspired and I bought lots of kit for Paddington Farm so that their forest school activities can be more easily facilitated.

The last event of the summer is the Open Day at Hallr Wood on 12th September which we hope lots of local people will support.

We have just finished a week of work experience for four year 10 pupils from Crispin School. They were a wonderful enthusiastic group and we hope to see them on volunteer days in the future.
As part of general woodland maintenance the boys cleared paths and made steps, they also cut back overhanging foliage on the adjoining track for the benefit of jockeys and race horses which use it daily. On Wednesday we processed firewood and delivered a load to CSOLP treasurer, Darryl. On Thursday pupils helped mark trees for thinning and calculated volumes for a Forestry Commission license. On the last day we cooked rabbit stew and installed our sweet chestnut water barrel which will store drinking water for the wood.
Thank you to Martyn, Rosa, Jane, Peter and Eddie who helped give the boys the support they needed to make the experience valuable .
This summer we have run a few events in Hallr Wood but they have been restricted in order to comply with the 28 days ancillary use allowed by planning law. Our regular Wednesday KS4 group continues. This is a small group of older pupils who may be interested in a career in countryside management and conservation. They help with woodland maintenance. We are also due to have a Volunteer Day on Sunday 4th July so we are well ahead with our jobs.

The hot dry spell has left the willow planted last autumn looking a bit the worse for wear. We are getting short of water – could do with a good deluge to fill up our water butts. We have no mains water – everything we use is collected and drinking water is brought in.
Our planning ‘situation’ rumbles on. We continue to need support from people – anyone really- especially those who have been involved with our group or who appreciate that we are trying to restore a small uncommercial woodland for the benefit of the community.

We have run two taster days for small groups of secondary aged pupils interested in a possible career in forestry,conservation and countryside management in conjunction with Crispin and St Dunstan’s Schools.

The weekly sessions will resume after half term on 9th June and we are seeking funding to continue the project in September.

Do contact us for more information. forestschool@beccott.com

CSOLP has recently worked in partnership with the local Forest Education Initiative Cluster group to deliver a woodland toys project aimed at teenagers and pre-school children.

During the project, the teenagers designed and made simple wooden toys for pre-school children. The young people learnt basic green woodworking skills and pyrographic (writing with fire!) techniques to produce some beautiful and innovative toys.

The teenagers subsequently donated the toys to Yeovil College Children’s Centre and attended a play session at the Drayton site. The young children were obviously delighted with their new toys. Please look at the Gallery at Gallery -> Photos By Heather Brown -> 2010-05-01 and Gallery -> Drayton Woods -> Toddlers Play with Toys

CSOLP hosted a Green Wood Working Skills Day for the local Forest Education Initiative Cluster group on 8th May.

A chilly start to Saturday morning saw the arrival of nine, keen greenwood working students. Martyn took us through the essential safety talk and with his expert tuition we got to grips with the mechanics of making shave horses.

During the day we were lucky enough to find a piece of “olive” ash. The “oohs”and “aahs” went up as we split the log to find the beautiful green, brown pattern revealed within. An informative, enjoyable and productive day was had by all.