Here’s a  chance to add to the growing evidence that  woodland ownership, being in a woodland, talking to the trees, communing with nature….. is GOOD for us!

Last spring SWOG members contributed so some  valuable research about why people buy and how they manage their woodland, (downloadable from http://www.woodlands.co.uk/about-us/articles/woodland-owner-survey-report.pdf).  Following on from that, woodlands.co.uk are looking into some very interesting research into the effects on our wellbeing  of owning or being in a woodland.  As someone who has used woodland conservation projects as a theraputic tool for recovery in pychiatric patients, I can guess the outcomes, but how does it effect you?

The suvey will only take a couple of minutes and you’ll be adding to an important body of knowledge.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6P3YDGD

Please be assured that this work is completely confidential and once the results have been written up the original data will be destroyed. If you would like to receive a personal copy of the report that is created (in the form of a pdf) please do say (in the final text box) and we will email you a copy as soon as it is published.

Many thanks once again for your support and involvement.

A selection of 'Naturescraft'

Andy Noble of Naturescraft is offering some excellent deals on his bushcraft courses this year.

“For the whole of 2012, and not just for a limited period, we have reduced all our 2 and 3 day courses for this year to just £100.”

He ran a special SWOG introductory day back in September 2010 which enthused and inspired everyone who went along.  See the report here

http://www.swog.org.uk/articles/natures-craft-bushcraft-day/

Here’s the latest Newsletter with contact details for those wishing to book on  a course:

Hey there.

We hope that you all had an enjoyable Christmas and are now taking a well earned rest.

We have taken a mini break from Natures Craft over the last 6 months, and during that time I have added a son to my family – Oliver Rowan Noble.

During the break I have decided to make a bold move in order to make quality bushcraft courses available to as many people as possible during such a difficult financial period.  As such we have decided to slash up to 50% off ALL our weekend courses to offer them at just £100.  This by no means affects the quality, or the content or format, of the courses we offer and therefore, in our opinion, makes our weekend courses the best value for money of any Bushcraft course provider in the UK.  (Everyone who has already booked for 2012 will also receive this revised price)

Unfortunately we have had to cancel the Primative skills course we had planned for April, however all other courses which had previously been advertised as running will still be run as planned, and now at our new lower price.

Also don’t forget we are still offering a £50 Natures Craft voucher for every friend you recommend who then books a course and mentions your name during =ooking.

Thank you for your support and interest in Natures Craft, we truely appreciate it, and we look forward to hearing from some of you soon and hopefully seeing you around a campfire in 2012.

We sincerely hope that everyone has an enjoyable new year and has some great adventures.

Best wishes

Andy Noble & the Natures craft team.

We would love to hear from you too. Let us know what you think, what your up to, or just say ‘hello’. Remember you can not only drop us a note by email but also find us on our Facebook page

Andy Noble
Natures Craft
07825 313 432
andy@naturescraft.co.uk

The UK’s woodlands have been threatened in recent years by a range of exotic pests and diseases.  Here’s an excellent article from Dr John Morgan, head of the Forestry Commission’s Plant Health Service, including a handy  chart to help you identify them and what to do if you find them.

Download the full article here.

Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones pupils Thomas Hughes, Rhodri Morgan Hughes and Ifan Hughes plant a tree in their new woodland.

Happy New Year to everyone! Maybe the  excesses of the festive period are waring off by now and minds are turning to your woodlands and all those winter jobs.  You might be  coppicing, cutting firewood, clearing glades and rides, laying a hedge?  There are plenty of  jobs to keep us  busy this time of year, the story below is what some school children are up to in North Wales.

School children create Plant! site with a difference
A new woodland with a difference is growing on Anglesey – it was designed and planted by school pupils.
Children from Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones Secondary School in Amlwch spent last week (December 5 to 9) planting around 10,500 trees on the woodland, which will become the newest Plant! site when it’s established.

Launched in December 2007, Plant! is a Welsh Government project which seeks to give children and young people a sense of ownership of the natural environment.

The project, which has five other sites throughout Wales, also aims to encourage them and their families to enjoy the outdoors and learn a range of skills, as well as improving their physical and mental health.

The new woodland is called Coed y Felin (Wood by the Mill, in recognition of the mill beside the school) and was named by pupils Llinos Evans and her brother Llyr, who won a school competition.

It has been planted on 4.2 hectares of land which backs on to the school and is owned by Anglesey Council’s education department.

Pupils from Year 12 (aged 17) and Year 10 (aged 16) spent a day with Coed Cymru Officer Simon Hunt, Forestry Commission Wales Education Officer Nicky Maysmor and Plant! Project Officer Lajla Cash learning about the site and the importance of trees to the environment before sharing their knowledge with the whole school.

The children then marked out the woodland area and designed the footpaths, a bike trail, benches and interpretation materials which will be added at a later date.

Last week, the school’s 650 pupils planted between 10 and 20 trees each, accompanied by school staff, during a planting day co-ordinated by teacher Tracey Stretton.

Local MP Albert Owen also came along to lend a hand, along with Coed Cymru Director David Jenkins and Roger Thomas, chief executive of the Countryside Council for Wales.

Nicky said, “Planting the woodland themselves will give the children a real sense of ownership, and planting more trees will help us to tackle climate change as well as provide other benefits both now and in the future.”

Local businesses who supported the initiative were Huws Gray, who supplied wellies at cost price and Charter Services, who supplied waterproofs and embroidered the school’s logo on the jackets, free of charge.

The pupils’ involvement in creating the new woodland is being used to fulfil elements of their Welsh Baccalaureate qualification.

Year 10 used the planting as part of their awareness of the importance of sustainability, as well as taking the opportunity to gain hours for their community participation element of the Welsh Bacc.

Meanwhile, the Year 12s developed ideas to encourage people to visit the woodland as part of their enterprise activity for the Welsh Bacc. They then presented their ideas to a Dragon’s Den-style panel of local business owners and staff from Menter Mon, who selected the best business plan and ideas in a mock exercise.

The Plant! scheme is being delivered on the Welsh Government’s behalf by Forestry Commission Wales, in partnership with Coed Cadw (Woodland Trust).

By planting more trees, the Welsh Government aims to create a Welsh National Forest which will help to fight climate change as the trees will act as a carbon sink.

The other Plant! sites are in Coed Ysgubor Wen near Tywyn, at Coed Bryn Oer, near Tredegar, Cefn Ila, near Usk, at Caia Park, Wrexham and the soon-to-be launched Coedwig y Plant, Cwm Garw, near Bridgend.

There is something very satisfying  about planting trees.  I’m not talking about  the 21st century ‘instant gratification’ sort of satisfaction. More the knowledge that  you are making a difference to  the landscape; how it will  look in years to come  and the kind of ecosystem the trees will support and be part of.  I find this comforting even if we probably won’t be around to see them all come to maturity.

Below is an article from the FC about the massive tree planting program going on in Wales this winter.

On behalf of all the SWOG team, I’d like to thank everyone for contributing to the forum, the website and coming along to this year’s  meetings.  Hoping to see as many of you as possible in 2012, have a very Happy Christmas, prosperous New Year and much enjoyment from your woodlands.

Rich

____________
Richard Hare
SWOG website editor

Work that will help to shape how the Welsh countryside will look in years to come is under way as contractors set about planting the woodlands of the future.

Forestry Commission Wales has begun the job of planting 2.9 million trees over an area of Welsh Government woodlands equivalent to 1,100 rugby pitches.

The epic task unfolds every year as harvested areas, where trees have been cut down to feed a thriving forest industry, are restocked as part of the sustainable management of our woodlands.

It’s the ultimate embodiment of the renewable nature of wood, which supports an industry employing 10,000 people in Wales and which contributes more than £840 million to the Welsh economy.

Forestry Commission Wales calls on the services of around 40 skilled contractors, prepared to brave all weathers between now and next spring, to plant a variety of conifers and broadleaf trees.

The work is overseen by Wales Silvicultural Operations (WSO), which is responsible for maintaining the endless cycle of forestry after the trees have been harvested.

Operations Manager Neil Muir said, “This is a very busy period for us. Managing woodlands provides rural jobs and brings economic benefits, as we rely on a skilled contractor workforce to help us with this mammoth task.

“What we need is some favourable weather between now and the spring, to allow us to complete this large planting programme.”

Most of the trees, which come from Delamere nursery in Cheshire, will be conifers but some 730,000 will be broadleaves as Forestry Commission Wales plants a greater variety of species to make our woodlands more resilient to the effects of climate change.

One of the contractors, Emrys Jones of Llangynog, near Oswestry, employs three people in his re-stocking team and together they aim to plant more than 1,000 trees every day.

He said, “I’ve worked for Forestry Commission Wales for 10 planting seasons and always look forward to the challenge of a new season. The work is hard but we find it rewarding.

“We cover a wide area and plant an increasing variety of species ranging from Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, oak and ash – as well as putting on tree shelters to protect the trees from mammal damage.

“Last year was difficult due to the bad weather, so I’m hoping this year will be better – and warmer!”
Caption: Emrys and his team re-stocking Dyfnant forest in mid-Wales last year. Left to right: Aled Morris, Aled Jones, Emrys Jones, Jack Carnell.

Earlier this year, SWOG went down to the Westonbirt show to meet members in that part of the country and promote the group and small woodland ownership in general.  Afterwards we were kindly hosted by Nigel and Elaine from Lapwing wood and their neighbour Mike.

Mike introduced us to the fine art of scything.  Both woodlands are very young  and hence still have a lush herb and grass layer.  To keep this down to a manageable level, Mike prefers the gentle ‘swish’ of his scythe to the noisy polluting two stroke brush cutter.  Having tried it, I can understand why! It is a very gentle exercise, yet relaxing and calming at the same time.

I thought it would be a good idea to orgainise a SWOG workshop and open it up to members, but I recently found out that sycthing is recieving a resurgence of interest.

Andy Marczewski from Yaxham in Norfolk sent me the following message:

“There is quite a revival of scything in the UK.  We seem to have made progress on grass cutting techniques, but use for cereals etc is less “polished” – the skills really have almost disappeared.

There are two events to recommend – Here in the East the Wimpole event (June 23^rd-24^th) is very friendly and enjoyable and organised by the Wimpole forester Simon Damant the current national champion. There is the National event in Somerset the week before –“The Green Fair and Scything c Championships”  once again very friendly and plenty to see and do.  Courses are run at these events, but there are plenty of tutors around the country.”

More details can be found on the Sycthe Association’s website.

Andy was also keen to promote  the Bodgers Ball in May (this year in Devon)– it is run by The Association of Polelathe Turners and Greenwood Workers and is a good place to see many traditional woodland/greenwood skills

Thanks to Mike and Tracy who report on a really worthwhile emergency first aid course they have just been on.  Something that everyone doing potentially dangerous things in the woods really ought to consider.

I’m reliably informed that no limbs or body parts where actually removed from any of the participants!

Last weekend Tracy and I both went on a brilliant ‘wilderness first aid’ course run by Emergency Life Support Team, which was run in a woodland near Hastings. Our main instructor was Andy Sullivan, who has years of experience in the emergency services and is eminently qualified to teach people to save lives.
He was also assisted by Ali, whose speciality was setting up realistic incidents for us to train on – here she is with some self-inflicted ‘injuries’:

Peter joined us too on the second day, to act as a patient and also give us advice from the perspective of someone with police experience. Here he is, suffering from a shooting-related eye ‘injury’:

Andy actually prefers to call it a ‘First Responder’ course, rather than first aid. This is because he’s encountered a public perception that ‘first aid’ is about plasters and bandages, when in fact what he’s covering in the course is more about the serious life-threatening conditions we might encounter. We did of course cover minor injuries, but the main focus was on learning what to do with the more serious situations and gaining confidence through practice.

Anyway, the important point is that only about 1 in 50 people in the UK actually have the training to be a first responder, and if more of us were then lives would be saved. The two most important aspects of this course for me were the professional instruction and the experience gained through acted-out scenarios, and I’d thoroughly recommend anyone to go on a course like this. Just to give it another plug, here’s the website: www.elst.co.uk

Of course, the bonus was that we also got to spend two days outdoors in the woods as well!

Thanks Mike and Tracy, you can see the unabridged  multicoloured gory details on the Peplers blog here!

Rodney and Heather  have supplied us with a fascinating report on their newly found fondness for dormice and the steps they are taking  to encourage them to flourish in their wood.

Rodney and I have had a really interesting time this year monitoring the dormice in our wood whilst training to obtain our handling licence. We need this because they are a protected species and so we have been ‘shadowing’ two licenced recorders since April. That month 50 nest boxes were attached to trees at chest height around the wood and once a month since, the four of us have spent a couple of hours inspecting the contents.

On forms supplied by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, we have noted whether there was a nest and if so whether it was a neatly woven ball of honeysuckle bark, grass and leaves made by a dormouse or a loose layer of assorted leaves dragged in by a wood mouse. If we have been lucky enough to find a dormouse or even dormice in residence then the animals have been sexed, weighed and approximately aged before put back in their home. Over the season we have been really thrilled to see nests containing pink babies with their mother, lively juveniles with their parents, pairs of young adults and single adult males snoozing contentedly. We had been given the impression that because dormice are nocturnal, any found during the day are likely to be very sleepy or even torpid if the air temperature is cool. For some reason ours are extremely lively and on several occasions have leapt out of the nest box and run up the tree at the sound of approaching footsteps. In both July and August we recorded a total of 16 animals, 18 in September, and on the 1st November we found 20 – really good totals for a 14 acre wood with boxes only installed in two thirds of the area. Any dormice found this month weighing less than 12 grams will not survive hibernation so Rodney designed feeding tubes that he put up in trees closest to the nest boxes containing the youngest animals. We filled them with sweet chestnuts picked up from the woodland floor and as you can see from one of the photos they have certainly been appreciated!

Kevin Lerwill of the Gatwick Greenspace Partnership has sent us an interesting article about a recent overnight camp in a wood near Rusper. Their aim is to conserve and enhance the Sussex landscape, its wildlife and habitats and inspire people to care about their natural environment to help safeguard the county for future generations.

Gatwick greenspace is part of the Sussex Wildlife Trust, you will find them on Facebook and Twitter. To  join follow this link

You really can’t beat a day or two in the woods to recharge the mental batteries and escape from the pressures that we all face day to day…On a recent “overnighter” at Orlton’s Copse, near Rusper, West Sussex, a small group of us did just that…

After setting up the shelters, using Hornbeam logs and poles from last Winter’s thinning operations, the insulation and roofing was provided by a dense layer of Bracken from the nearby clearing. Showers had been forecast for that night, so we made sure that the Bracken was piled on to provide a layer several inches thick…with no gaps!

The next priority was to get the camp fire going…but we were going to try the traditional “Fire bow” method instead of a lighter, which, although it would have been a lot easier and quicker, would not have been such a satisfying achievement. Plus a few of us had not tried this before, so it was a good opportunity to learn a new/old skill!

The components we used were as follows (although there are many other kinds of wood that are just as good, if not better, but we used what was available to us)…

A Hazel bow, with cord, a Hornbeam drill, a Hazel hearth, a Hornbeam ember pan and a Hornbeam bearing block. The basic premise is that a hardwood drill rotated rapidly on a softwood base (hearth) will gradually produce a fine wood-dust powder and then an ember. All the components must be dry and not rotten.

Gouge a small area at one end of the hearth. Shape the drill evenly at both ends, so that a rounded end fits into the hearth and a slightly more pointed end fits into the bearing block. In a kneeling position, you then need to wind the bowstring once around the drill and move the bow backwards and forwards, keeping the drill upright  and exerting downward pressure onto the bearing block.

After several false starts (this needs patience), you should begin to get a steady rhythm going and begin to see dark wood powder forming as a result of the friction…You then need to cut a narrow “V” shaped notch out of one side of your hearth, so that this powder collects and drops onto your ember pan.

Finally, you should form an ember large enough, which will glow as it receives oxygen…this ember can be (carefully) transferred to a pre-gathered ball of dried grass (or other suitable tinder material). You then need to coax the ember into life by alternately blowing on it and covering it until smoke starts to emerge…a few more breaths and you should have flames…which you can then transfer to your cooking area.

There are variations on this technique, which are just as good and you might want to experiment yourself to find a way that suits you best…By trying different woods, you will also get different results each time. The final thing to do is to get your campfire kettle on the go and then decide who is going to cook the next meal! Believe me, it’s a great sense of achievement the first time you get flames from a few bits of wood, but it doesn’t come easy and it takes considerable effort, so try not to be too disappointed if it doesn’t work first time…Good luck!

SWOG were kindly offered a share of the Woodlands.co.uk tent at the Westonbirt woodfair which took place over the bank holiday weekend.

It was a very enjoyable event, mixed weather but plenty of enthusiastic woodie type people around and quite a range of woodland craft work on show.   Westonbirt is a much smaller event than Bentley for instance and does not have the  large contingent of heavy forestry exhibitors that most bigger shows have, but these are not necessarily of such interest to the small woodland owner.

We had some local and not so local members show up.  Many thanks to Nigel and Elaine of Lapwing Wood in Somerset, who kindly  took to the stand to help out and were great ambassadors for woodland ownership.   Margaret, an owner from Kent had made a long journey but  fortunately has relatives close by the Arboretum so found a ready excuse to visit the woodfair, or was it an excuse to visit her relatives!

Local owner Mike came along to show us the  tree survey he has completed for  his woodland.  Using an excel spreadsheet divided into a grid, Mike worked out a colour coding  method of  representing all his trees, according to size and species.  Certainly a huge help when it comes to working out his management plan.

We had bargain SWOG fleeces on sale, these are offered at cost price of £12 plus a free T – shirt, very useful for the autumnal weather which seems to have arrived and two zip pockets to keep your conkers and sweet chestnuts in respectively!  We will have them again at the Bentley woodfair so make sure you pick one up there, or email me at rich@swog.org.uk  if you can’t make it, I could send you one.

The show was well worth a visit if you didn’t make it, add  a note in your diary for next year, but make sure you put enough time aside to see the arboretum.  The highlight for me was the Giant Redwoods, (actually described as ‘Babies’, in relation to their Californian cousins) and the 2000 year old lime coppice. This is a coppice stool grown to about 30 metres in diameter and believed to be around 2000 years old, Penny and I found ourselves sheltering under it in one of the sporadic downpours of the weekend.  I wonder how many other people would have done the same thing over the lifetime of the stool?

Finally after the show Nigel and Elaine kindly hosted us at Lapwing wood, their beautiful young mixed broad-leaf woodland (planted about 20years ago).  We spent a very nice afternoon enjoying a bbq and looking around  their woodland and also their neighbour Mike’s wood.  We even got a bit of an impromptu  scything lesson from Mike.  These are a very efficient cutting implements for keeping down the grass and herb layer in young woodlands, glades and rides.  I believe ‘Living Woods’ magazine reported on a bit of a showdown at a woodfair between a scythe expertly used and a 2 stroke petrol engine brush cutter with the scythe winning the contest.  Not only that, but they are of course much, much, MUCH quieter, and eco friendly to boot.  I’m also told it is a relaxing almost meditative activity once mastered.  If anyone is interested, email me and we’ll see if we can get enough numbers to organise a more formal workshop.

So enjoy the rest of the show season,  there’s still a few to go so don’t miss out, check out  the Woodfairs website.
________________
Richard Hare
SWOG website editor

rich@swog.org.uk
www.swog.org.uk