Small Woodland Owners' Group (SWOG)

News & Events

  • Launch of the Observatree Project

    Kate Hutchinson,   has  announced the official launch of the Observatree project today. More than 200 UK-wide Observatree volunteers have been trained as citizen scientists and we encourage everyone to be more observant and report possible signs of tree pests and diseases. Read the full story in our media release.     You can help us…

  • May 2015 Newsletter

    It’s an exciting week, but the SWOG newsletter is bucking national trends by ignoring the forthcoming election and recent royal birth. Instead, we have far more useful news for woodland folk. We discuss recent news to re-introduce the wild lynx to Britain John Clark passes on vital tips about firelighting Fran Southgate of the Sussex…

  • April 2015 Newsletter

    No, not an April  fool – just the latest edition of the SWOG newsletter. With news of a popular SWOG meeting in Yorkshire, it also includes a guide to handling and the maintenance of knives (and the law around them), as well as a feature about Rich’s long-term hedging project.

  • Planting a New Hedge

    For many woodland owners especially those with ancient woodlands, our hedges are our boundaries. They may have been planted 100’s of years ago, some still managed as hedges, having been layed, pollarded or coppiced many times, others are unrecognisable as a hedge, more a line of full grown trees which is what all hedges aspire…

  • March 2015 Newsletter

    It’s officially spring and the March newsletter has news of new DEFRA forestry grants, instructions on how to make a sturdy bushcraft bed, and an appreciation of the work of the late Oliver Rackham.

  • Witherslack Forestry & Woodfuel Fair Saturday 28 February

    Witherslack Forestry & Woodfuel Fair – Saturday 28 February Come and join us at Halecat House, Witherslack on Saturday 28th February, 10:00 – 16:00 for our latest Forestry and Woodfuel Fair. There will be plenty going on in the woodlands of the estate throughout the day including: ·         Various felling and extraction demonstrations ·         Community…

  • February 2015 Newsletter

    The February newsletter is packed with useful information. Chris Latchford of the Surrey and Sussex Coppice Group has written a really useful guide to coppicing for beginners, while John Clark continues his bushcraft series with a timely discussion of the most versatile knives for bushcrafters. In other news, divers discover an ancient forest of the…

  • Meeting in Yorkshire 28 Feb 2015

    There are still a few places available for the SWOG meeting in Bill and Shan Rigby’s wood in North Yorkshire, 28 February 2015, 10am-1pm . Relative newcomers to the world of woodland ownership, Bill and Shan own a 5-acre wood just 20 miles from York. They’re keen to chat to fellow SWOG members and to…

  • January 2015 Newsletter

    A very happy new year to all SWOG members. The first newsletter of 2015 is small but perfectly formed, with articles about bushcraft and a review of Seeing Butterflies by our resident moth and butterfly expert Heather Martin.

  • Seeing Butterflies – Book review by Heather Martin

    When I first opened ‘Seeing Butterflies’ I was so enthralled by the superb photographs of butterflies and moths that I kept turning the pages treating the volume initially as a picture book, a visual experience further enhanced by the entire contents being printed on yellow, orange and green paper as opposed to the more traditional…

  • December 2014 Newsletter

    Fed up with Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers?  The SWOG newsletter has none of them, but we do wish all our members a very merry Christmas. Escape the madness and read about Dan Gould, arborist and recent convert to horse-logging Living with a log-fuelled biomass heating system Book reviews – Oliver Rackham’s The Ash…

  • European Coppice Conference 2014

    Kentish woodlands and the traditional way they are managed were the focus of an international conference hosted by the University of Greenwich. Visitors from across Europe, as well as from South Africa and Turkey took part in a three-day conference in the heartland of the British coppice industry to learn new techniques, share experiences and…