Woodland Management Session Dates
First Aid Training and Kit Bag
Community Woodfuel - A New Group
2024 AGM
This year’s AGM will be held virtually on Tuesday 10th September at 7.00pm. The details of the Zoom Meeting can be found in the Members Information & Announcements area once logged in. Information & Announcements
Agenda
- Welcome & Apologies
- Minutes of 2023 Meeting
- Chair & Director’s Report
- Treasurer’s Report
- Membership
- The Hub Sub-committee Report
- Operations Sub-committee Report
- Nether Hall Wood Sub-committee Report
- Election of Officers
- A.O.B
Please let us know if there are any specific areas or topics you would like the committee to cover at the meeting.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Woodland Management Session Dates
Woodland Management session dates are released a month at a time for members to book on to, this does not apply to non wood fuel sessions. Woodland Management sessions will be released on the following schedule:
Multi-skilled members get early access to ensure the sessions are viable. Multi-skilled members are those members who have multiple skills that are required to run a session, i.e. First Aid and ATV Driver, Session Lead and First Aid, Clearing saw and First Aid, etc. When the sessions are available to multi-skilled members there will be no waiting list available. When the required multi-skilled spaces have been filled other multi-skilled members will need to wait until the sessions have been released to all members. The waiting list will then be available. If the session you want is full please book on to the waiting list, as this allows the team to assess the demand for places and add sessions as required (if possible).
October Woodland Management sessions
- Available from 6pm on the 1st September to all members, increased spaces and a waiting list.
- Sat 5th
- Tue 8th
- Sat 12th
- Tue 15th
- Thu 17th
- Sat 19th
- Tue 22nd
- Thu 24th
- Mon 28th
November Woodland Management sessions
- Available from 6pm on the 15th September to multi-skilled members, limited spaces, no waiting list.
- Available from 6pm on the 1st October to all members, increased spaces and a waiting list.
- Sat 2nd
- Tue 5th
- Sat 9th
- Tue 12th
- Thu 14th
- Sat 16th
- Thu 21st
- Mon 25th
December Woodland Management sessions
- Available from 6pm on the 15th October to multi-skilled members, limited spaces, no waiting list.
- Available from 6pm on the 1st November to all members, increased spaces and a waiting list.
- Mon 2nd
- Tue 3rd
- Sat 7th
- Tue 10th
- Sat 14th
- Tue 17th
- Thu 19th
- Sat 21st
David Gravett | Membership Co-ordinator
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First Aid Training and Kit Bag
There have been a couple of First Aid training/refresher courses ran recently in preparation for the start of the new season. There is always feedback and improvements we can make, a major one this year is the replacement of the two orange First Aid bags.
The bags contained the major trauma kits, worn by the chainsaw team and their First Aiders, along with all the other First Aid supplies. Finding what was needed, especially in a hurry was a real issue, so we have replaced the two bags with a new multi-pocket rucksack type bag. Once opened (shown below) this has clear pockets for the various items which are also clearly labelled with the contents. All First Aiders will have access to a short PowerPoint pack which explains the kit bags, their contents and a brief video on the use of the Defib. If for whatever reason you do not receive this please let us know.
We also ask that all First Aiders familiarise themselves with the bags, the contents and the Defib.
Robin Barber | Training Co-ordinator
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Easyfundraising
Graham alerted us to a potential income stream for the group in the form of an initiative called “Easyfundraising”. Easyfundraising partners with over 7,000 brands who will donate part of what you spend to a cause of your choice. It won't cost you any extra. The cost is covered by the brand.
We have created a “cause” in our group’s name, so if you register you are able to choose Heartwood as your cause. https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/cause/heartwood-community-woodland-group-cic/
Here is a link to show you how it works https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/how-it-works/#hiwfaq
We have a special deal for the first two weeks (starting from the date of this newsletter) where we get £1 for everyone that registers. With over 140 members this could be a great way to earn money for the group.
Any questions drop me a line
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email:
FedEx Event
The planned FedEx event which forms part of the award Steve Miller has received was due to take place on the 31st July, but was unfortunately postponed by FedEx. The event is now planned for the Thursday 12th September so we are looking for members to help support that event. The FedEx team will be having their own mini-woodfuel session, so we need enough members to support this, including running the retorts and providing a campfire lunch.
If you are available, please book onto the event on the system. This event is part of a substantial financial donation to the group, so we want to give our guests a quality experience.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email:
Community Woodfuel - A New Group
A new woodfuel group is being set up by Chris Conway of Leicestershire County Council. Heartwood have been supporting this endeavour behind the scenes for two seasons and now it’s ready for announcing to the wider group.
The plan for the 2024 / 2025 felling season is to run 6 sessions, one per month, commencing October.
Please see below the announcement in Chris’ own words.
I’m very happy to announce that we are setting up a new community woodfuel group at Beacon Hill Country Park. I was lucky enough to be part of setting up Heartwood all those moons ago. When I changed roles and began working in Charnwood forest, I discovered there were no woodfuel groups in the area. Setting up a new group seemed like the right thing to do.
Luckily for me Heartwood members have been on hand to support and helped me a great deal with the pilots and last season’s sessions. The Charnwood branch of the National Forest Company have also supported the project too and the group is now starting to take shape, albeit approximately a decade behind Heartwood. David Gravett has kindly built some more expert storage boxes and Graham Bowers has been to most sessions to offer words of wisdom to new recruits at induction.
The group is young and fresh and keen to develop skills. We’re hoping to get a few people trained up in chainsaw use very soon and hopefully formally constitute the group next year. If you would like to come along to one of our sessions or perhaps you have friends in this neck of the woods that may be interested, then please get in touch. We are recruiting!
Graham Bowers | Operations Chair
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Woodland Pipeline Plan
One of the output actions from our Strategic Review in April was the creation of a woodland “pipeline” plan. Along with the woodlands we are already working in – Foxley Wood, Edwards Wood, Donisthorpe Woodland Park and Pick Triangle, there are a number of other woodlands on the RADAR. In order to maintain a reasonable plan of the next few years we have created a straightforward view of woodlands, their size, status and when we would potentially be active in them. The plan currently has woodlands showing active 3-4 out from now. Our objective is to extend the plan out, potentially up to 10 years.
There are several benefits of the plan including – providing confidence that we have a good supply of woodlands for woodfuel sessions, an ability to assess new opportunities giving landowners some idea of when we could start in their woods, and importantly we are able to scale our season sessions to fit.
If you would like to see the plan, please let me know and we can share it with you.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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New Season
The new season is just around the corner, so plans to enable the sessions are well developed. We will be working on several sites again this year, with Foxley being by far the largest. The session leads are preparing for the season and David Gravett has already built the sessions on the system, so they will be released in the usual manner – Dave will send us all a specific email detailing this.
In the meantime, we have a little work to do at Foxley to prepare the way for the first session on the 5th October. There is brush cutting to do, clearing mainly bramble from our routes and general tidying up. We have a prep session in the diary for the Thursday 5th September. If you can give a hand that would be a big help. There may be other prep sessions, but getting Foxley ready can be a big job, including the mapping and signing work being carried out by Simon and a couple of other members learning this role.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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The Hub updates
A busy August at The Hub. We processed a lot of pallet wood for the retorts to be run. The IBC tank was moved to collect water from the main shelter, this was felt a beneficial move for the amount of water required for the Kontiki. As always we ran the retorts to keep our supply of charcoal up and thankyou to those members who chipped in during the week to run the retorts to meet demand. August saw sales of 48 bags of charcoal, another great income for the group.
The pedestrian gate has been fitted to ‘Hawthorn Way’ and the main gatepost adjusted following the stoning of the track. A group have been assisting in keeping the carpark tidy, the weeds grow very quickly on that bank and felling took place to get supplies for our Christmas reindeers. Kevin Banton and David Gravett have been hard preparing other parts for the reindeers therefore the team got on with painting noses red, buttons black and preparing the legs.
Chris Adams, Kevin Banton, Dave Barker | Hub Team
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Composting Toilet
Thanks to a kind grant from the National Forest Company we have been able to order a new composting toilet for the Hub. Most of you will be aware that we already have a rudimentary toilet on site, but with the increase in activity and visitors it really wasn’t the ideal solution. The toilet will arrive in kit form and is planned for delivery on the 3rd September. Here is the link to the suppliers for an early view of what to expect.
Dunsterhouse Composting Toilet
Chris Adams, Kevin Banton, Dave Barker | Hub Team
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Wanted
We are looking for plastic stacking trays if you have any going spare. They are very useful at the Hub for storing next box and craft parts.
Chris Adams, Kevin Banton, Dave Barker | Hub Team
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