Woodland Management Talk 9th of January.
Whistlewood Reindeer Workshop
We were invited to run a Reindeer workshop again this year for our friends at Whistlewood. Dave B and Kev B ran the session which was held at the beginning of December. 17 people of all ages attended, with the session being ran in the lovely cosy round house. Our Reindeers are very popular but can be quite quick for some people to put together, so we also made willow stars, which along with a small set of lights makes a great value craft session.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Woodland Management Talk 9th of January.
David Logan is the Woodland Trust site manager for their estate and woodlands in our patch. Most of you will have met David at some point over the years when he has dropped-in at one of our sessions. David has put together a short talk entitled “Why we need to chop down trees†he will be presenting this talk to us on a Zoom meeting to be held on the evening of the 9th of January at 7.30pm.
It would be good for as many of us to join the call as possible please. Not only to show our support for David, but to get a Woodland Trust perspective on the work we do on their sites. If you can spare an hour, please join on the following details.
Zoom Meeting on 09/01/2025 at 7.30pm
https://zoom.us/j/3954234910?pwd=ZG81dmtNZit0akhNUERmdXlHbmVuZz09&omn=94060584990
Meeting ID: 395 423 4910
Passcode: 486186
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Woodland Pipeline Plan
In previous newsletters I have explained some of the other local woodlands we are exploring to ensure continuity of supply for our group. The work continues in the background, but there will be minor activity in other woodlands this season. We continue with the work at Foremark Reservoir, which is a National Trust site. This is coppice work as there is a great deal of overstood Hazel. It does produce useable firewood, but session sizes are relatively small and to date these have replaced planned sessions at Pick Triangle which has been too wet to work.
In January we will be running a small pilot with the National Forest Ranger on the Conkers site. This will only be a small session working with the ranger to explore access, management of the public and to see if a longer-term plan can be put in place. We have also agreed to re-look at Pick Triangle, working in a more accessible area which does not suffer quite so badly with water. This will be for next season, but planning will start in January.
As regards the other woodlands we are working (Foxley, DWP and Edwards), they are all going well and to plan, so baring a serious weather interruption we should hit targets for the end of the season. Now is the time we must plan next seasons work, so by the end of March we should have a good view of where we will be working next season.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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The Hub Update
December saw an easing of the craft demand after a very busy October and November delivering on orders for Halloween and Christmas. This season has been by far the busiest we have had to date and even with the forward planning and bulk building sessions we found ourselves out of goods a couple of times. In the end we satisfied all the orders, bringing significant income for the group. Here are a few facts and figures: -
Halloween – 38 Brooms sold. £158 income
Christmas – 138 Reindeer - £1236, 155 Snowmen - £622. Total £1858
Charcoal for the year brough in over £3800.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the production, creation and sales of the goods from the Hub. The income forms a significant part of our group funding as well as being great fun. We will be pulling the craft plan together for the TOITW sessions in 2025 over the next few weeks.
In the background we have already accumulated a huge stock of charcoal wood for conversion next season to support an ever-increasing demand for our charcoal. This year it’s come from several sources including the sessions at Foxley, Coppice work at Foremark Reservoir and lots from the “Works†team projects. We now have the processing, stacking and burning to plan, so please help if you are available both at the TOITW sessions and in-between if you are free.
Chris Adams, Kevin Banton, Dave Barker | Hub Team
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