Swadlincote Woodfuel Sessions
The second and final woodfuel session with the team at South Derbyshire District Council went ahead successfully on the 8th February. There were 7 attendees from the group, with three Heartwood members running the session. We have been running these smaller sessions in much the same way as the original Heartwood sessions were ran, which in itself was a change for the attendees. The good news is that the feedback from the attendees has been very positive, with them preferring the way we run them.
That was the final session for this season, but we will be meeting with the team at SDDC to discuss next season’s sessions. At present we are not sure how these will integrate into our programme of work, but we will keep you all informed when we have agreed this with the SDDC team.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Easy Funding
Thank you to the 17 members who have registered with the “Easyfunding” App. We have already amassed over £100 in donations. It really is “easy” to take part and provides a free income for the group. If you would like to have a look and potentially sign-up here is the information. It’s a good time to sign-up as most of the major holiday booking sites are part of the scheme and donate 0.5-1.0% of the value, which can be a considerable amount.
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
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Summer Family Event
A date for your diaries - We are planning a summer get together for members and their families at The Hub on Sunday July 6th and would like to extend the day rather than just a lunchtime get together. So, there will be crafts, children’s activities and food cooked on the campfire but we would also like to provide other means of entertainment. If you think “Heartwoods Got Talent” and would like to share it with us, please get in touch!
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Interesting Photos
We get quite a few photos shared by members from the sessions. It would be good to share some of these if you have particularly interesting one (please not just trees – I’ve got hundreds). This month Natalie spotted an interesting patch of Fungi, which we believe is called “Witches Butter”. It’s a lovely photo with workers in the background in soft focus. Rob also found an interesting fungus which has turned the host timber an incredible colour.
Let us have any photos you think would interest everyone
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Corporate Nest Box Eevent
We have been approached by a company in Burton who are looking to sponsor a number of nest boxes in local woodlands, so we are planning a couple of dates at the Hub when the team will come along, make the boxes and install them either around the Hub or across the track in Edwards Wood. The dates are the 25th and 27th March, both events are on the booking system, so if you can spare a few hours and would like to help the team make and install their boxes please book on. We may also do other woodland work to fill the time if they are especially quick at constructing and installing.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Foxley End of Season Sumary
The season at Foxley has now completed. It wasn’t the ideal end to the season with an ATV breakdown causing the loss of the last two sessions. Thankfully through a great response from the members, the grant work was completed on a “no take” session, ensuring our work commitment was met. It has been another wet winter, with the sessions towards the end of the season at Foxley causing all sorts of problems with rutted and wet tracks, making extraction a real challenge. The operations team are already looking at next year’s work area and will be looking to ensure the extraction routes are serviceable again for next winter. The final work on site is to install the nest/bat boxes as the planned event on the 23rd Feb was postponed due to a weather warning for high winds.
We have re-arranged the installation session for Saturday 22nd March – your support appreciated as we have 45 nest boxes and 27 bat boxes to instal. Session will be morning only, park in the loading area at Foxley. The event is now live on the booking system.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Keeping busy on sessions and feeling engaged
The spread and impact of Ash die back has become very apparent this season, especially in Foxley Wood where there is a high proportion of Ash. We have a very thorough safety approach for dealing with this, but one aspect that we didn’t see coming was the reduction in “brashing” when affected trees mainly have dead upper twigs and branches. There has been feedback that on occasion the teams have been too large, resulting in a shortage of work with members getting cold. We have always been very proud of the way we leave woodlands when we carry out thinning work, but this requires all sorts of roles in the teams. The general message is that if you are cold and feel you are not contributing then please have a chat with the chainsaw operator in your team or with the session lead. There are always opportunities for moving people around on sessions, the last thing we want is anyone not feeling valued.
As a group we have become very efficient at what we do. The extraction at Foxley is the limiting factor on our ability to move logs into cars, so this can mean teams have finished felling some time before the session ends. If you are cold and have little to do, please look around and use the time to help other teams, tidy brash piles or even prepare areas for the next session. Again, speak to the chainsaw operator or the session lead.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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The Hub Update
A big thankyou to all those who prepped the wood, drilled, hammered and created 45 nest boxes and 27 bat boxes ready to complete the grant work when installed in the woods. The charcoal wood that is collected at each wood session has begun to be processed and stacked ready for the retorts, we still have lots more to do!
Please do not hesitate to join us one week and see what is at the Hub, no pressure just ‘Time Out In the Woods’. One of our members came to the Hub to learn how to make her own besom for world book day as she is playing the wicked witch of the west in school.
We are currently reviewing other charcoal retorts as ours work so hard and we need to ensure that we can continue as they may soon reach an uneconomical repair.
Chris Adams, Kevin Banton, Dave Barker | Hub Team
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