DDW Colours Corporate Nest Box Event
Succession planning
Heartwood has grown over the years and during that time a number of the group have developed considerable roles which are critical to the running and longevity of the group. We have tried a few times to look at how we mitigate the risk of any of these members not being able to continue carrying out those roles for whatever reason, but we have never quite got to a solution.
During the down-season this year a few of the committee are making a concerted effort to rectify this. First of all, we need to understand what the formal roles are within the group, what they involve and how much effort is currently put into them. There are also a huge number of “extras” that have grown over the years when we had limited resource available, and the job simply had to be done by someone.
The running of the group and especially woodfuel sessions is dependent on a relatively small number of people, without any of these sessions would be in jeopardy.
There is no immediate issue to resolve apart from making sure we have a plan, so your help and support in identifying the detail and potentially getting involved in the discussion. We realise that some of the organisation can appear to be a “black art” only understood by a few, but getting involved in the discussion will help us all.
We do have one certain gap to fill – that of safety representative on the committee. Graham has done this from day one of Heartwood, but with his other roles in operations would like to step down at the AGM in September. Our plan is to work through the succession plan during the coming months and to have arrived at a solution/plan for the AGM.
Please support us by getting involved, even if it’s suggestions or ideas. It will all help. If you are interested in taking an active role in the running of the group, in whatever way, please get in touch, your skills are probably what we are looking for to create our plan.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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DDW Colours Corporate Nest Box Event
A visit to the Hub from two teams from Givaudan/DDW Colours took place in late March after they contacted us to sponsor nest boxes as a belated “national nest box day” event. Two teams of around 8 people came along, constructed the nest boxes and then spent time installing them in the woodland around the Hub. As part of the event Layla, one of our social members, has committed to monitoring the use of the nest boxes as she is currently training to be a licenced bird ringer.
The teams also had time to have a go at felling a tree and learning a little about woodland management from the Heartwood members who supported the events.
If your organisation would be interested in spending time at the Hub for a group donation, we can tailor an event to fit.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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World Book Day
It was great to see one of the Besoms made at the Hub by Kim Robinson being used as part of her costume for world book day at school.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Season Wrap
The final session of the year took place at Edwards Wood on the 28th March. The season has flown by and despite several issues including wet and windy weather, road closures, mat theft and machinery break downs we delivered all our grant work commitments. We will now look at how the season went from a planning perspective, including session availability, sessions take-up and site challenges before we create the plan for next season. With the number of sites we currently have active or potentially active there is quite a bit of work to make it all come together.
There were 46 sessions completed this season with 7 cancelled for the reasons above. Squeezing 53 sessions into 6 months is quite a challenge bearing in mind there are other events such as Hub TOITW days, charcoal making days, corporate days and deployment of the “works” team.
We will be working on the plan through the summer, so feel free to make suggestions, get involved or give feedback on the last season if you feel there are improvements to be made. The details stats will be presented at the AGM as usual.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Arcus Global
We welcomed a team from Arcus Global to the Hub where they spend the day making charcoal and learning about woodland management. Robin is part of that team and Heidi came along to help. They presented us with a top quality First Aid bag as thanks for hosting their team day.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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Foxley Nest Boxes
Due to weather issues the installation of the nest boxes into Foxley was delayed by a few weeks, however a willing team spent a couple of hours on Saturday the 22nd installing 45 nest boxes and 27 bat boxes into the woodland we have worked this season. Thank you to all who volunteered.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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New Charcoal Burner
A dedicated team of members have been working hard to build the first of a pair of charcoal burners. The design is based on the “Dartmoor Dragon” and has been built from scratch by a number of skilled members. The design and drawings were created by Simon Starkey, who has led the team by specifying materials and construction plans. A great deal of the materials has been obtained through friends and relatives, along with purchases from Facebook Market Place etc. We have a very varied membership, and it appears there is usually someone either with the right skills or with a contact who can help. Thank you to everyone who has either helped source materials or has got involved in the construction.
This is a new charcoal manufacturing method for us, so learning how these burners work is likely to be an interesting experience. We will need to have as many members trained as possible, so please get involved and learn at the same pace as everyone else.
We have built the first one, we’ll try it out and make the second when we are happy the design works well.
The building of the first burner has been supported by donations of materials and skills from local businesses and member contacts. If you think your employer may have something to offer, then please let us know, not just for the burner but for other group projects.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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The Hub Update
The felling season may be coming to a close for Heartwood, but our Time Out In The Woods venue, the Heartwood Hub, will continue as always throughout the off-season. Unlike our woodfuel sessions, the Hub days are, as many of you will know, a much more relaxed and informal affair (other than when we are busy creating craft goods for sale to support our operations, then it's a hive of activity!)
Several members have commented of late, how nice it is seeing Spring beginning to show herself in our own small corner of the wooded estate. Be it Buzzards and Red Kites soaring overhead, or the trees and understory beginning to bud, spring is certainly in the air. Also, thanks to our latest corporate visitors mentioned previously, we now have even more nest boxes ready for our woodland partners to move into. See you in the woods!
Chris Adams, Kevin Banton, Dave Barker | Hub Team
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Wanted
We are looking for wire stock fence if anyone has any lying about. We want to use it at the hub to make circular log stores as we have a large amount of charcoal wood to store and season.
We also need to build a new shelter for the new charcoal burner, so we are looking for corrugated steel sheets.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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