This month we have updates relating to Grant work, Session Timings, Coppicing at Nether Hall Wood, the results of a Well-being study conducted by a student from Derby University, we're taking part in the National Forest Walking Festival in May and busy session at Heartwood HQ.
David Gravett - Membership Coordinator
What's In this Woodfueler
National Forest Walking Festival
Nest and Bat Box Day
We have been invited by the team at Rosliston Forestry Centre to run a nest and bat box building event on the 15th April. The idea is that we provide the wooden box parts and the team to help the public, we rent the room, but all profits would be for our funds. There are a number of the membership who have made large numbers of nest boxes so are very familiar with their construction, but anyone can help. If you can spare a couple of hours please let us know. There is an event in the booking system.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Logs and Biochar at HQ
We don’t normally have any “spare” logs, but we do have a few piles of timber that was left over from the 21/22 season in Edwards Wood. It has stood for around 18 months, so it does have evidence of rot on the outside, but is still sound for firewood. We aren’t able to sell firewood due to the complex laws around this, so if anyone would like some please let me know and we’ll arrange for it to be collected from HQ. Long standing members probably have a good supply, but new members may not have any seasoned wood just yet, so this would help. This is a first-come-first-served offer, so when it’s gone it’s gone.
There is also a considerable amount of biochar available from the charcoal making process. We intended marketing this to gardeners, but so far there has been little take-up. Please contact me for more information on logs or biochar.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Session Timings
You will be aware that a great deal of planning goes on ahead of sessions to make them viable and to ensure they deliver wood to our boots, but I just want to highlight some of the issues late arrivals and requests to leave early are causing us.
Late arrivals can delay the brief and the start of the sessions. Leads may have to re-allocate teams, especially if the late arrival has a role - First Aid for example, plus the safety information has to be repeated delaying the lead progressing their role. If you are delayed and are running late for whatever reason please contact us as per the contact info in the session reporting email. The session starts at 10:00, but the brief is at 09.45 and you need to allow time to check-in with the Loadmaster and walk to base camp. It is not fair to the loadmaster, the lead and the rest of the group, especially when it becomes a regular occurrence. Please work with the group instead of being the cause of an avoidable issue.
We have had quite a few requests to leave early for various reasons, we understand we all have commitments to family etc, but if you know you are going to have to leave early please book off the session so the place can be filled by someone on the waiting list. Managing logs into boots is quite a logistical challenge, early finish requests complicate this further. We ask that if you book onto a session you are available until the official finish time of 4.00pm. Although we have become a great deal more efficient we regularly have 10-12 boots still to satisfy after lunch, so need the whole team available to make it happen. As we move further into the woodland at Foxley the transit time is growing, so sessions are likely to finish later. I hope this makes clear the implications of late and early attendance, of course there are always situations that crop up and we deal with them as they do, but known commitments affecting your start and finish time are under your control.
Whilst appreciating this is a voluntary group there have to be rules to make sessions work. If your circumstances on the day mean a disruption to the session please consider booking off to avoid this.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Grant Work
All of our grant work for the current season has now been completed. The ongoing woodland work which covers ride-edge-thinning and extraction has been completed at bot Foxley and Edwards Wood for a couple of weeks now. The final part of our grant commitment was to complete pruning, veteranisation of trees and to install nest and bat boxes. Thanks to a wonderful turn-out of willing helpers we have now installed 59 nest boxes and 36 bat boxes across the two woodlands.
Our grant application for the season 23/24 has been submitted to the National Forest Company so we await feedback and hopefully offers.
The grant work we carry out provides significant income for the group. We will summarise the figures in next month’s newsletter.
The team at Foxley Wood ready to deploy!
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Nether Hall Wood
It’s been a very busy winter at Nether Hall. We have ran a number of coppicing sessions where we have achieved our objective of completing the quota of Hazel we wanted to coppice. There are around 450-500 Hazel stools on site in total, so to bring a coppice rotation into management we needed to complete around 80 “stools”. At that rate we should have a 6 year cycle before we return to the stools we have completed this year and hopefully harvest some quality product.
The coppice sessions have bene very well attended. Parking is limited on site, but we have had between 10 and 12 attendees at each session, only being defeated by heavy rain a couple of times - it can be a wet site so working in rain isn’t a good idea there.
The stone work we commissioned at the entrance gate has proved successful in allowing access for cars and removal of products. There has been some great work completed from the hazel rods harvested and taken by members.
We did plan to remove a number of dying Ash trees this winter, but we have ran out of time, so we will be planning for this next season. We also intend working with the Woodland Trust to put a “Felling Licence” in place to allow further thinning and revel of trees to align with the woodland management plan. We will be running a “mensuration” session at site which will provide an initial training session into the measurement of trees and their volume, which feeds directly into the felling licence to provide proof that thinning is required and to what level. Please take a look at this and get involved if you can, it’s all part of the management of a woodland and is very interesting.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Well-being Study
You will be aware that Chris Winson, a student from Derby University, has been looking at our group with an aim of highlighting the well-being benefits it offers to us all as members. Chris has now completed his time with us, so we’d like to share the findings with everyone.
We will be holding an “all members” Zoom meeting on Monday the 6th March at 7.00pm. The joining details are below.
It would be great to get as many members joining as possible.
We all know the benefits gained from being part of our group and its activities, but it’s been very enlightening to hear some of your comments and how they align to formal studies on the subject. Chris will share his own insights into the group, how we work and what it offers its members.
Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86845088866?pwd=eW1pbzBJUWJGNjcwNEVUU05RWldWZz09
Meeting ID: 868 4508 8866
Passcode: 447119
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
National Forest Walking Festival
We will be leading a guided walk at Nether Hall Wood again this spring as part of the walking festival. The walk will take place on Saturday the 16th May, so please share with your friends and family. More details can be found here National Forest Walking Festival
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Heartwood HQ
Both February sessions have been very successful. It has been great to see members who came along for the Christmas sessions continuing to attend to help and experience new skills and activities.
The session on the 10th was focussed on “testing” our ability to split or rive various species of timber in preparation for creating a screened side to the main shelter. After gathering materials, we made a cleaving brake and a riving post to get used to the splitting process. Everyone enjoyed the experience, even creating a small woven panel.
On the 25th we had a very busy session with 16 members attending, several taking advantage of David Gravett’s knowledge around the use of chainsaws, two more gained their first experience of using the charcoal retorts, 25 poles felled and collected - some for sale and some for the repairs to the shelter roof. 13 nest boxes and 9 bat boxes installed in Edwards Wood and a classy new log store for campfire fuel built by a father and son team. Formal opening ceremony with Margaret and Sharon cutting the ribbon. All round productive day.
Thank you to everyone who attended the sessions, plans are already coming together for the March sessions on the 10th and 25th, so book onto the events on the system if you would like to come along.
Chris Adams - Heartwood HQ Chair