David Gravett - Membership Coordinator
What's In this Woodfueler
Heartwood HQ
We only managed one session in March as the weather stopped us from going into HQ on Friday 10th, but a small group met on Saturday 25th. Both retorts were emptied and refilled, members were shown how the retorts are loaded, lit, maintained, and taken into retort mode. A food prep area was also built next to the fire using available materials ready for the upcoming Heartwood family BBQ!
General tidying up of the HQ surrounding area also took place, it was a lovely sunny morning and lunch was enjoyed by all before the rain came.
We have a lot of processing of charcoal wood to book in over the next few months and other sessions are being planned, including an assortment of craft skills, besom making, hazel hurdle creating and of course, managing the retorts.
Always ask if there is something specific you are interested in that we could look at doing/making at HQ.
Chris Adams - Heartwood HQ Chair
Update on Grant income
The grant work was all successfully completed in both Foxley and Edwards Wood. There are some lessons for us as always around managing the grant work timing, but some items such as nest boxes have to wait till we have completed the felling.
The woodland management grants we claim are on behalf of the landowners, but both the Woodland Trust at Foxley and the Blunt family at Edwards allow us to claim grants for our own funds. There is funding for training included in the grants we get, but the main funds come from the woodland management aspect. To give you all some idea of the value to us, this year we received £5,313 for the two woods combined.
We have applied for grants again next year for both woodlands. If you have any questions on this and any other aspect of our funding please drop me a line.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Charcoal Season is here
Calling all retort trained members! With Easter just around the corner and lighter nights the demand for charcoal is likely to start taking off. We have sold all of our stock accumulated over the last few months.
We are excited about a potential link-up with the National Trust at Calke Abbey where the charcoal co-operative we are part of with Darren Abell and Pete Nicholls could supply charcoal for the weekly BBQs.
There is a schedule on the web page where you can see who is planning to run a burn, drop me an email if you would like to choose a date. Charcoal sessions
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Season and Session Update
With a final small session on the 30th March where a number of trees on the main track are being felled we have concluded another successful season. Apart from the final three sessions and one earlier in March, all cancelled due to wet conditions at Edwards Wood, we have managed to escape the winter unscathed - there were a couple of soakings, but that’s par for the course.
This season we have held 37 sessions, I think you’ll agree a feat of organisation again. At those sessions we had 860 attendances with 760 boot loads of wood taken away by members, that equates to around 250 cubic meters of timber.
The sessions have at times been challenging with 30 places available at the Foxley Wood events, but this year we have more leads and more skilled people, especially in First Aid, so ensuring the sessions are viable has been less stressful. In total 5600 volunteer hours worked on sessions.
I want to give a heart felt thank you to everyone involved in the session pre and post-work. There is a great deal of planning takes place behind the scenes and during the season there are continual messages and ad-hoc calls taking place to make it all happen. I also want to thank everyone who has attended the sessions and contributed so much hard work. The sessions are a delight to attend and the social aspect of the group means a great deal to many of us.
The work doesn’t stop though, the committee are meeting shortly to look at the group strategy, where we are heading and what the group will look like over the next 5 years. The waiting list of over 30 people hoping to join us is a nice problem to have, but something we want to look at.
Next years dates are already pencilled into a plan. There will be at least as many if not more sessions.
There are always things going on so keep an eye on the newsletter or emails between issues and visit the booking system to see if there’s anything you fancy.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Spring/Summer walk at Foxley
We all spend time in the woods during the season, but I suspect not many of us visit during the spring and summer. We will be planning a group walk through Foxley Wood, probably on a Saturday or Sunday morning, where we'll take a little quality time to look at the affects of our work and how the woodland grows once we have completed what we do. One of the interesting aspects of the well-being study was the pride and ownership members get from caring for a piece of woodland. Spending a little time together out-of-season may help us all realise just how much benefit we get from this, plus seeing the woodland in leaf will put a totally different perspective on what we do.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Nest Box Building day
We will be running a family nest box building day at Rosliston Forestry Centre on Saturday the 15th April. We already have a few volunteers from the group to help, but if you’d like to get involved the event is on the booking system.
We have started to publicise the event, so your help in spreading the word would be appreciated. The poster is below with a QR code to scan or the link to the web site is https://www.heartwoodhof.org.uk/rosliston-nest-boxes
We also have nest boxes and bat boxes (or a kit of parts if you prefer) available to purchase for members at £10. If you would like any please drop me a line and I’ll arrange to get them to you.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair
Well Being presentation
Thank you to everyone who joined the Zoom meeting where Chris Winson took us through the results of his well being work within the group. There were a number of themes covered and we took away a number of actions covering questions and suggestions from members on the call.
A couple of points raised associated with the social benefits we all enjoy - Suggestion that end of sessions are more social to enable more chat, exchange of ideas, reviews of the day and members seek more quiet time, but understand the need for the current industrial approach.
A good point raised around the local community close to the woods we work in - Community engagement with a view to long term handover to a “friends of” type group. Potentially create a handover to the local community for future management after HCWG have moved on.
We have created a small action plan covering all of the areas raised and will keep everyone updated on progress. By all means drop me a line if you would like to have a copy of the presentation or have any further feedback on the well-being aspects of the group.
Kevin Banton - Heartwood Chair