This month sees the group 10 Year Anniversary BBQ at the Hub, updates from the Biochar Project, Stump Grinder work, Corporate day, and more.
David Gravett - Membership Coordinator
What's In this Woodfueler
What’s the job? – No 5. Training
Visit by "Selective Marketplace"
Super Volunteer
We all know that our group has a fantastic volunteer base, but it’s great when our members are recognised outside of the group.
Steve Miller has been recording his volunteer hours as part of an initiative called “FedEx Cares” within FedEx, who he works for and has found himself as “Number 1 volunteer” in Europe!!.
Here is the communication that went out to his colleagues…..
Steve joined FedEx as part of TNT and has 30 years of combined experience with the company. He enjoys volunteering outdoors, particularly in activities that benefit the local area in which he lives.
Steve’s passion for woodland management and environmental conservation began about 10 years ago with helping his community, which historically relied on coal, transform into the national forest it is today. He spends most weekends during the autumn and winter months practicing woodland management activities. Steve’s contributions give him a chance to make a difference for the wider community that he has seen change for the better during his life. “FedEx Cares is a great opportunity to do volunteering. It makes you feel good to be doing some good for your local community, however big or small the effort.”
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
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What’s the job? – No 5. Training
With the growth of the group and the diverse backgrounds of the members, keeping track of training needs has become a much more formal role. Here are some of the key points of the role. As always, anyone interested in getting involved please let us know. Currently, the training is managed by Robin Barber.
- Assess the session requirements for the key roles requiring training. These include Chainsaw, Clearing Saw, ATV Driver, First Aid.
- The management roles have also now been brought into the training area, so these include leaders, Loadmasters, Tree Marking, and Operational aspects such as mapping and mensuration.
- The balance of need versus available funding is a challenge, together with any aspirations of the members.
- Assessing value for money training – on site, shared cost with other volunteer groups and many other approaches to get the most out of any available training.
- Creating the training plan which also feeds into woodland management grant applications.
- Booking the training and lining up members to attend (herding cats)
Bringing internal training and familiarisation into the role is a new venture. We have done this to ensure it is managed and recorded so anyone who expresses an interest is considered and the training itself has a clear description outlining what is involved. This will increase the workload Robin and the wider committee and if you are able to help out then it would be appreciated.
You may also want to talk to Robin about any other potential skills that you have that may be transferable to the group, such as graphic design, mapping, project management or mechanical skills, or if you want to understand more about how you can get trained on skills then contact Robin.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email:
Visit by "Selective Marketplace"
On Wednesday 10th April we welcomed a team of 20 from “Selective Marketplace” to the Hub. The company is a sponsor of the National Forest Company (NFC) and as such gets chance to spend time in the woods. The NFC have chosen us to host these type of events as we are able to demonstrate the many areas of woodland management including how what we do provides a complete cycle. With the inclusion of the Biochar burner we can now boast that every part of tress felled during first thinning is put to good use – logs for the members, branches converted to BBQ charcoal and brash converted to biochar. It’s a great story to tell and follows the tree planting story already so well publicised by the NFC.
These types of events create valuable income for the group and for members taking part provide an enormous sense of satisfaction in sharing the knowledge we have all gained from being part of HCWG.
The team created a new pedestrian route from the car park to the main base, ran the charcoal burners, transported and stored charcoal wood, processed biochar material and had the chance to fell a tree or two. A team of nine Heartwood members helped make the day a great success despite the inevitable rain during the afternoon.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email:
Biochar Project Update
As mentioned in previous newsletters we are progressing the biochar project, which has received a boost with the joining of Sophia Williams, an intern student from Derby University. A small team consisting of Dave Barker, Helen Bralesford, Sophia and I have been putting together a piece of work that, with Sophia’s research skills, will give us a factual base for our production of biochar.
The two main aims of the work at present are to….
- Understand the specific biochar quality, pH and target use for the biochar Heartwood will generally produce from woodland brash.
- Potential experiments around the Kontiki burn to understand temperatures and volumes (brash to biochar conversion) to follow.
- Understand the pros/cons of leaving brash in the woodland as opposed to converting it to biochar - volumes, ecological impact, practicalities.
We will be running the Kontiki kiln again over the next few weeks, communication will be through the TOITW updates and Whatsapp group. Let us know if you would like to be involved.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email:
Heartwood Strategic Review
The committee met in early April to look at our short, medium and long term strategy, where we are heading and what we want the group to look like as far out as 10 years. As you can imagine there was a great deal to cover, including a review of last season, so the output will take a little work before we can share the detail.
There were some important points, especially around planning for next season. You will recall that last season was used as a test case for several significant changes in the way sessions are planned and managed, including the new mapping and tracking and lots more behind the scenes management from the operations and leads. The upshot of this was very positive. We felt the sessions were a lot more controlled, the tracking of work against grant commitments was much improved and more tasks were brought into sessions instead of relying on a few to sort between sessions (tree marking and route planning especially).
We have already started planning the session calendar for next season and will be pulling back a little on session numbers. Last season we had spaces available on some sessions, so demand has levelled out, plus we don’t want to overload the leads and key session role members.
We have also had confirmation that out woodland management grant application to the NFC has been successful for Foxley and Edwards Wood, although due to over subscription this year the funding levels are reduced.
There will be more updates on the strategic work next month, with the aim of sharing a strategic document with all members.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email:
Troublesome Stumps
Last season, due to wet weather conditions, the extraction of timber from the woodlands we worked became a real problem. The wet also exposed another issue, the height of tree stumps on the ATV routes. As the tracks took more traffic the ruts got deeper and the stumps began to catch the ATV and trailer, causing damage to the trailer. With this in mind and considering that tree stumps have always been a nuisance, we took the decision to purchase a stump grinder. Simon Starkey and David Gravett attended formal training and the machine itself arrived last week. Here is Simon giving the machine a work-out in Foxley wood, where it made light work of removing around 40 stumps in just two hours. This will be an important capability for us, not just in Foxley, but wherever high stumps cause us problems.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email:
The Hub Update
10 Year Celebration
A date for your diary if anyone would like to join us on Sunday 19th May, we will be holding a BBQ at The Hub for our 10 Year Celebrations. We are planning this over a few hours so we can accommodate as many people as possible, to allow us to do this and if you would like to come please register on the booking system and tell us how many you will be bringing and the time you would like to attend. (Please also tell us any dietary requirements)
We are planning to have a few crafts out and available for you to have a go, we will be lighting the retort so you can see how the charcoal is made and of course we will be cooking over the fire.
Charcoal
Charcoal sales are a great income for the group and although the weather isn’t telling us its BBQ weather our sales are. We have been trying to increase the production to some weekdays so we can accommodate the demand, if you would like to assist in making charcoal don’t hesitate to contact us to see how you can help.
The Track
Those that have been up to The Hub know how the track has been with the current weather. We have been assessing this and deciding the best way forward so that it will last going forward. The main track is being stoned and the top area near the base is also being assessed to be cleared and stoned. This is hopefully being funded by monies being donated to the group, watch this space to see how The Hub will change and access get a lot easier.
Cooking at the Hub
Training has been talked about in the newsletter and a few of us have completed our food hygiene training to be able to cook for others. If you feel you would like to help and cook please ask, this is an online course.
Wanted Please
We need to harvest more rainwater at the Hub as the Biochar process uses reasonable amounts to quench the kiln. If you have any lengths of gutter or downpipe surplus to requirement please let us know.
Hounds Dog Daycare
Part of the Heartwood woodland has been let to a small business, by the owners of the wood, Hounds Dog Daycare. They are changing the bottom half of the wood into a doggy daycare area and have been working on this over the last few months. They have had cabins installed and will be having running water and a full compostable toilet. The area will be fenced off so the dogs cannot free roam the whole of the woodland, and they are topping up the stone on the carpark so a few positives for us. They will need some of the carpark daily but mainly for staff and for drop off and collection of dogs, we will be working with them when we have our wood management days in Edwards or corporate days so we can accommodate everyone.
Kevin Banton | Heartwood Chair
email: