Offcuts no. 48 Summer 2009

the newsletter of the Oxfordshire Woodland Group

—Principal field visit 2009— and woodland group annual general meeting

Visit the impressive woodland at Watergate Farm

nr Bainton, Bicester, courtesy of John Hunter Esq.,

1.45pm for 2.00pm Tuesday 22nd September 2009

(see penultimate page for further details).

Contents: p2

Events listing: inside back page

OUDCE group visit to Paradise wood studying habitat restoration in April

have you got a new e-address? Send it to: owp@oxfordshire.gov.uk and help us save on postage! p19

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Annual subs now due Membership of the Oxfordshire Woodland group is now due, so please send in your contributions to this office. The minimum charge is just £10, and should be made payable to the Oxfordshire Wood-land Group and sent to David Rees or Eric Dougliss at Oxfordshire Woodland Project Fletchers House, Park Street, Woodstock, Oxford-shire OX20 1SN We can normally receive your tax back from the government on do-nations net of the £10 subscription, if this applies to you please do return the gift aid form, opposite, with your payment. Thank You!

Pruning in Wild Cherry provenance trials. Paradise Wood Lt Wittenham

Contents 2 • Annual subs now due! p2

• Use us or lose us p5

• European Protected Species: seminar report——————————————p6

• Trees to timbers p8

• Oxfordshire Woodland Project: Digest of activities p9

• Project Accounts 2008/9 ———————————————————————————————————p10

• Oxfordshire Woodland Group,Trustees & Annual Report p11

• Grants update: some good news p12

• myForest: the tool for our times ————————————————————————————-p13

• No arm in it p15

• Coppice marketing in Oxfordshire p18

• We need your email——————————————————————————————————————————p19

• Project offices relocation p19

• Crocodile Eyes p20

• Events listing winter/spring 2009/2010 p23

• Become a member of Oxfordshire Woodland Group p24

• Summary of accounts and annual report p25

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Oxfordshire Woodland Group Gift Aid Declaration

I (name in capitals)

…………………………………………………………….

Of (full address in capitals)…………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………

have made a gift of £…… . to the Oxfordshire Woodland Group, registered charity 1055228.

I confirm that I have paid sufficient tax in the UK for the charity to claim back tax against my gift.

Signed…………………………………… Date………………….

Registered Charity no. 1055228

Please complete this form and return to us at Oxfordshire Woodland Project OX20 1SN

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Late winter scene at Besselsleigh Demonstration Wood, north of Abingdon. Timber has been cut into cordwood and stacked in low, safe piles to season. Cordwood should be

stacked on bearers to keep it off the ground, not discernable here. This particular supply of timber has since been split into ‘quarter staves’. It will later be extracted from the wood and

then crosscut into firewood blocks stored under cover ready for winter use.

Splitting twice into quarters increases the drying surface area by half as much again for a medium-sized block. Smaller blocks tend to burn more efficiently in the stove.

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Use us or lose us!

The relevance of the Oxfordshire Woodland Project grows with the recognition of climate change but so do new threats to its survival. David Rees writes...

A lot has changed over the past year. All of a sudden, the sustainability message is na-tional news and all the talk is about sustainable fuels. Woodlands sequester carbon from the atmosphere and so are environmentally benign sources of fuel and also (we often forget) building materials. Woodland owners feel the environmental benefits pulling from one end and escalating heating costs pushing at the other. The woodland Project is well positioned to service these needs. The banking disaster is the other big news item. It has badly affected public life right across the globe and the Woodland Project has not been immune. At our grass-roots level, the Project has been damaged by events. Our best shield to further damage is our ongoing performance. So please help me to keep the Project’s service alive by using us to improve your woodland, your new use of firewood or your sustainable use of building timber. I continue to provide a free advisory service and can provide detailed manage-ment services at an agreed cost, often using grant aid negotiated on your behalf. I am available to frame up options for improving your use of your existing or potential woodland resource as part of the advisory service. The Project has an impressive list of works in action right across Oxfordshire and I am in a position to be able to take you

onto a variety of sites to illustrate the effects of specific courses of action. This is an extension of the Woodland Group’s field visits and forest skills workshops that have proven their worth over 10 years and more. Lets not lose the Project just when we need it most, so… Use Us or Lose Us!

Radley poplar harvested at 20 years

Wendy & Andrew Wilson now grow firewood

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Alistair Yeomans* writes... The Oxfordshire Woodland Group hosted an insightful and well attended meeting on 26th February detailing the 2007 amendments to the 1994 European Habitats Regula-tions. The changes present a number of potential implications to woodland manage-ment due to the increase in legal protection for European Protected Species (EPS). Presenters covered the ecological, management and legal factors regarding EPS that woodland owners and managers are required to consider and comply with when working in woodlands. In 2007 the level of protection for EPS was increased to en-sure compliance with the EU Habitats Directive, as set out to the UK Government following a judgement in the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The updated regulations, detailed on the Forestry Commission website (see resources below),

now include as an offence any damage or destruction of a breeding site or resting place. Previ-

ously if damage was ‘an incidental result of a lawful operation', and reasonable precautions

had been taken to avoid it, it would not have been an offence. Therefore there is a risk of

woodland operators committing an offence if they have not carried out planned operations

carefully, with the necessary checks and sought a licence where required. The European Protected Species currently covered by the regulations that are likely to be found in woodlands are:

Situations where a licence is required to carry out forestry operations on sites with EPS can be established through an easy to use checklist produced by the Forestry Commission (see Resources below) in the form of a Yes / No flowchart to assist man-agers with the decision making process regarding forestry operations. The flow chart considers the following points:

• The location of the woodland in relation to the mapped habitat ranges of EPS.

• Provides details of the sources of information that you can access to find out the likely presence of EPS in your woodland’s locality.

Bats (all 17 species) Great crested newt Dormouse Sand lizard

Otter Smooth snake

European Protected Species update: pointers for woodland managers

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• Details woodland characteristics that may indicate the presence of EPS, such as ponds which might be occupied by Great Crested Newts.

• Actual evidence or signs of species activity such as otter spraint, nuts gnawed by dormice or leaves folded by newts.

The flow chart follows on to provide straight forward guidance on following Good Practise guides and ultimately whether or not a licence is required. The flow chart is on a one side of A4 paper, easy to follow and is set out to minimise the paperwork associated with woodland management planning. Steve Hunt, the National Regulations Manager for the Forestry Commission, reassured the audience by stating that 90% of the time, when FC Good Practice guides are followed, it is business as usual regarding forestry operations and that there had been only one licence application in England to date. Rebecca Isted, Forestry Commission Biodiversity Advisor for England, gave an overview of the resources available for Good Practice for each species. She detailed the available resources (listed below) to support the forestry sector to work within the law regarding habitat regulations and provided practical recommendations, such as avoiding using a chipper under the canopy of a veteran tree, or adopting a rota-tional approach to ride management to ensure continued habitat provision. It is clear that amendments to the European Habitats Regulations have caused a degree of consternation amongst the forestry sector particularly as there is potential for prosecu-tion if EPS regulations are ignored. The most salient point for woodland managers was that it is essential to be able to clearly demonstrate that, as part of the woodland man-agement planning process, European Protected Species have been sufficiently consid-ered and that operations carried out have complied with necessary provisions for EPS. The following resources provide useful links to support the planning of forestry opera-tions regarding EPS. If a woodland manager has any questions or doubts regarding EPS regulations then communicating with your local Forestry Commission woodland officer will provide the necessary support. Resources: Full details of EPS Good Practice guidance, legal requirements and downloadable checklists can be found on the Forestry Commission website - http://www.forestry.gov.uk/england-protectedspecies *Alistair Yeomans is Director of Forestry for the Sylva Foundation: www.Sylva.org.uk

Bechsteins Bat

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Trees to Timbers

Ken Hume, Trustee to the OWG writes…

The Oxfordshire Buildings Record and The Oxfordshire Woodland Group are currently in the process of examining old timber framed houses, barns and mills in Oxfordshire to establish both the historic building practices and materials em-ployed in their construction. Most people believe that old timber framed houses were built using only oak but following our initial study of buildings in the south east of the county early results indicate that other timbers were also employed including elm, hazel & black poplar and some softwoods. We would be very inter-ested to hear from owners of old timber framed buildings especially in the South East of the county where this building method is most prolific such that we can start to build a better picture of both building practices and woodland manage-ment of yesteryear. Our study might potentially yield new uses for timbers cur-rently thought to have little value e.g. elm poles affected by dutch elm disease, etc. We are very interested to establish the typical size of trees used in building along with the timber conversion methods employed i.e. was this done using an axe, saw or were trees simply used in the round without any conversion or dress-ing. The study will help provide a better idea about the size and age of the trees / timbers typically employed in building and hence also provide an insight into woodland management practice in medieval and post medieval times. If you would like to participate in our study or believe that you can help us in any way then in the first instance please contact Ken Hume by email at ken@kfhume.freeserve.co.uk or call him on 01256 881344 for further information.

This cottage in Blewbury is made from a 50 / 50 mix of oak and elm with panels formed from hazel wattles woven around oak

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Oxfordshire Woodland Project: Annual digest of activities

The Project’s vision is to foster a sustainable future for Oxfordshire’s small woodlands for the many benefits they provide.

Activities:

• Provide the original free advisory services to woodland owners and community groups

• Present a programme of field events and training workshops featuring topics with a wide appeal or a technical value

• Produce of information leaflets and this newsletter: Offcuts

• Support and encourage forestry systems and marketing approaches that may foster the maintenance of healthy woodlands

• Increase knowledge of basic woodland issues across the county as opportunity permits

The Project recognises that woodlands can help lower the environmental footprint of communities that actively engage with them. It provides support to community groups and others wishing to develop expertise in sustainable woodland management.

The Project works to increase the usage of sustainable materials from woodland, con-sistent with other benefits attributable. With a forester’s eye on the long term, the Pro-ject aims to increase the productivity of high value timbers from small woodlands for the benefit of local people two generations ahead of the present. In the short term the Project seeks ways in which it can improve connections between local people and their woodland, preferably through some form of trading in sustainable goods, such as firewood, the edible harvest such as nuts and mushrooms and coppice materials. An example of this last activity is the connection between coppice and local allotment societies and gardening groups, for which the Project expects to make a grant bid for funds to develop a marketing model.

The Project’s vision & strategy is available from the Project office. See next page for Project accounts.

Oak cladding sourced locally

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Project Accounts for 2008/09

item income £ Exp £ item

donations 37639 employees costs

OWG 6000 1279 transport Wendlebury Woodland Group 54

Restore UK 1320 1343 Supplies and svcs Other 540

contributions from partner authorities Vale of White Horse DC 5000

Cherwell DC 4500 South Oxfordshire DC 5740 West Oxfordshire DC 5000

OCC grant County Forester 8840 Rent contribution from Cty Forester 2300

contract income 1648 Total income 2008/9 40942 Total Exp 2008/9

Resulting underspend for this year (2008/9) 681 underspend b/f from previous year (2007/8) 1420

Underspend to take fwd to 2009/10 2101

Right: Planting broadleaves in Besselsleigh Wood

Below: Launton volunteers turn out to prune the Woodland Trust’s Island Pond Wood

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The Oxfordshire Woodland Group The present board of trustees are:

Major RN Potter (Chairman), Mr AE Dougliss BSc(For) MICFor MNASC (Honorary Treasurer), Mr M Jarratt, Mr M Thomas, Mr T Loyd, Mr KF Hume BSc MSc PEng CEng MIMechE, Mr D Barbour.

Mr J Hamner Secretary

*contact retained but not currently receiving service

District No. lapsed mem-bers*

W. Oxon 29 158 S. Oxon 16 153

Cherwell District 42 83 Vale White Horse 9 121

Oxford City 7 66 Non Oxon 21 265

Total (30 July 07) 124 846

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Grants update

EWGS:The Forestry Commission has announced material changes to the EWGS relevant to anyone with existing woodland or considering planting.

The Woodland Planning Grant (WPG) contributes to the costs of producing manage-ment plans for existing woodlands that meet the planning requirements of the UK Woodland Assurance Standard. It aims: —To help owners to realise their own objectives, and help them access England Rural Development Programme grants and other forms of support. —To capture a sufficiently complete picture in order that all decisions about woodland operations are based on good evidence and are sustainable. —To realise opportunities for sustaining and securing more public benefit from existing woodlands.

A sum of £1000 is available under this scheme. However, you must get approval of the application before you start, the wood must be over 3ha, all woodland on the property must be included and the woodland should not be already certified under the UK woodland assurance standard

The Woodland creation Grant (WCG) has become more difficult to acquire in recent years. However parts of Oxfordshire including areas around Banbury, Bicester and a thick corridor of terrain in the areas around Oxford, Abingdon and Didcot will now be easier to win eligibility for the woodland creation grant, worth up to £1750 per hectare of new planting, with additional funds available depending on your circumstances.

Full details may be obtained from the FC website www.forestry.gov.uk or from your woodland officer, 01296 696543.

Southern Oxfordshire LEADER

Information on funding for rural businesses including forestry and forest products businesses is described in the leaflet accompanying this newsletter (only to southern Oxfordshire addresses). Grants of up to £50,000 are available, meeting between 30% and 50% of the costs of a project. Further details are available from this contact point: 01491 823176.

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myForest: the tool for our times David Rees writes…

We often hear of political commentators speak of ‘the technofix’ as a part of soci-ety’s solution to impending environmental doom. Well if ever there was such a fix for local forestry, the Sylva Foundation’s myForest invention is one of them.

myForest is a tool accessible from the internet. It can:

-help you organise and edit your woodland information in a simple and meaningful way

-tell others ( if you like) that you are looking to sell particular specifications of woodland produce, from dreamcatchers to sawlog grade oak.

That’s it. On the face of it, these services appear simply to be a nerdy way of car-rying on existing business. Much the same could have been said of eBay. What’s spine-tinglingly exciting about this facility is that it takes the mundane information management and marketing tasks and makes easy work of them, dare I say, even making them fun? This is a brand-new easy access route for non-foresters to get to grips with what really matters in their woodland and outflank all that semi-out-of-date paperwork cluttering the scene.

That’s my take on the projected user interface. myForest gets even better when you look behind the scenes and consider how powerful its networking capacity might be in changing the face of woodland commerce locally across Oxfordshire, England and elsewhere. All I can say is that the Sylva Foundation had better have a firm hold of the rights on this one.

Hype? What myForest can do is effectively maintain instantaneously updated listings of who’se in the market for what and where. Its not just valuable for the timber seller …it can advertise the needs of the firewood merchant or furniture maker in exactly the same network. Normally this market information would cost a lot to service, through advertising and the activities of sales reps and could never have been afforded by income from woodland produce. myForest has the capac-ity to mediate endless market connections, just at the time when interest in local sustainable goods is gathering pace. Don’t discount the hidden subtleties… myForest gives you a spatial feel for who’se who and where, this is a feature that many who despise lists, will appreciate. Do you appreciate the solid proof of aerial pictures over the innuendo of cartography? myForest’s for you.

This is a simple idea whose time has come but has it got that eBay magic? It’s all down to user experience. So look it up and try it out on www.myforest.org.uk. You never know, you might sell something sustainable and change the world in doing so (so that’s where I put the hype!). See seminar detasils, events calendar for a chance to play with the system with the author in attendance.

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Two pages from the myForest website

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There’s no arm in it Eric Dougliss, County Forester writes…

When the day job’s over, my mind generally turns to something to do with target shoot-

ing. For the last few years, more often than not, that something has been developing

and promoting the new Sporter Air Rifle shooting discipline in Great Britain. This is an

affordable introduction to target air rifle shooting, intended mainly for young shooters. It

requires light and accurate air rifles, which are usually based on manufacturers’ basic

production models.

Some time ago, we noticed that some rifles were failing equipment control checks at

competitions, because they exceeded the 3½ kg GB weight limit. This was despite

being designed to meet the lower US weight limit of 7½ lbs (3.4kg).

The problem was quickly traced to extreme variations

in density of the walnut used to make the stocks. The

specific gravity of European walnut varies greatly, be-

tween about 0.47 and 0.64, and we were finding differ-

ences of 450 grams, or so, between the lightest and

heaviest of outwardly identical rifles! With over 80,000

Sporter shooters worldwide, the last thing the manufac-

turers need is the possibility of supplying overweight

equipment.

One option was to select only the lightest material for

this particular stock. The Italian manufacturer makes

stocks by the thousand for companies all over the

world, using automated CNC machinery. Sorting and

weighing the blanks by hand prior to machining, would

be quite costly. A better approach was to look for a

lighter, alternative timber, which was up to the job.

The air rifles are recoilless, so strength was not an is-

sue. We needed a timber with a consistent low density

and which would machine well. There were several

possibilities but discussions with a friendly local joiner

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suggested that poplar, which is readily available, might do the job. A few sample

pieces were obtained and these were sent to the machine shop in Italy for evalua-

tion.

The experimental stocks produced exceeded everyone’s expectations – to the ex-

tent that Italians enquired, almost immediately, if we could supply them with a fur-

ther 2000 stock blanks. Meantime, the rifle manufacturers asked a number of ques-

tions about the strength and durability of the material, with a view to using poplar

stocks on a wider range of their products.

Poplar is little grown or used in Britain nowadays, which is a shame because it is a

very fast-growing timber, which is also very tough. Its well-known traditional uses

were as boards for wagon bottoms and flooring and, until the mid 20th century, for

making wooden legs. Going back in time, poplar wood was used in building con-

struction. We also found references to Roman Legions valuing poplar as a light,

strong wood used for shield-making and even to black poplar being used to make

stocks for Short Magazine Lee Enfield rifles during World War I.

There are many mature, and over-mature poplar plantations in Britain today. Most

were planted to provide wood for making matches, for which there is no longer a

market, and there are few alternative markets at present. Even though poplar for

gunstocks can never be a huge market, the prospect of a few hundred cubic metres

a year, at something like £400 to £500 a cubic metre, has to be worth looking into,

as an alternative to firewood.

It was at this point we discovered that, to a joiner, “poplar” is not uncommonly

“yellow poplar” or tulipwood, that this is what we had supplied to our Italian friends

and that this is what they want to use. This species grows in the Eastern US, is

commonly imported into Italy and is readily available through a timber merchant not

far from the Italian factory.

All is not lost, though. Our Italian friends make stocks for most of the European air

rifle manufacturers and produce many tens of thousands of beech stocks a year.

They currently buy their material from Eastern Europe but they would be interested

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in buying from Britain, if we can compete on quality and price. Again, we could be

looking at a potential £400 to £500 a cubic metre, for material which might other-

wise be firewood. Furthermore, one of the two British Airgun manufacturers we

have been working with has indicated that they might well be inclined to specify

British wood, from sustainable sources, if there is little or no price penalty.

Finally, we have a second project, which requires relatively small production runs

of gunstocks, for a different air rifle. We have located a British machine shop, who

are willing and able to take on this work and hope to work with them on investigat-

ing and developing the potential of home grown poplar.

100cm x 36cm UB diameter Poplar rounds split once radially and once tangentially to yield a blank.

Though simple, this method will produce a large volume of machining waste

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Coppice marketing in Oxfordshire

David Rees writes…

Coppice produce, like English football, represents different things to different people and attitudes on the subject often reveal more about the person than their subject matter! I associate coppice in Oxfordshire with somewhat unkempt compartments of hazel which are environmentally valuable but resistant to harvesting at a profit. This poses everyone a problem be-cause we can all agree that coppice and its irreplaceable biodiversity is worth keeping …but not while it costs us so much to maintain, right here, right now.

If we aspire to bring coppice back to life, we need to be able to sell the produce. If this can be done reliably at a profit, everything else about hazel will fall into place.

Many would say ”If only it were that simple!” But the facts are that our focus on coppice has largely been on its biodiversity, not its economic viability. It should therefore not be a surprise to us when we can no longer afford spending on biodiversity because the money has run out. The key to returning eco-nomic viability to hazel (and other) coppice is to fo-cus on the business of reliable sales.

In recent decades the traditional markets for hazel produce have disappeared or at best, shrunk in the face of exciting new products made from modern materials. Some stout efforts at marketing have had little impact. But as the worm turns, modern polluting materials are seen for what they are, shifting the balance, this time in favour of renewable materials. An example of this is that in the better class of garden (those open to the public, for example) you won’t find the merest fragment of an old plastic plant support, such gardens have got wise to the simple merits of natural hazel pea sticks which do the job better and don’t pollute the subtle imagery of the cottage garden.

So if times are changing, maybe its time to test the market for hazel produce once again. The Oxfordshire Woodland Project expects to carry out a trial with help from the southern Oxfordshire LEADER fund to investigate local markets. There are still many uncertainties blocking a clear view to a profit but we can be confident that if we really want to increase the net biodiversity of hazel coppice in the county, this is the way to go about it.

From top: Hedging stakes cut out of a community wood in Kidlington, Hazel pollarding: a practical response to modern deer numbers

New top-quality hazel copse is protected ….by more coppice produce

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Lost contact? Please note that we need your current email to keep in touch!

If you have changed your internet services supplier, the chances are that we have... lost email contact with you. Please send the Project office: owp@oxfordshire.gov.uk a brief email with your full name and “Offcuts email” in the subject line. We can then keep your details up-to-date and keep you abreast of events grants & current affairs as it affects woods. Email allows the Project to do this at a lower cost than paper-based mail. One or two people have noted that the Woodland Project has “ gone quiet” ...not a bit of it! We just don’t have your correct email and cannot afford to send everything

Project set to relocate this winter

After nearly 10 years at its present offices in Woodstock the Project will relocate to modern premises at Old Station Way, Eynsham this winter. We will be exchanging the genteel poverty of the old wooden Pratten Building located within the Oxford Museum gardens for an altogether different set up with efficient materials storage and modern offices with high-speed communications links. We expect to retain our telephone num-bers and email addresses will re-main unaffected. The Woodland Project moves along with the Wychwood Project and the Lower Windrush Valley Project, the Thames Valley environmental Re-cords Centre (TVERC) and the whole of Oxfordshire County Coun-cil’s Countryside section.

This newsletter and the Oxfordshire Woodland Project is supported by:

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Crocodile Eyes ...you’ve got to be barking!

David Rees writes…

While trialling various conversion methods for poplar (see rifle stocks article) I noticed a large slough of bark that was particularly attractive, featuring a curious eye-shaped pat-tern where it had once overlain a blind knot. With fanciful ideas of getting rich on the back of ladies’ “Crocodile Eye bark belts” (the height of fashion in my dreams) I looked closely at the properties of the bark and experimented with its removal from the butt.

After a few attempts I found that I could remove sheets of bark from 20-year old spring-felled poplar almost without any tearing in the fabric of the bark. It could be encouraged to lay flat and would dry in that position when weighted down.

After a week of drying the result was a 5’x4’ board that could have been bought from some DIY chain. It was impregnated with its own preservative (the tannin content be-trayed itself by staining where the iron barking tool had passed). It featured the curious eye patterning on one side and a smooth surface resembling leather, on the other. The partially dried board was also remarkably flexible and could be bent fully into circles inside, outside and lengthways but not inside-out across the grain. It seems that the sheet has some strength when the individual fibres are asked to curve along their length but bending them parallel to the fibres merely separates them, starting a split.

Older bark loses the eye patterning and acquires the familiar fissured grain that is very much less pliable, though possibly more durable if exposed to the elements.

Boards with such properties could be put to all sorts of casual uses and, given a reliable supply, a professional market. I’ll leave you to your own fancy regarding possible uses but if you pass by Woodstock shortly, you’ll find my chicken coop clad with it.

Contact the Project office if you would like to order a sample to experiment for yourself.

Eye detail of poplar bark

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NEW BOOK

"The Cultural Heritage of Chiltern Woods

- An illustrated guide to archaeological features"

This 60 page A4 full colour illustrated publication describes the various lumps and bumps and other features found in woods across the Chilterns. It discusses the history of the beech woods and their management over the centuries. It con-tains 80 colour photographs by the author, plus other maps and illustrations showing what to look for and how to record them.

Copies can be purchased for £9.99 plus post and packing of £1.45. Please make cheques payable to the Chiltern Woodlands Project. To order copies please contact John Morris on 01844 355503 or email wood-lands@chilternsaonb.org .

John Morris is Director of the Chiltern Woodlands Project, a registered charity based in the Chilterns AONB offices at The Lodge, 90 Station Road, Chinnor, Oxon OX39 4HA.

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B O O K I N G F O R MB O O K I N G F O R M

Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Events Booking form --Autumn 2009--

use this booking form for Group events only, return to OWP, Fletchers House OX20 1SN

Your name:

email/ phone number:

Event

Joint Travelling: Tick the boxes

Date & time

Enter below the numbers of places to be booked

Can you offer a lift?

Would you accept a lift?

Watergate farm & Wood-land Group AGM:

1.45 for 2.00pm Tuesday 22 Sep-tember 2009

Low impact thinning at 2 sites in Ramsden, north of Witney

October 09 Express your inter-est by entering number of people in your party wishing to attend

Tree Planting world re-cord attempt, Stratfield Brake, Kidlington

Sat 5th December 10.30 for 11.00am gun

Training half-day work-shop: formative pruning in sustainable new woodland

Workshops across the county in Jan/Feb 2010,Express your interest by entering number of people in your party likely to attend

Training half-day work-shop: selecting trees for retention and felling in woodland thinning

Workshops across the county in Jan/Feb 2010,Express your interest by entering number of people in your party likely to attend

Winter seminar: myForest small wood-land management and marketing system sand-pit

Feb 2010. Express your interest by entering number of people in your party wishing to attend

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OXFORDSHIRE WOODLAND GROUP (OWG) EVENTS 2009/10

For OWG events use booking form overleaf ← or email the Project office Field Visit & Woodland Group AGM, Watergate Farm, Bainton, 2m north of Bicester Tuesday 22nd September 09 1.45pm for 2.00pm, courtesy John Hunter Esq. Watergate Farm features extensive broadleaved woodland of a range of ages set in the context of mixed farmland. The woodland is now managed for wildlife, timber and amen-ity, also playing host to the Forest Schools initiative. Watergate Farm is marked on the landranger maps, Oxford sheet no.164 grid ref SP577267. Field Visit: Thinning at Grey Barn Farm & Lower Farm, Ramsden: October 09: con-tact Project office for full details. This visit will focus on very low impact early thinning on productive woodlands. Numbers will be limited to 15 persons. Tree Planting world record attempt (Oxford location) Sat 5th December Come along to Stratfield Brake, south of Kidlington grid ref at 10.30am armed with a spade to contribute to this BBC sponsored event, part of a nationwide attempt on the world record for numbers of trees planted in one hour. Location is SP498122, phone the Project office for exact details Winter programme of small woodland management workshops Spread over the county in Jan/Feb, contact the Project office for further details. Winter seminar: Presentation of the myForest small woodland management and mar-keting system. Test this really user-friendly system for yourself with tips from the author. Central location, February 2010. Express your interest on the booking form. Numbers will be limited by the computer facilities and will be advertised regionally later, book early to take advantage of this local offer.

Advance notice: Field Visit 2011 & AGM 2pm 21st Sept 2010, The Lockinge Estate, courtesy, Thomas Loyd First Visited in the late 1990s the Woodland group will review progress of woodland on the estate From the Chilterns Woodland Project: Chilterns Special Trees and Woods fourth annual conference Sat14th Nov 10.00am Berkshire College of Agriculture Burchetts Green, Marlow. Booking: 01844 355525

From Flora Locale, Booking info: 01672 515723: —Propagating and planting tree seeds for woodland creation projects Ref E4 Wednesday 9 September, Cranfield, Bedfordshire —Pigs for land management Ref M2 Wednesday 7 October, 10.30am – 3.30pm, Bewdley, Worcestershire —Good practice in managing ancient trees Ref SE6 Thursday 22 October, Burnham Beeches, Slough —Habitat management for lower plants and fungi Ref SW4 Tuesday 10 November Location: Chew Valley, North Somerset

Contact the Oxfordshire Woodland Project on: 01993 814140 or owp@oxfordshire.gov.uk Attendance is only by advance booking (use the attached form), unless otherwise stated. ‘Woodland meeting’ road signs are posted around the venues for all Group events. To minimise costs, your booking will be confirmed only on request. Events will usually involve off-path walking over potentially physically demanding terrain.

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The Oxfordshire Woodland Group Registered charity no.1055228

Membership is open to all with an interest in Oxfordshire’s woodland. The group works towards a sustainable future for our small woodlands for the many benefits they provide. The annual subscription is £10, payable from April and confers full rights of membership. Cheques should be made payable to the Oxfordshire Woodland Group and sent to this address:

Oxfordshire Woodland Project Fletchers House

Park Street Woodstock

Oxfordshire OX20 1SN NB POSTAL ADDRESS DETAILS CHANGE IN DECEMBER

Tel: 01993 814140 fax 814127 —email: owp@oxfordshire.gov.uk—

www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/woodland_project Manager: David Rees BSc MICFor CEnv

...events listing on page 23

Detachment of the Charney Army

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OXFORDSHIRE WOODLAND GROUP 2008-2009

SUMMARY OF ACCOUNTS AND ANNUAL REPORT

Trustees:

John Wilmer and Andrew Duncan both stood down during the year. Tho-mas Loyd and Martin Jarrett have been co-opted as Trustees and will be standing for election at the AGM. Joe Hamner has agreed to act as Sec-retary but has opted not stand as a Trustee.

Finance

This was a very disappointing year, ending with a trading deficit of £1691 and the General Account balance reduced to £850. Total balances on restricted accounts stood at £13998.

Compared to the previous year, support from charitable trusts reduced to £2000, from £2500, continuing the recent downward trend.

Subscription income was well down, at £801, compared to last year’s £3030. This is a cause of concern to Trustees and our new Secretary’s first task is to address this situation.

A welcome development was the donations received, from satisfied mem-bers, specifically to support the work of the Woodland Project. A balance of £7000 on the Woodland Project reserve account underwrites the Group’s continuing support for the coming year but this, too, is a cause of concern to the Trustees.

Total receipts, 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009 £ 4948-72

Charitable Trusts £2000-00

Subscriptions £ 801-00

Other Donations to General Account £ 179-72

Other Donations to Restricted Accounts £2018-00

Total expenditure, 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009 £6691-00

General Account (payment to OWP) £ 6000-00

Restricted Accounts £ 691-00

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Woodland planting

The woodland creation initiative attracted little new support this year but accounted for all the restricted account expenditure. Of this £550 was to meet the contracted payment to Tree Aid, to support the Kandema Rural Regeneration Project, in Ghana. They will use this to help set nurseries, to raise 50000 tree seedlings. There are still 350 trees available for spon-sorship, at the Stratfield Brake site, at £6 a tree.

Membership by District No. lapsed

members* W. Oxon 35 158 S. Oxon 21 153 Cherwell District

44 83

Vale White Horse

14 121

Oxford City 8 66

Non Oxon 22 265 Total (30 July 07) 144 846

*contact retained but not currently receiving service