West Stormont Woodland Group

West Stormont
Woodland Group

Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) SC051682

Join us today to bring Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood into community ownership

Community Monthly Update – August 2021

Finding consensus on specific woodland management proposals on a compartment by compartment basis in both woods has been the main activity for WSWG’s Shadow Board and advisers lately.

It has been really interesting and exciting to bring people together once again in the woods to discuss forest management and conclude plans for the best outcomes for climate, biodiversity and community alongside sound income projections. And time for a quick picnic lunch along the way!

What has WSWG been doing this month?

  • Site meeting on 8 July in Taymount and Five Mile Woods with Rob Mitchell of Atala Woodland Management who is going to help ensure our finalised woodland management plans are plausible, practical and profitable.
  • Margaret Lear’s blog gifted & challenged us on Foraging Sustainably – now a month of rest for her.
  • Our Bird Spotting Walk in Five Mile Wood on 10 July to celebrate Swift Awareness Week was sadly rained off. We have however enjoyed seeing swifts flying above the woods several times since.
  • With one more Info Walk to go on Sunday 15 August in Five Mile Wood, we have so far enjoyed good weather, good conversations and new discoveries in both woods.
  • Lisa Davidson, volunteer WSWG member, has produced a draft report investigating ecotourism in community woodlands in Scotland, coming up with a series of recommendations relevant to Taymount and Five Mile Woods. Huge thanks to Lisa for a great piece of work in helping our project progress.
  • Ongoing on-line meetings of WSWG Shadow Board.
  • Work continues behind the scenes each day to begin to consolidate the extensive information and networking outcomes to make sure we have the best possible proposal to submit to CATS.

Word of the Month

Forestry compartment: The woods are subdivided into different stands of trees by species and by age, called compartments and sub compartments. This allows foresters a way of describing what is planned in different parts of the wood and they can make predictions of how much income may be generated based on the number and size of trees. WSWG will also use the forestry sub-compartments to help plan, map, communicate and manage our improvements for climate, biodiversity and community benefit.  

What’s coming up next?

  • Oops! Community Consultation Report still in progress. All being well, we will publish it on the WSWG website during August & send out a link. It’s all the wonderful comments you sent in which are taking so long to process!  
  • The last in our series of four WSWG Info Walks will take place on 15 August in Five Mile Wood, from 2-4pm, meeting in the car park at the south end of the wood on Benchil Road from 1.45pm.
  • Once we have received comments back from FLS on our draft constitution, we will begin registration of WSWG as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) with the charity regulator, OSCR.

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Previous Articles

Community Monthly Update – November 2024

Our top story this month has to be the fantastic Bush Craft and Woodland Picnic event we had on 2 November in Taymount Wood with Biscuit of Wee Adventures, working in the woodland environment on a “Leave No Trace” basis.

In the morning, nine pre-school to 6 year old children learned how to put up shelters of different shapes and sizes using colourful tarpaulins and strings and ropes.

In the afternoon, thirteen 7 to 12 year olds had their turn, learning about knots and tarpaulins, working out how to tension and guy with ropes and found stakes to angle and raise or lower the tarps. Tree stumps became seats and tables, moss, twigs and leaves became gardens, and so imaginations roamed all day. Frogs, beetles and millipedes were greeted with enthusiastic huddles before being helped out of harm’s way.

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Community Monthly Update – October 2024

Let’s start with a big thank you to PKC for the great job they have done resurfacing the U38 road from Five Mile Wood car park to Stanley past Active Kids. All done within the scheduled closure period and neatly tied in with a recessed tarmac apron at the car park. So much safer and more comfortable for everybody now the potholes and rough edges are no more.

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Community Monthly Update – September 2024

Latest on Stanley Wildwood (Rookery Wood). You may remember that we dedicated our July Monthly Update to making the case for community ownership of Stanley Wildwood, with subsequent mailouts and Facebook posts to encourage our members and supporters to vote in PKC’s recent public consultation for a community-based future for this small but important woodland in Stanley village. We are therefore delighted to tell you that the Council has reported that 65.6% of respondents in the Stanley postcode area were in favour of a community outcome for the woodland. Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the consultation. WSWG and Tayside Woodland Partnerships are now in discussion with PKC to explore further the option of bringing the woodland into community ownership and management. We will keep you posted including ways individuals and the wider community can get involved going forward.

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Community Monthly Update – July 2024

Something quite different has cropped up for WSWG and Stanley village recently, so we have decided to make it the sole topic of our update this month and a simple appeal to you at the same time. PKC who currently own the 0.56 acre Stanley Wildwood (the Rookery wood) have decided it is surplus to their needs. They have launched an on-line consultation to find out whether the local community thinks it should be sold to a private neighbouring resident as an extension to their garden ground or sold or leased to a willing community organisation. The area owned by PKC is shown in yellow. It has had a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) since 1987. We believe the best interests of the Wildwood and rookery will be served through community not private ownership. Please support our goal by voting for Option 2 in the PKC consultation, using the link shown.

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Community Monthly Update – June 2024

Our main focus this month has been collaboration with all sorts of people and organisations in our ongoing programme of events in Taymount Wood and outreach activity for the WSWG Project. Each and every event has been a source of real joy at seeing so many people benefitting in so many ways from spending and sharing time in our lovely woodlands on a diverse range of activities. Whilst we cannot claim to have beaten the record set in 2019 for our oldest participant at a WSWG event (she was an amazing 96 years old!), at only 5 weeks old a little treasure beat the record of our youngest attendee to date by a whole 11 weeks! How cool is that? Read on to find out more about these wonderful, moving and uplifting events.

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Community Monthly Update – May 2024

We are really delighted this month to start with the announcement that the winner of the WSWG April Photography Competition in the Children’s category is Dougie from Highland Perthshire. His stunning and clever photograph was taken at the head of Loch Rannoch, looking west, on Saturday 20 April. Such a beautiful, calm scene in our precious Perthshire countryside, but just look at the perfect capture of the beautiful splash effect at its heart. A truly super photo.

Congratulations, Dougie. Thank you very much for taking part in this competition and your well-deserved prize will be making its way to you very soon.

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