So it’s January 2021. What has WSWG been doing this month?

At this extraordinarily hectic time of year sometimes it’s rewarding to grab a cup of tea and take time to reflect on just how busy we’ve all been. Treat yourself to 5 minutes off and come down memory lane with WSWG for a photo montage of our Woodland Year. And it has been a busy twelve months for WSWG with lots of events bringing a wider range of people to the woods than in previous years, and even more going on behind the scenes in pursuit of our shared goals for our woods, wildlife and community. You can look back at all our Community Monthly Updates on our website to remind you of all the activities and connections we have enjoyed. We hope you have an amazing Festive Season and look forward to seeing you again in 2025. In the meantime, here are a few WSWG photos from a highly enjoyable 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.