Author: secretary

Booking is now open for WITW 2020 – places are filling quickly so please dont delay or your first choice of course may not be available.

BOOK HERE

As you know, all British bats and their roosts are protected by law. It is an offence to harm, disturb or kill bats. It is also an offence to destroy or damage the places that bats use for shelter (their roosts) whether or not bats are present at the time.

It is the duty of anyone working in an area where bats are likely to be present to ensure that they are aware of what to look for and what actions to take if bats are found. In other words, you cannot say you didn’t know bats were there because you should expect them to be.

Precautionary Recommendations

1. Before work begins on the area to be coppiced, all those working on site should read the attached leaflet “Bats and Trees” produced by the Bat Conservation Trust, in order to make them selves aware of what to look out for.
2. Check all trees to be felled or coppiced, looking for any holes, cracks, splits, hollow branches or small cavities. Cavities entrances can be as small as 10mm wide and some cavities are so small that only a single bat fits in.
3. Use a bright torch to illuminate any cavities to look for bats that may be present.
4. Any branches with obvious holes or cavities that are too high to see into from the ground should be soft felled. The branch should then be laid gently on the ground and left undisturbed for 24 hours or at least overnight.
5. If bats or any evidence of bats is found during any operation, ALL WORK MUST CEASE immediately and a bat expert contacted for further advice.

Please feel free to contact Gail Armstrong (contact details below) at any time for further advice. You can also contact Will Walton on the email address above ([email protected]) or mobile number 07739 984307.

Gail Armstrong, the Bat Lady

Tel: 01524 70316

Mobile: 07917021073

Each year the family of Community Forests in England hold a conference to look at progress and identify future opportunities.

The 2020 Conference is on 26th March at the Birmingham Midland Institute, from 9:30 to 4:00.

In 2020 our annual conference focuses on trees and carbon. With trees in the media almost daily and new targets and aspirations for new woodland creation to lock up carbon as a response to climate change, what is the role of Community Forests in helping to achieve these new targets? What is the role of trees and woodlands in mitigating the likely impacts of climate change? How quickly can we respond to the challenge of a dramatic increase in levels of planting?

We have great speakers and the workshop will undoubtedly be lively as usual.

The conference costs £32.63 (strange number due to fees on the website!), to help cover some of the costs for the day.

Further information about the great list of speakers we have lined up and booking deatails are available from this link: 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/englands-community-forests-annual-conference-2020-tickets-88503158329

We hope you will be able to join us.

With our best wishes for a happy 2020.

The Mersey Forest Team 

Tel. 01925 816217

AGM date will be FRIDAY 7th FEBRUARY 2020 – please put this on your calendar.

New location – Village Hall, Staveley in Cartmel.

There will be Music.

There will be dancing.

There will be food.

There will be a quiz.

There will be a raffle

………..and of course the AGM meeting.

18:00 Gather

18:30 AGM

19:00Food & written quiz

19:45Music & dancing

20:30Raffle and quiz results

21:00 ish

So CANW members, please make sure you attend, bring yourselves, a raffle prize, and some beer, wine or whatever is your tipple of choice.

PS –  Can you please the secretary know if you will be attending so we can cater for numbers accordingly.

Landworkers’ Alliance AGM & Winter ShindigFri 22nd Nov – Mon 25th NovCastle Head Field Studies Centre, Grange over Sands, Cumbria, LA11 6QT https://www.field-studies-council.org/centres/castlehead.aspx

Landworkers’ Alliance are a grassroots organisation supporting small scale farmers, growers and land-based workers on both a practical (education) and political (lobbying and policy making) level across the UK.  
For our AGM and winter weekend party we will; share stories, feast on amazing local food, sample local ales, discuss important political issues relevant to landworkers, undertake workshops, hear storytelling, watch films, make friends, visit local farms & projects and have a cracking dance to fabulous local band Diddley Squat. The ticket includes full board and we have a designated kids space if you would like to bring your children.

Our annual AGM is hosted in a different region each year to try ensure we have a good presence across the UK and to support regional activity at a local level. For us our AGM is our most important event for members every year as it’s a way to bring people together from across the UK, collectively set our work agenda for the following year, organise skill shares, elect our coordinating group, build and strengthen our movement and of course have fun together!   

Tickets and information are available here: https://app.etickets.to/buy/?e=17911

Full weekend tickets are available to Landworkers’ Alliance members only. You can sign up to be a member here: https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/membership-levels/

If you are interested just to find out a bit more about the Landworkers’ Alliance and join us for the Saturday night party, you don’t need to sign up as a member. The Saturday night ticket from 5pm includes debates about the future land-use of the uplands, a delicious feast and knees-up band Diddley Squat.

If you are a supporter member and would like a full weekend ticket, you can sign-up to be on my waiting list and we will let you know nearer the time if there is space.

Please send ticket info on to anyone who might be interested.

If you have any queries please email Helen on [email protected] or ring me on 07900648666

Many thanksHelen Starr-Keddle
Events CoordinatorLandworkers’ Alliance
Please note I work Wednesdays and Fridays so may not be able to respond to emails straight away. 
www.landworkersalliance.org.uk

Friday 27 September from 4.30pm

Join us for a special get-together to celebrate the completion of the eight Greenwood Trails and the launch of the Rusland Horizons Trust.

At 4.30 pm we will gather for a modest walk along one of the latest Greenwood Trails, this will then be followed by general frivolity and merriment back at the Grizedale Café from 6.30 pm. There will be a ceremonial ‘handover’ of Rusland Horizons from the Partnership to the new Trust (with the very minimum of speech-making), as well as displays, films and copies of all the Rusland Horizons publications.

More details can be found in the newsletter issued last week, if you have not seen this then please check your spam file as it appears a number of our recent emails have been delivered into this file rather than your inbox.

Alternatively you can find details on the What’s On page of our Website ruslandhorizons.org.

We look forward to seeing you there!

From all at Rusland Horizons

Mersey Forest Job Opportunity – Community Development

The Mersey Forest has a vacancy for a Community Development Officer. This role is critical for the delivery and development of our Forest Plan ambitions.  

https://jobs.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/vacancy/community-development-officer-398809.html

I wonder if you could circulate the link to your networks and anyone you think might be interested?

Paul Nolan

Project Director | The Mersey Forest Team

Tel. 01925 816217

You are cordially invited to another Oak Bark peeling day at Moss and Heights Spring Wood, Bouth.Come and join us for a relaxed day to the sound of Oak releasing its tenuous grip to its bark covering.
Great social day and at the end of the day the bark will be gathered and bundled, stored in a dry location ready to be collected for its journey down to the last tannery in the UK that uses oak bark to tan its leather – JF & J Baker in Devon.
During the day, there will also be some remedial work to be done on the Wood – boardwalk repair and some overhang to be cut back along the road.
See you there, 10 am start.

Moss & Heights Springs Wood (MHSW)

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/wood/4391/moss-height-spring-wood/

So, what is National Coppice Week?
It’s a week of events throughout the UK focusing on coppicing, coppice products and the many benefits of the management of British woodlands by coppicing.

Actually we are proposing 9 days – including two weekends, 12th-20th October, launching at the NCFed weekend Gathering and AGM in Herefordshire on 12th October.
What does it aim to achieve?
To raise the profile of:

1. Coppicing – what it is and why it’s done
2. Products of the UK’s coppiced woodland
3. The benefits of buying local and the problems often associated with imported products, especially charcoal
4. Habitat and biodiversity benefits associated with coppice management
5. Coppicing’s heritage

Please see attached document for full explanation of the proposal: