Woodland Workparties 2011

3 and 11 December 2011

A team of 12 adults, teenagers, and children made good progress with the hazel on the 3^rd, leaving only a few trees to finish off at our regular workparty. On the 11^th, 7 volunteers, armed with sharpened billhooks and hatchets, prepared stakes for a Forest School playground: the hazel will be used to make a terraced seating area. We have also received interest in preparing poles for morris dancers!

13 and 26 November 2011

We met for 2 workparties this month to meet demand for hazel products. 5 volunteers started to coppice section 1 of the hazel, sorting out stems into beansticks, stakes, binders, peasticks, and firewood.

9 October 2011

5 adults and children collected 5 sacks of apples from the Community Woodland, ready for juicing at the Village Hall on Leafield Apple Day, on Sunday 23 October. There are still lots of apples left there for villagers and wildlife to enjoy.

14 August and 11 September 2011

Volunteers cut the grass, weeded the wild flower patch, and trimmed branches along the rides. Numerous white butterflies and a large, irridescent Roesel's cricket were found in the glade at our September workparty.

10 July 2011

3 volunteers cut the grass and nettles round the edge of the glade, varnished the display board, and cut and cleared away a bramble bush on the edge of the NW ride.

While we were having our snack, a large orange-bronze butterfly with black markings swooped round the glade and settled on the knapweed in the wild flower patch, a Silver-washed Fritilliary. This butterfly lives in woods where there are sheltered sunny clearings; they have been seen occasionally in thw Wychwood area, but never before in our community wood. They lay their eggs in the crevices of the bark of mature oak trees.

12 June 2011

Another dry month was followed by more welcome rain on our workparty. 9 volunteers raked mown grass and embedded the rustic bench from the Playing Field on the south-western side of the glade.

8 May 2011

After very welcome rain, cut grass was too wet for raking and our workparty pruned trees near the path and glade.

10 April 2011

4 woodlanders joined the Parish Council 'Spring Clean in the Park', revisiting the 350 trees and shrubs planted by many local volunteers during National Tree Week 1999, to encourage wildlife and improve the appearance of the Playing Field. We pruned some trees, including the white mulberry near Leafield Pre-School, and cut back competing blackthorn to allow more light to reach overshadowed oaks; we also collected several sacks of litter from the edge of the Playing Field. A rustic bench, no longer needed by the Council, was transferred to the Community Woodland, to provide an extra seat in the glade.

13 March 2011

6 volunteers enjoyed an unexpectedly sunny springt morning tidying up the woodland. David Rees from the Oxfordshire Woodland Project had recently helped us by pruning some ash trees for timber, si we collected the pruned branches into heaps to make homes for wildlife. We also pruned a couple of field maples to provide light and air to the Trafalgar Oak , planted by Leafield schoolchildren in 2005, and cut back one of the dogwoods near the glade, to encourage new growth of attractive red stems.

9 January and 13 February 2011

Our January and February workparties revisited the indigenous hedge at the new burial ground, planted in 2004 by a Woodland workparty, again with the help of the Cotswold Wardens. The hedge consists of 60% hawthorn, with 5% each of field maple, hornbeam, spindle, wild plum, purging buckthorn, dog rose, wayfaring tree, and guelder rose; the young trees were purchased using grants from the Friends of Wychwood and the Woodland Trust. The spiral guards, wrapped around the young trees to protect them from attack by rabbits and voles, have now served their protective purpose and volunteers removed them to avoid constriction and damage to the growing trees. We plan to arrange for undamged spirals to be recycled by other woodland groups.

Workparties in 2010

2011 news index