Copy for the ACA blog June 2011
The Abergavenny Community Woodland Group has now been going for about a year, and is holding its first AGM on Tuesday 21 June 2011. The aim of the group is to enhance and support woodland management, biodiversity and environmental sustainability within the Abergavenny area. It does this by helping to manage local woodlands, in both public and private ownership, and keeping some of the products such as wood fuel. Historically, woods were productive areas, producing timber and a range of essential things like fencing, charcoal, and bean poles, and the group wants to re-develop the knowledge and skills that have been lost in recent decades for the benefit of the local community.
It has been an eventful year for the new group. During last Autumn and Winter group members attended a number of training days run by the Green Valleys Project, learning woodland skills such as coppicing, storing and seasoning wood for fuel, and tree identification, as well as essential things like health and safety and first aid. The group now has agreements with the owners of four areas of woodland in and around Abergavenny, and whilst some work is being done on them during the summer, more major work is planned for next Autumn and Winter.
Group members have also been busy in promoting the work of the group. They were in Bailey Park (in the rain!) for the Steam, Veteran and Vintage Rally on the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. The weekend before that, when the weather was much better, group members ran a stall at the Ty’r Mowydd/Mulberry House Environmental Study Centre’s Eco Activity Day – children (and some adults) had a lot of fun making bird and bat boxes which they could then take home and put up in their gardens.
Now the group is up and running, and with a successful first year behind it and plenty of woodland to work on in the coming year, we are looking for new members. If you are interested in joining or would like to learn more about the group, contact Ed Cape on 07910 212772 or e-mail him at ed.cape@vigin.net.
