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 – July 2021

Now we can start to meet up in bigger numbers outdoors, we’ve managed several site visits with Shadow Board members in Taymount Wood for different purposes which has been really enjoyable and uplifting...

These have included: a recce walk to reconsider some of the draft proposals in the light of feedback in the Community Consultation; an intriguing walk with a WSWG member to follow up some possible new archaeological findings; a very useful meeting with Graeme Findlay of FLS; and thank you, Pete Wishart, MP, for walking the woods with us to find out more about the WSWG project.

What else has WSWG been doing this month?

  • Habitat Survey carried out for Taymount Wood by ecologist, Adrian Davis – report coming soon.
  • Worked on outline Hedgehog Recovery Plan with TCV (The Conservation Volunteers) HogWatch Programme as part of the WSWG and West Stormont Connect biodiversity plan going forward.  
  • Follow-up litter-pick on 20 June with C406 Tackle Litter Group to see how much litter and fly-tipping dumped in Taymount Wood car park and woodland edge since 23 May. Way too much!
  • On-line progress meeting with FLS (Forestry and Land Scotland). WSWG SCIO Constitution finalised and forwarded to FLS and Scottish Land Fund for ratification on key legal points relating to CATS.
  • First on-line meeting of WSWG Shadow Board.
  • New contact with Perthshire Nature Connections Partnership; ongoing networking with Tayside Woodland Partnerships and tapping into Perth Most Sustainable Small City initiative.
  • Ok ….. putting this bottom of the list this month, but WSWG is still looking for a treasurer.
Looks like water lying along the edges of the track into Taymount Wood. What is it?

Word of the Month

Hedgehog: small, brown, spiny mammal. One of the oldest mammals on earth, probably here for 15 million years. Estimated UK population 30 million only 50 years ago, down to 1.5 million now, of which about 300,000 in Scotland. Now in serious danger due to habitat loss, declining hedgerow and other habitat quality, roadkill, bonfires, ponds, swimming pools and holes with no exit ramps, garden and sports netting, strimming and mowing, and pesticides on farmland, parks, streets and gardens.  Conservation status: vulnerable. They need and deserve our help. Let’s do all we can to help their populations recover.

What’s coming up next?

  • First Summer of Nature event:  Bird-spotting Walk in Five Mile Wood Saturday 10 July. Meet at Five Mile Wood car park from 9.45am. For more information, see website Events page and recent email sent to members and supporters. Covid limit on numbers.
  • Community Consultation Report will be published on the WSWG website mid-July & a link sent out to members and supporters.
  • Site visit with Woodland Management consultant, Rob Mitchell, 8 July.
  • WSWG Info Walks in Taymount and Five Mile Woods: 18 & 31 July and 7 & 15 August. More on website.
Not water, ribbons of willow seeds lining the verges.

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Previous Articles

Community Monthly Update – November 2023

We are really thrilled to let you know that Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has approved WSWG’s Revised Wildwood Proposal and Business Plan for Taymount Wood. This is the first big goal achieved in our Community Asset Transfer Process to bring Taymount and Five Mile Woods into community ownership!

Read More »

Community Monthly Update – October 2023

A highlight for the WSWG Project this month has been the timely teaming up of a group of employees from Aviva in Perth with some unexpectedly lovely autumn weather for a day of corporate volunteering. On 2 October, five enthusiastic Aviva colleagues spent the day with WSWG in the middle of Taymount Wood on a range of interesting and very useful tasks, quite a contrast to their usual office based working environment.

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Community Monthly Update – September 2023

Given the distinctly seasonal change in the weather of late, we thought we would bring our Word of the Month up to the top of our September update. Psithurism: (Noun) The sound of wind in the trees and rustling of leaves, from “psithuros”, the Greek word for whispering. Enjoy your woods this autumn!

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Community Monthly Update – August 2023

This month we really want to share with you a wonderful event we had – the joint woodland picnic on 22 July with Tayside Woodland Partnerships (TWP). We pitched our gazebos in a lovely grassy glade in Taymount Wood and set out a delicious picnic spread courtesy of Alison’s Kitchen in Blairgowrie – quiches, sausage rolls and cakes galore – on portable tables kindly lent to us by Stanley Village Hall. More food and home-baking was brought by the picnickers themselves. Despite weather forecasts to the contrary, it was a beautiful day with not a drop of rain or drizzle. After lots of great chat and good food, we heard a little about each of our organisations’ respective projects and then took a walk up the main track to King’s Myre Loch.

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Community Monthly Update – July 2023

First up this month is for us to say a big thank you to a lovely group of young people from Ochil Tower School in Auchterarder who had come on a mini-bus trip to visit Taymount Wood on 21 June … and just did a litter-pick whilst they were there!! What a great example of being good citizens – enjoying the environment and taking care of it together.

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Community Monthly Update – June 2023

We want to start with a big thank you to all WSWG volunteers who helped in the Wildflower and Mining Bee Rescue Mission this spring. Many times more wildflowers have come through along the various stretches of raked verge than would have been the case had they remained swamped by gorse mulch and, as seen in the photo here, mining bees have successfully emerged where the track surfaces were cleared to help them out too. And of course the cleared sections of track make for more comfortable going again for walkers and dogs. Lots more areas still need attention, and we will keep doing what we can when we can, but thank you again to everyone who helped make a difference for nature this spring.

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