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

Monthly Community Update for November 2020

West Stormont was the name used in medieval times to cover the parishes of Auchtergaven, Kinclaven, Logiealmond, Moneydie, Redgorton (Stanley) and the Murthly portion of Little Dunkeld. West Stormont has been chosen as the most suitably inclusive title for the many communities connected to Taymount and Five Mile Woods today. Working with local people to bring Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood into Community Ownership
West Stormont Woodland Group

What has WSWG been doing this month?

  • Local “guerilla volunteers” have been very thoughtfully and kindly cutting back gorse coming up the middle of the main track round Five Mile Wood and positioning logs to assist walkers over wet and boggy ditches at the north entrance. Huge thanks to them, whoever they are!
  • Lovely painted slates been found hung upon trees around Five Mile Wood – leaves, lizards and cupcakes to name a few! Who is the mystery artist?
  • Another lovely and thought-provoking blog from Margaret Lear on accommodating both access and nature in Five Mile Wood, entitled “Exits, Entrances and Crossroads”.
  • Access audits and plans for both Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood with WSWG members in two- household, socially-distancing groups! See the new Balfour Beattie cycle link from A9 to Five Mile Wood.
  • On-line workshop – “Growing Alternatives : Community Struggles”, part of “From the Ground Up” – 12 months of grassroots community input to the COP26 Global Gathering inGlasgow in November 2021 for action on the climate crisis. Co-hosted with Woodlands Community Development Trust who run a Community Garden project in Glasgow. Joining in with people thinking big!
  • More brainstorming, logistics planning and financial rejigging on how to achieve, mainly on-line, therequired level of community consultation on our CATS proposal early in 2021 from our wholecommunity. This means WSWG members AND everyone else who lives in the area.
  • Drone photography to give a different angle to present our proposal in the community consultation process.
  • Securing further expert help to consolidate our feasibility study and business plan for the woods.

WSWG Word of the Month – Active Travel

Active travel simply means making journeys by physically active means – like walking, cycling, or scooting. With over 50% of all driven journeys in Scotland being less than 5km, and 26% less than 2km, there is plenty of scope for achieving a significant shift to walking and cycling as the most sustainable forms of transport. Walking is key to getting more people choosing not to use cars as it is ideal for shorter trips. Walking also forms part of public transport journeys – walking to and from buses, trams and trains. Positive impacts include: reduced congestion, reduced air pollution, higher quality public realm, better physical, mental & social health. (PathsforAll)

What’s coming up next?

  • Consolidating other themes featuring in WSWG’s proposal for the two woods: education and life longlearning, healthy living, creativity and culture, and green enterprise. These woods are just bursting with potential for community benefit for decades to come.
  • Completing calculations for carbon sequestration through proactive
  • Become a WSWG Member today
  • Join the FREE MEMBERSHIP SCHEME on our website www.weststormontwoodlandgroup.scot
    Follow us! West Stormont Woodland Group page1image27446528
  • Email us: contact@weststormontwoodlandgroup.scot

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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.

Read More »

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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