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.

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.

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.

This month has truly shown us the wide and widening reach and appeal of the WSWG Project to bring Taymount and Five Mile Woods into community ownership. We have carried out volunteer action for nature and walkers in both woods, engaged with the Highland and Strathtay Stronger Communities Network, participated in an Earth Day event staged by Perth and Kinross Council’s Climate Change and Sustainable Development Team, hosted a student visit from SRUC Edinburgh and Aberdeen and received a further annual donation from the Community Fund of a local community hydro scheme. Read on to find out a bit more about these and other WSWG activities of late.

This month, WSWG has been flat out with the Wildflower and Mining Bee Rescue Mission in Taymount and Five Mile Woods. The recent cutting and mulching of years of encroaching gorse and other scrub along the core paths in both woods means the task is enormous. WSWG members and new volunteers have stepped up to help over the past fortnight because they care about the small creatures and their vital microhabitats in our woods.

This month, here are some musings on the season and community wealth building from Bob Talbot.

March is famous for “mad” hares, for its “ides”, for occasional sun that feels like May, and for its winds, which, with April showers, “bringeth forth the May flowers”. In short it is a month of change, leaving winter behind but not forgotten, shaking the snow off its coat tails and setting its face towards better and hopefully warmer times ahead.

This past month we have been taking stock of the amazing future we have envisaged for ourselves when the woods are in community ownership. The WSWG Proposal is a truly exciting opportunity for neighbouring communities around the woods to join together in meaningful action for nature and the environment in a way which directly delivers community benefit to suit diverse interests, abilities and needs.

A heartfelt wish for a Happy New Year to all our WSWG members and supporters. Here’s hoping 2023 will be a happy and positive year for us all and the WSWG Project. To update anyone who missed our announcement in the run-up to Christmas, the WSWG CATS Application to bring Taymount and Five Mile Wood into community ownership was submitted to Forestry and Land Scotland in December 2022. An evaluation and negotiating process will now take place over the next few months, which we truly intend will bring a happy and positive outcome for us all.

WSWG is delighted to inform you that we have submitted our CATS Application to Forestry and Land Scotland for Taymount and Five Mile Woods, based on the WSWG Proposal 2022 Going Forward which received overwhelming support in our recent Community Consultation. It has been a long haul and we are so grateful for your support in getting us to this point.

The big thing this month has been “Community Consultation 2” from 17 to 31 October on the WSWG Proposal. This mainly on-line survey has delivered its intended purpose, which was to provide evidence of community support for WSWG’s proposed plans for Taymount and Five Mile Woods in community ownership. Here is a summary of the key and very pleasing results from the survey which will be going into our CATS application in a couple of weeks’ time.

This has been a very busy month for the the board. You’ll see we’ve elected a new board of Trustees who have worked tirelessly throughout the last few weeks to prepare the Community Consultation for the WSWG project. This is the next key moment as we move forward towards bringing these two woods into Community Ownership and its success will depend upon the support of the communities in which these woods are situated.

Our big thing this month was the first General Meeting of the WSWG SCIO, involving the retiral of the three interim trustees and the election of a new Board of Trustees to take WSWG forward as a charity. We had sent out a “GM Pack” to keep our WSWG membership informed, invite them to the GM and seek nominations for WSWG Members willing to become Trustees. The meeting was held at the Tayside Hotel in Stanley on 20 June with the formal proceedings followed by the opportunity to chat together over a cup of tea.