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

Progress report – Nov 2018

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
  • Over 250 people have now confirmed their support for WSWG’s aim of purchasing Taymount and Five Mile Woods for the community under the Community Asset Transfer Scheme (CATS).
  • With Community Benefit beyond what the woods provide at present being at the heart of our purpose, the WSWG Steering Group is overseeing its newly formed Sub-Groups which are working on:
  • Community Engagement
  • Forestry and Biodiversity
  • Funding and Enterprise
  • WSWG’s new Constitution and Membership Scheme will be publicised during November & December
  • WSWG Steering Group activities in the past month:
  • Steering Group Meetings on 15 October and 6 November
  • Neighbour Survey visits underway with nearby landowners and householders to hear their thoughts, ideas and concerns about community ownership early on in the process
  • Draft Forest Plans progressing well for both Taymount and Five Mile Woods
  • “Woodland Imaginarium” – the WSWG melting pot of ideas for community benefit through community ownership of the woods – is building up nicely
  • Two members of the Steering Group attended Luncarty Community Council meeting on 23 October to introduce the WSWG project, which was well received
  • Forestry Management visits for the Steering Group to both Taymount Wood and Five Mile Wood on 25 October with three foresters from Forest Enterprise Scotland – helpful, informative and inspiring
  • Free Guided Walks led by Daniele Muir of Perthshire Wildlife and Alastair Walker of West Stormont Historical Society: 16 people at Five Mile Wood, 27 October (thanks to Active Kids for car parking); 13 people at Taymount Wood, 28 October. Great people, fantastic weather, 8 new supporters.
  • Display on WSWG and the history of Taymount and Five Mile Woods by West Stormont Historical Society at Stanley Development Trust AGM on 7 November. 6 new supporters signed up.
  • Attended first meeting of Strathtay Action Partnership at Bankfoot Church Centre. New contacts made which will hopefully be of benefit to WSWG (& vice versa) on Health & Wellbeing, funding etc
  • Meetings and discussions with a range of other local groups, businesses and community bodies about their possible involvement with WSWG – watch this space!

All this is working towards bigger community consultation activity in 2019. However, WSWG invites anyone with an interest in the prospect of our community owning these woodlands to get involved at any time. If you have special skills which could help in this amazing adventure, please get in touch. If you would just like to join our growing list of Supporters, please drop us an email and we will be in touch. Look us up! West Stormont Woodland Group

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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!

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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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