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

So it’s February 2020. What has WSWG been doing this month?

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
  • A small group of WSWG members braved the windy weather on 8 February and had a lovely, sunny morning planting 100 native trees for wildlife in Taymount Wood. We also did more User Surveys with walkers and horseriders and mapped ideas for access improvements they would like in both woods.
  • Native tree saplings have been given out free to WSWG members who have space available for planting them, as part of the Big Climate Fightback One Million Trees project sponsored by energy company Ovo and The Conservation Volunteers.
  • PKC would like to include Feeling Good in the Woods in a leaflet they are producing to celebrate some of the projects which have received funding from the Community Investment Fund to date. We aredelighted to have been selected from so many lovely projects and are chuffed at the publicity it will give us.WSWG is currently seeking the permission of people shown in the photos PKC would like to use in the leaflet.
  • The WSWG Steering Group had a very useful meeting with Forestry and Land Scotland and the Scottish Land Fund on 7 February looking at various aspects of our progress and the way forward over the coming months.
  • We continue looking at the financials for the project and CO2 issues around our action for the climate emergency. We are expecting the woodland valuations to be available before the end of February.

WSWG Word of the Month – Proforestation

Allowing the woodlands to reach their full biological potential (Proforestation) serves the greatest public good by maximising co-benefits such as nature-based biological carbon sequestration and unparalleled ecosystem services such as biodiversity enhancement, water and air quality, flood and erosion control, public health benefits, low impact recreation, and scenic beauty, as well as offering a diverse and sustainable forest produce resource for income revenue.Practicing proforestation as a purposeful public policy on a large scale is a highly effective strategy for mitigating the dual crises in climate and biodiversity and ultimately serving the “greatest good”. Recent research shows that natural forests can hold 40 times more carbon than plantations.

What’s coming up next?

Saturday 15 February – Tree planting, Litter-picking and Access Survey at Five Mile Wood. Meet at main car park at 10.30am. Stay as little or as long as you like. Bring a spade if you can and dress for the weather! We will keep you posted on other upcoming activities by email, Facebook, posters on community noticeboards, etc.

Please let us know if you would like to get involved in helping with any WSWG activities.

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Previous Articles

Community Monthly Update – July 2024

Something quite different has cropped up for WSWG and Stanley village recently, so we have decided to make it the sole topic of our update this month and a simple appeal to you at the same time. PKC who currently own the 0.56 acre Stanley Wildwood (the Rookery wood) have decided it is surplus to their needs. They have launched an on-line consultation to find out whether the local community thinks it should be sold to a private neighbouring resident as an extension to their garden ground or sold or leased to a willing community organisation. The area owned by PKC is shown in yellow. It has had a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) since 1987. We believe the best interests of the Wildwood and rookery will be served through community not private ownership. Please support our goal by voting for Option 2 in the PKC consultation, using the link shown.

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We are really delighted this month to start with the announcement that the winner of the WSWG April Photography Competition in the Children’s category is Dougie from Highland Perthshire. His stunning and clever photograph was taken at the head of Loch Rannoch, looking west, on Saturday 20 April. Such a beautiful, calm scene in our precious Perthshire countryside, but just look at the perfect capture of the beautiful splash effect at its heart. A truly super photo.

Congratulations, Dougie. Thank you very much for taking part in this competition and your well-deserved prize will be making its way to you very soon.

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It is a disappointing thing to have to do, but a surprisingly rewarding thing to have done. We are talking about picking up someone else’s litter. We all know Taymount Wood car park occasionally suffers from fly tipping, but it is regular littering which is more of a chronic problem, clogging the ditches, being strewn around the verges, blown into the brambles and nettles, overgrown by rank grass, buried in the soil, or crushed by vehicles if not removed regularly.

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