The First Radipole Community Woodland Training Day

Attended by:

Alison and Graham Carter

Andy Williams

Cathy Owen

Elsa and Gerald Taylor

Jenny Morris

John Savage

Ken and Dawn Lee

Kevin Byatt

Len Collins

Neil and Louise Cross

Peter and Pat Kirby

Steve Coombes

Val Ovens

Led By: Julian Cooper, Wayne Hope, and introducing Lynn Cooch

Steve and Cathy were the first to arrive at the wood, and met Andy who joined our mailing list and came with a good set of tools and a barrow.

Julian, Wayne and Lynne arrived and brought their van along the path next to the north gate. A small but keen working group gathered, dressed for the task ahead on this bright October morning. Neil and Cathy also had digital cameras on them to record progress.

The group split roughly into “loppers” and “bench builders.” Wayne drove the van into the small eye shaped clearing were we would place the first of 2 benches and Julian took the pruning party to the meadow and showed then how to saw down the trees and how to prune with the loppers in order to make a minimum of damage for the tree to heal.

The Pruning party soon cleared the meadow, leaving some trees bordering it, especially ash trees which had grown well, and moved on to general lopping along the woodland paths, considering which branches might encroach on the paths next spring.

Lynn was keen to find out more about our caring group and spoke to both Steve and Cathy during the morning. She also had a map of the DCC half of the site and went with Cathy to try and plot more of the paths, and view the Civic society, or Jubilee half.

The benches were constructed from Cedar trunks, which smelled great, with a plank of oak and were brought on the van from Puddletown Wood. By lunch time the first was finished and Julian went to Safeway for some doormats and Wayne sat on the bench eating his lunch. Julian also visited the work going on in the top corner of the site, where Jenny, John and Steve were making the entrance there much clearer – the next work to be done in this spot will be a gate to make it into an official entrance. A passer-by on his way to church expressed his thanks to us for removing the pig wire that had been obstructing this entrance.

The second bench was placed in the Jubilee half of the wood, just behind the stone but with plenty of room either side of it for mower access. Another local who had been to church watched some of the work and we explained what we were up to!

At 3pm the van was packed and all tools accounted for. It was a very successful day especially in the morning when lots of people got involved, and worked hard. The paths were clearer in many places and the cuttings places in ‘drifts’ to provide habitat for wildlife as they break down.

Well-done Wayne for squeezing the van out past the stone and the new bench with us all watching! And a huge thank you to everyone that came and gave their support to the training day.

Catherine L Owen