Winter Visioning

For all those who are guardians of land, or involved in steering a project, it is so important to allocate regular time to reflect and review. Winter is a perfect time for visioning. As trees shed their leaves, we are left with their bare bones. We can see their true shapes and intentions, knowing that beneath the ground, bulbs and seeds are full of hope and promise for the future. Without foliage, we can recognize that everything is part of a wider community, we need a good mix of lower, middle and canopy layers for optimum woodland health. We need the diversity for resilience. So how do we develop management and project plans that are flexible enough to ensure that we are always open to new possibilities, whilst remaining faithful to some basic parameters and premises that steer our way?

My tool kit for planning and visioning always includes some Permaculture Principles. https://permacultureprinciples.com/ethics/
For everything that we may decide we want to do as a community, we need to query why we want to do it and ask how it fits into the three core strands of  Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share. And with each of those, we need to ask ourselves if we are being as effective as we can be? Are we aiming always for maximum output for minimum input?

Improving biodiversity has always been a central and primary aim for Hallr Wood.
We were delighted to host an inspiring log hive workshop last November when one of our project workers, Jenny Cater, persuaded us to collaborate with Matt Somerville of https://beekindhives.uk/author/matt/.
We are so pleased to know that we are now supporting bees through our log hives at Hallr Wood and also at our sister project - The Field growing project nearby. Log hives replicate hollow trees which are the ideal habitat for bees and in which they tend to thrive and be less vulnerable to disease. Hosting a course enabled us to benefit whilst also offering the chance for others to find out more about this wonderful work...

We are also leaving sunny areas and glades, in the hope of encouraging pollinator friendly wild flowers.

Several years ago, we also decided to leave some scrub and bramble areas in order to support the Nightingales that return each year. For similar reasons we left an area of conifer (Norway Spruce) because we have Goldcrests who favour conifers. Last winter we cleared some areas (mostly of wind blown elm) and planted hazel to coppice in the future. This winter we are thinning damaged ash trees (no ash die back noted yet). We have noted a more diverse natural regeneration of cherry, oak, hazel and field maple in this area which will benefit from more light. We will aim to keep them free of bramble and wild clematis to give them the best chance to thrive.

We have been working at Hallr Wood since 2007 and so it is natural that our vision should change and develop.
We know that we need to build more or different income streams for the financial health of the project and it's many beneficiaries. We need to look at what is going well and what is not going so well.  We have reviewed our delivery objectives, recognizing that woodland management is a current main priority and that some of our groups are more difficult to accommodate until that work is complete. We have received a boost of much needed regular volunteers to help us with this aim.
We know we are ideally placed to offer supported work experience placements to those who may struggle to make their way in the adult world of work, because of all the land management required in maintaining the woods. We know that our long term provision for young people is successful and has a huge impact on their ability to thrive and continue to access education. We are also recognizing the growing need and interest in Ecotherapy and have collaborated with Sweet Track Counselling to support two adult training courses over the last couple of years. We also enjoyed running a day out for South Somerset District Council Conservation Volunteers last winter and have acknowledged that we would like to offer more opportunities for adults and need to be pro-active about this.
We are also very grateful to be part of the voluntary and charitable sector. We know that the days we provide for groups of young people, through organizations like Promise Mentoring, Adoptive Families South West and Young Carers, can make such a difference to the young people and families who access them.

We also love our community events. We have been running Open Days at the woods for many years and we enjoy the chance to show case our activities to the wider community.  We also run regular inclusive playschemes and play days including our annual Punkie Night with support from Short Breaks.

So our visioning has helped us see a way forward. It has enabled us to look at where we are now and what we have. It has given clarity about what is and isn't working well. It has helped us identify what we would like to be doing more of and what we need, in order to be able to make those dreams and aspirations a reality.

Happy winter visioning everyone...