Latest Forest of Avon Trust News

fullname

Welcome to the latest quarterly news from the Forest of Avon Trust.

We established the Forest of Avon Trust to pick up the baton of the Forest of Avon Community Forest which achieved so much in this area to 2009. As a consequence, it is really pleasing to now have the funding to work with Friends Groups, (which in many cases were established with the support of the Forest of Avon Partnership) to provide skills training to help them manage local woodlands. Sincere thanks to the OVO Foundation for this.

It is also really pleasing to have just been able to appoint long- standing charity Associate: Nicola Ramsden as Health & Wellbeing Officer to further develop an area of work which has always been core to our values.

Please read on for a summary of our most recent work.

Jon Clark, Executive Director, 7th October, 2016.

Image above: OVO Energy volunteers taking a well- earned break, The Retreat, August 2016.

Over the last 3 months our work has included:

Running successful Forest School Level 1, Level 3 and Outdoor First Aid courses as part of our 2016 training programme. Since 2011, the charity has professionally trained 132 Forest School Leaders and provided accredited training to 363 people, making quite a contribution to outdoor learning in Bristol and beyond;
Delivering the Dementia Well-being pilot project in partnership with Bristol Dementia Partnership. This evaluated project is offering woodland activities to people with dementia and their partners/ carers; we hope that this will lead to similar projects within the area: part of a suite of activities delivered by the charity, making a real difference to people's lives;
Linked to the above, securing a grant from the Quartet Community Foundation to run activities for adults with learning disabilities in South Gloucestershire;
Delivering the Woodland Skills project supported by a grant from the OVO Foundation, with 10 training days for Friends Groups currently planned;
Linked to the above, running volunteering activities to improve local woodlands; so far, 43 OVO Energy volunteers have been involved in maintaining The Retreat and two of Bristol City Council's 1 Tree per Child planting sites;
Producing two Forestry Commission Woodland Management Plans for owners in North Somerset and South Gloucestershire and securing agreement for four more; 850ha woodland in the area is now making an improved contribution to biodiversity, landscape, recreation, pollution management, mitigation of climate change and more. If you know anyone with a 3ha+ woodland please email: jonclark@forestofavontrust.org
Producing two Forestry Commission small woodland management plans, funded by a grant from Pukka Herbs;
Running our fifth Allotment Orchard project with Bristol City Council, providing discounted fruit trees and bushes to allotment holders; (the scheme is also open to others, so please apply, closing date: 21st October); and
Continuing to grow our presence on Twitter (2,719 Followers) and Facebook (1,441 reached in September), extending knowledge of our growing range of activities and services.

There are many great ways to support our work:

The charity recently received a legacy for native trees, an important endorsement of our role locally. If you interested in leaving a legacy, please let me know at: jonclark@forestofavontrust.org

Just click on the icons to access any of our supporter schemes below.