It’s finally here – Heartwood Forests first tree planting event and you are invited!

Come and see the very first trees planted at Heartwood on 28th November at 12pm. You can then have a go yourself and start to create what will be England’s largest new woodland.

There will be free hot soup for everyone who gets to Heartwood without their car and on a day like today that will be very welcome!

Please note there will unfortunately be no parking at Heartwood. The fields are all too wet and we don’t yet have our own car park so if you need to come by car please head to Townsend School, High Oaks, St Albans,  AL3 6DR where a coach will take you to and from the planting site. Otherwise make your way to the scout hut on Sandridgebury Lane where there will be signs and volunteers to show you the way to the planting site.

There’ll be more community planting events in the New Year so if you can’t make it to this one don’t worry - events are also planned for 16 January, 14 February and 21 March 2010.

For alternative ways to get to Heartwood see our cycle route map and list of bus and train timetables for more information.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

You’ll be pleased to hear another 170 acres of land has become available for free public access at Heartwood. This includes the once favourite walk of many locals from Langley out into the centre of the site, along the ridge and skirting around the Hillend Farm boundary. Feel free to traipse across the grassy fields but watch out for those fields still under crops. The map below should help identify where to walk. It can also be downloaded from our Heartwood website.

We’ve also got new entrance / information boards at the site and new gates and fences going in to tidy the place up and to help protect the young trees from excess rabbit damage. Planting is due to start towards the end of the month – we’ll let you know when and where…

Looking for something to do this weekend? Well why not head over to Nomansland Common on Sunday? The St Albans Arts Development Team are organising a fun-filled family day from 11am-3pm dedicated to flying kites. You will have the opportunity to make a kite, fly your kite and watch the kite flying demonstrations.

And when you’re done with all that fun why not head next door to Heartwood for a relaxing walk in the woods.

You may remember back in August we held our first big summer event at Heartwood Forest. It was an excellent fun day in the woods where everyone could have a go at willow weaving, bushcraft, charcoal drawing and much more. Well now you can see the video for yourself here, enjoy!

A huge thank you to Phil Paine and Paul Robinson of TomTom Productions who kindly volunteered their time to create this momentum of the day.

You may recall the reason why we haven’t actually started tree planting yet was because we’ve had to carry out a thorough Environmental Impact Assessment – addressing issues such as archaeology, landscape, biodiversity and visitor facilities.

It took 14 months of research and information gathering, but we eventually submitted an Environmental Statement to the Forestry Commission two months ago.

The excellent news is that the Forestry Commission have now considered the application and the information provided in the Environmental Statement and have decided to grant consent. This means that we can progress with our plans and start tree planting this winter. Fantastic news and what this project is really about – lots of trees and lots of people. So watch out for the first community tree planting events – coming to field near you, very soon!

At the HeARTwood Festival in August one of the interactive workshops that people could get involved in was writing their wishes to the new forest on biodegradeable paper. The artist, Joanna Scott made a fantastic display of all your thoughts, wishes, poems, feelings and drawings about this new, exciting project.

I wanted to share some these with you and let you know what local people think about this project:

• Hope and best wishes for the forest and all the animals who will make it their home.

• Dear Forest, I like climbing your trees. By Tom, aged 5

• Thank you for choosing SANDRIDGE for this fantastic forest. And there are fairies who welcome the re-joining of their woods! By Penny.

• When I’m older I will come back to see all the beautifully tall trees. I think it’s great that we can enjoy trees. By Olivia, aged 12.

• Happy forest, happy people!

If you’re quick you can still see this elegant display in Langley Wood but you may have to look a little harder than before as it’s starting to fade into the woodland. If you didn’t get a chance to add your comments then now’s the time. It’s dead easy to login in and leave your thoughts and feelings about Heartwood so why not give it try!

Heartwood wishes slowly fading into the woodland

Each year the Trust awards volunteers who have made the most important contribution to our work. This year Pam Farley is recognised as Volunteer of the Year for the East of England.

She is of course a Woodland Trust member and one of our most active volunteer speakers, giving talks about our work to groups, clubs and societies all over Hertfordshire. Not only that, she coordinates our local St Albans Support Group helping to raise money and awareness for the Trust.

The Support Group started nearly 10 years ago when there wasn’t a Trust wood within 25 miles of St Albans. Now with Heartwood practically on their doorsteps they’ll not only have a wood but England’s largest new woodland! At the drop of a hat they are willing and able to help with all sorts of jobs to help promote Heartwood and make this ambitious project a reality. A special team of people who I think I would be lost without!

For more information on how to become a volunteer with us have a look at our volunteering page for all the roles on offer.

Yesterday we hosted a meeting at Heartwood for the East of England Deer Forum. The group was formed by The Deer Initiative (DI) who are dedicated to ensuring the delivery of a sustainable, well-managed wild deer population in England. We know that deer like living in woodlands, and we’re about to start creating a huge one so it’s good to look at the issues surrounding deer and their management at an early stage.

It’s great to see deer, they are a traditional part of the wooded landscape and we want that to remain. Currently you’ll see the odd Munjac and maybe a few Fallow at Heartwood. This is sure to increase as we start planting trees, providing them with their more natural habitat. Seeing deer more frequently can be nice, but planting 600,000 native broadleaf trees is like opening up a free Michelin stared restaurant next door. They’re sure to come in and enjoy feasting on the newly planted trees, and that’s before they move onto their bluebell dessert!  Not a problem if it’s manageable.

We don’t want to keep deer out by erecting 6ft high fences around the site (neighbouring farmers wouldn’t thank us for the extra crop damage). And we also want a free flowing site for habitat and aesthetics, and for animals and Homo sapiens.  Deer crossing the road may also be an issue for us to consider – more info at DeerAware, a newly launched programme which highlights the issues surrounding increasing deer populations and increasing traffic numbers. We want deer, but we also want a healthy, successfully establishing woodland, not to mention keep the bluebells. We’re a responsible woodland conservation organisation so we’ll monitor deer damage and if we need to will consider undertaking deer management in order to retain a healthy, sustainable deer population in the interests of new and existing habitats and visitors alike.

For the next few weeks Langley Wood will become a classroom for a group of children from a school in Hatfield. The Forest School concept originated in Scandinavia as a way of teaching children about the natural world and has been adapted and developed to make it relevant to teaching in the UK. It offers practical learning opportunities that nurture self esteem, confidence, communication and social skills, and an appreciation and respect for the natural environment as well as delivering the curriculum so we are delighted that they’ve chosen Heartwood for their classroom.

A woodland classroom

Learning about bugs and beasties

Every year sandridge village church holds a flower festival with flowers and artwork thanks to the skill and imagination of young and old representing many groups from the local community. In celebration of the creation of Heartwood Forest this years theme is “A Harvest of Trees”.

So come and see the beautiful displays and visit our Heartwood stall tomorrow and Sunday from 10am. Find out more about the project and have a look at the concept design for the forest.