Dear Volunteers.... Issue 8, March/April 2010

I would like to start by saying a huge thank you to you all for your kind messages, get well cards

and the beautiful flowers that arrived on my first day back. It’s been a very difficult time and

knowing you were all thinking of me has been a great support! Hopefully the worst is over and I’m

slowly getting back into the swing of things and looking forward to the summer –––– TracyTracyTracyTracy

WHAT’S NEW & WHAT’S ON?

Brain Stormin’ Mornin’ for Info Volunteers – Please bring your

diaries and lots of ideas about the events we can stage, for young

and old, through 2010. We will provide the cake and drinks – but if

you should feel moved to bake a gorgeous something we won’t stop

you! See you on Tuesday 6 April at 11.00.

Knit ‘n’ Natter - The group has been very quiet recently so we have

re-launched as ‘Knit n Natter’!! The group is dedicated all kinds of

needle crafts. It’s a chance to sit, chat and have a cuppa with like

minded people. We meet at the Forest Centre on the 1st Tuesday of

the month at 19.00 for a couple of hours. Tea and biscuits available.

Easter – The Information Barn will be open week-end hours through

the Easter holiday – let’s hope for some decent weather!

Exhibition – The current exhibition will be coming down after the

Easter holidays following a very successful run. The artists are

moving their work on to the very popular Hop Gallery in Lewes, we

wish them great success! The next exhibition will follow shortly.

Lex Deanicus (our local Legionary!) – Will be visiting again during half

term (31 May and 1 June). Lex is making a small charge of £2.50 to

cover his costs – could we have some extra hands to help him please?

Weald Forest Ridge Event - A Same Sky event will be taking place

from 16.30 to 18.30 on Friday 23 April (Same Sky were involved in

the Maidens of the Weald project) at the Forest Centre. This event

includes a dance performance by children a volunteer will be needed

from 17.00 onwards for the till.

Sheep Days – once lambing is over and the weather better Louise

and I will be planning more sheep walks / sheep days. Please keep a

look out in the radio room and on the website for more information

as extra hands will be needed!!

OTHER EVENTS

CONSERVATION GROUP Last Sunday of the month (but

not in March). Meet at the

Forest Centre car-park at 10.15

for a 10.30 start – see website

for more details.

Nutley Windmill Open Days

Nutley mill is the last open-

trestle mill in Sussex and one of

only five surviving in the country.

A fine example of a medieval

style mill, Nutley windmill is

thought to be 300 years old.

Open - April 7, 14, 25; May 8, 9, 30 & 31; June 2, 27; July 25 & 28; August 4, 11, 18, 25, 29 & 30; September 1, 8, 26 and October 27.

For up to date information on what’s on visit our website or subscribe to the e-mail news

service on www.ashdownforest.org/news

Chelwood Vachery Garden – The National Gardens Scheme Open Day

We are very pleased, proud and excited that the Chelwood Vachery Garden has been included in this year’s

NGS Yellow Book! The open day is Thursday 13 May. (please note the postcode is wrong on the NGS

entry)

Hew will be leading guided walks, lasting approx one hour, at 10.00, 12.00 14.00 and 16.00 from the Folly

Bridge.

Volunteers will be needed to help out all day (from 09.00 to 18.00) to put up and take down the signs and

notices, staff the entrance, take donations, assist with parking, guide visitors down to the gardens and

answer questions in the gardens themselves. If wet a gazebo will be provided. It is probably best if

volunteers work in pairs (or more) to allow for food and comfort breaks. Volunteer sessions will be from

09.00 to 12.00; 12.00 to 15.00 and finally from 15.00 to 18.00.

Parking will be at Trees car park with overspill at Long. Teas for volunteers and visitors will be available at

the Llama Park rather than on site. It would be good if the Information Barn could also be open from

11.00 to 17.00 and visitors could be directed there, at the end of their visit, for the loos, picnics and a

visit to the Barn.

If you are interested in helping out, please put your name on the list in the radio room or e-mail or

telephone me and say what session you would like to do. We will finalise plans and brief everyone nearer to

the day.

Hello – to our new cleaner / handyman John Ridley! John is around most mornings

looking after the public loos, cleaning the Information and Education barns, the

offices (good luck with the Ranger’s office!) and doing odd jobs around the site.

As John works in the mornings it’s unlikely that you will meet him very often – but

if you do please stop and say hello!

Riding Permits – the new riding year starts on 1st April. There has not

been a price increase this year. The badge colours and numbering will

be posted up in the radio room in late March/early April. Application

forms with information for riders will be available in the box under the

Information Barn counter as usual and can also be downloaded from

the website www.ashdownforest.org/downloads

If riders intend posting their applications please remind them a large

1st or 2nd class stamp will be required.

Volunteers from Southview Close in Action

In the last edition of the Newsletter there

was an ESCC in-house magazine article about

the volunteers from Southview Close. These

guys, who all have special needs, do really

sterling work out on the Forest. Their

enthusiasm and good humour is a real tonic

and they are only ever put off from bashing

rhododendron by the very foulest of

weather or the occasional staff shortage.

As a thank-you we have a barbeque for the

boys (usually just after the main summer

barbeque event) and they really seem to

enjoy it! You will have seen the Southview

team out on the Forest most Wednesdays

and often in the vicinity of the Forest

Centre. Now spring is nigh they will found

working away down by Miry Ghyl!

Conservation

Group The Conservation Group (well, three very hardy souls!) met at the end of February

and all were thoroughly soaked in the torrential rain! There won’t be a Conservation

Group at the end of March, as Hew will be away on leave, but everything will be back

to normal in April. Meet at the usual time in the usual place – see you then!

Web Wandering the Ashdown Forest! Did you know:

• That there is a Lavender ‘Ashdown Forest’? Lavandula angustifolia is a variety of common lavender that is a perennial hardy, evergreen. Height 45cm with short spikes of pale blue

flowers in summer. Grey green, aromatic foliage and compact habit. It has both medicinal

and culinary uses (add the flowers and leaves sparingly to stews, soups and salads). It

prefers full sun but is hardy – a bit like Forest Rangers!

• There is an Ashdown Forest Drive in Hearndon, West Virginia and in Spring County, Texas!

• The Ashdown Forest Website has had in excess of 50,000 hits since it was re-launched in

October 2007.

TALES FROM THE TILL

Due to the appalling winter weather visitor numbers to the Barn have been, not surprisingly,

rather low! Unusually the Barn was closed over a couple of week-ends as neither volunteers nor

Rangers could get on site. The Forest looked really beautiful (see below) and some intrepid souls

came out to build snowmen and go tobogganing. The snow was rapidly followed by torrential rain.

Stand just about anywhere on the Forest at the moment and you can hear running water! On the

few occasions that the sun has shone the Forest has been busy with people recovering from ‘cabin

fever’! On the 2nd March (when temperature that morning had been a bracing minus 2) one hardy

family spread a rug on the ground just beyond the Centre car park and had a full blown picnic!

Takings in the Barn have been pretty low but on the upside the bagged logs (cut and bagged by

the probationers from Crawley) have flown of the shelves and we have now run out! The

probationers will be splitting, bagging and stacking more logs throughout the summer. As usual I

will be placing orders for maps and other sale items in early April (once the new financial year has

started). If there is anything you feel we need please leave a note in the diary.

Education at the Forest Centre

As you know this is provided by teachers from the Sussex Wildlife Trust and options are aimed

at KS1 and KS2 children. There are several different options for schools to choose from – from

fully guided (full and half days) to self-guided options with or without ‘Explorer Packs’. The

Packs, which can be pre-booked, contain equipment such as sweep nets, field guides, parachute

and art materials. Teachers simply download and fill out a booking form on the website and return

it to us - and the equipment will be ready on the day, pre-packed in a rucksack. There are also a

set of activity cards available that can be used: ‘Tree Hugging’, ‘Expanding Circles’, ‘Human

Camera’, ‘Find Your Tree’, ‘Build a Tree’, ‘Journey Sticks’, ‘How Old’, and ‘Look, Remember, Find’.

Teachers can also down load a risk assessment form and the SWT Code of Practice.

“The WagLog #8” – Scallywag the TV Star Scallywag is now a TV star and too famous to write for a rag like this!! Doubtless he

will be available for pawtographs! Have you seen him in the Butchers dog food

advert? If not look out for him – he puts in a quite wonderful performance – West

End next! He also has publicity photographs posted online. Scallywag’s human is

actually poorly at the moment (get well soon Rich it’s too quiet without you) and not

able to help Scallywag with his typing and editing. They will be back in the next

edition full of news.

Other Local Events

Access for the disabled

Roger Beal has been working away, behind

the scenes, on ways to open up the Forest to

people with physical disabilities and the

elderly. In February specialist visited and

assessed the Forest car parks with Roger

and Jonathon Squire (one of our Hadlow

Down College students.) The consultants

report will focus on the car parks and their

immediate surroundings and will look at ways

we can make the Forest available to all.

Hopefully we will have some plans drafted by

the time the next newsletter is published.

New Volunteers

We have six potential new volunteers joining us

for taster sessions and hopefully training. One

attended the recruitment day last year,

another two came via the East Grinstead

Volunteer Bureau and the others by word of

mouth. Please keep a look out on the board,

during April and May, just in case you are

teamed with a newbie! If you have any training

needs i.e. the till, the credit card machine or

using the radio please let either Tracy or Ros

know and we will help you out. Remember – the

only silly question is the one not asked!

Current Work

The first half of March has been dedicated

to dealing with maintaining or removing

potentially dangerous roadside trees. This is

pretty hazardous - tree work itself is

dangerous let alone traffic management!

Below is a snap of the team caught taking a

quick break munching on chips and Mars Bars!

Wood Piles, Wood Permits and Fallen Wood!

Members of the public often ask if the wood that they see piled up at the Centre or out on the

Forest can be taken away. As you probably know Commoners have a right to wood from the

Forest and non-commoners can purchase it. This is all done via the Wood Permit system. The

office keeps a list of everyone who has requested wood and permits are issued to Commoners and

non-commoners alike. Commoners can’t simply go out on the Forest and help themselves! Anyone

interested in having wood must contact the office in late October/early November. The season

closes in March. By the time you read this the cutting season will be almost over and all the

permit holders should have removed their allocated wood from the Forest. The wood neatly

stacked in large piles at various locations across the Forest will eventually come back to the

Centre to feed the boilers throughout the winter or to be moved by contractors. The public

should be encouraged to leave fallen wood where it is - it acts a valuable home to all manner of

invertebrates. The mini-beast identification chart can be used to show visitors just what lives in

that heap of fallen branches!

Birds of Ashdown Forest March to June

by Sue Phillips and Peter Johnson

Crossbill

Woodlark

Yellow Wagtail

Whitethroat

Tree Pipit

Redpoll

Danger - Men at Work!

We often have complaints about the conservation work that goes on out on the Forest. Work

involving heavy machinery seems to be a real bugbear with the public!

Whenever the tractors are out with equipment such as brush cutters, flails etc. the team erect a

cordon of barrier tape to warn the public that work is going on and to keep them away. The

Rangers and the Forest workers have robust risk assessments in place to protect themselves and

the public. However, some members of the public feel this does not apply to them! Riders and

walkers regularly breach cordons putting themselves in jeopardy. Flying debris, wood, stone and

metal shards can cover huge distances and being hit by one can lead to serious injury or even

death.

Commoners Annual Meeting

Friday 5 March at Fairwarp Village Hall

As you probably know the Commoners of Ashdown Forest have

representation on the Board of Conservators and an Annual Meeting. The

election is organised by the Commoners for the Commoners (not the office

as some seem to think!). The office maintains the Commoner database and

hires the hall for holding the meeting. The meeting rotates around the

villages of Forest Row, Hartfield, Fairwarp and Nutley. Each Commoner

Conservator stands for five years and is elected or re-elected at the yearly

Annual Meeting. The Minutes of the meeting will be available, in due

course, on the Commoners section of the Forest website where you will find

previous years meetings. This year after over 20 years of service Leslie

Gillham stood down. There was no election this year as only one Commoner

stood. John Francis, a resident of Fairwarp, has replaced Leslie Gillham and

took up his post on 1 April.

Name that Ranger? No prizes, just a bit of fun!!

1

2

3

4

5

6

Answers: 1. Rich Allum

2. Chris Sutton

3. Roger Beal

4. Mike Yates

5. Roger Beal & Scallywag

6. Chris Sutton (upside down ) and Roger Beal