Charity Raffle 2013 – support Sylva and enter the raffle for a chance to win great prizes

Sylva is proud to be taking part in the very first Big Give Charities Raffle and we hope you will be keen to support us – and of course you will be in with a chance of winning fantastic prizes!

As a charity registered on the Big Give we can sell tickets to our supporters – and the charity selling the most tickets will win £500! By entering the raffle, you can help us get closer to this goal and also be in with a chance of winning one of the following great prizes:

• 1^st prize – £2,000 cash, or a luxury holiday for two
• 2^nd prize – £1,000 cash
• 3^rd prize – £500 cash
• 10 x runners’ up prizes of £50

Tickets cost just £1 (min. 10 tickets) and Sylva will receive 96p for each ticket bought, with the other 4p going towards the administration costs.  A fantastic way to support us and to win great prizes!

To buy your tickets on behalf of Sylva now, please click here.

Thank you for your support…and good luck!

]]> http://www.sylva.org.uk/blog/support_sylva_and_win_great_prizes_in_the_2013_charity_raffle/feed/ 0 http://www.sylva.org.uk/blog/oneoak-memorial-sculpture-returns-home/ http://www.sylva.org.uk/blog/oneoak-memorial-sculpture-returns-home/#comments Wed, 15 May 2013 17:30:49 +0000 Gabriel Hemery http://www.sylva.org.uk/blog/?p=4574 In the final act of the OneOak project, today we returned the OneOak memorial sculpture to its rightful home; to the woodland at Blenheim Palace.

The end of the OneOak project: the forestry team at Blenheim Palace gather with sculptor Simon Clements (right) and Sylva’s Gabriel Hemery (left)

The sculpture, designed and made by Simon Clements, toured around all the OneOak exhibition venues during 2011 and 2012 but it was always destined to rest on top of the stump of the OneOak tree that provided the inspiration and material for the three year project. The sculpture will now remain in the woodland to weather and grow a natural patina of mosses and lichens, surrounded by a small forest of 250 oak trees.

One of the 250 oak trees planted by school children emerges from its treeshelter near the OneOak memorial sculpture

Installing the OneOak memorial sculpture and repairing a few tree stakes damaged by browsing deer

Simon Clements installs the OneOak memorial sculpture on the tree stump

The OneOak sculpture returns fresh from its journeys around Britain – last seen in Edinburgh!

Our thanks to Simon Clements and the forestry team at Blenheim Palace.

editing a sub-compartment

The new woodland editor system has been added to the site today.

The system replaces the old home page in the woodland owner account, and combines editing features that were previously spread across several pages. Woodland owners can now edit the mapping for all of their sub-compartments in the same place.

This development brings myForest closer to a full online GIS system.  We plan to add more GIS updates soon, including mapping for more features such as paths and waterways.

Users with existing woodland owner accounts can use the new system right away.  Just log in to your account and the system will appear in place of the old home page.

If you don’t have an account, sign up now.

Scottish Forestry Trust – exhibition sponsor at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

The OneOak finale exhibition, hosted by Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh last Autumn, was made possible thanks to the support of the Scottish Forestry Trust.

As a condition of their funding a report about the exhibition has been submitted to the charity. It confirmed that over 49,000 members of the public were exposed to the exhibition during the six weeks that it was open at RBGE. In the same period over 9,000 people visited our OneOak project webpages.

You can read more about the support provided by the Scottish Forestry Trust and access the full report (linked at the bottom of their page) here.

myForest statistics in April 2013

A major milestone has been passed in the myForest Service. The total area of woodlands mapped across Britain now exceeds 20,000 hectares (or 49,421 acres). This represents 1192 woodlands owned by 731 individuals.

We provide real-time essential statistics that can be viewed by anyone at any time, see: www.sylva.org.uk/myforest/about_stats.php

Read more about our Sylva Scholarship campaign

Sylva supports cutting-edge forest science in a partnership with the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford by offering a scholarship to DPhil students. We are seeking donors to help us secure our next scholar and, additionally, to help us raise an endowment fund to secure the scholarship in perpetuity.

Our first scholar Kirsty Monk is due to complete her research later this year, investigating the role of cord-forming fungi in woodland (read more). Meanwhile, an excellent candidate has been identified to follow in Kirty’s footsteps in Autumn 2013, having a double 1st undergraduate degree from Oxford and a MSc from the University of East Anglia. The proposed research programme will focus on the ecosystem consequences of ash dieback (Chalara fraxinea) in British woodlands.

To secure our next scholar we need to add to our current funds by raising an additional £5,000 for each of the next three years. At the same time the University of Oxford is keen to support the creation of more fully-endowed scholarships. They offer currently a 40 percent match-fund with a view to securing a total fund of £500,000 that will secure a scholarship in perpetuity. This is an unrivaled opportunity to leave a lasting legacy. If you are interested in learning more about the scholarship programme and how you could support it, please contact our Chief Executive Dr Gabriel Hemery or visit our online fundraising page with the Big Give.

The theme of the scholarship is healthy trees and productive forests. This reflects a joint vision between the Sylva Foundation and University of Oxford Department of Plant Sciences to foster a robust tree and forest resource in the light of projected environmental change.   Read more about the Sylva Scholarship

Read more about the B&Q Good Woods project at www.sylva.org.uk/goodwoods

download the full report here

This is an evaluation report of the BeWILD Project, an ancient woodland management project delivered across Berkshire from 2008-2011.

This Report pulls together the successes and achievements of the BeWILD Project, and aims to share our experiences and findings from the Project with others involved in woodland management in Berkshire and beyond.

It has been written in an accessible toolkit format with case studies, project summary tables, and Top Tips for woodland projects boxes.

It contains guidance on woodland management for wildlife, timber production, marketing and woodfuel, as well as lots of links to woodland and woodfuel organisations and guidance material. The Report is designed to be dipped into and read at different levels depending on your interest and time.

Written and produced by Meg Chambers, Karen Davies and Mel Hardie

Meg Chambers, Independent Woodland Advisor meg.chambers@hotmail.co.uk

Karen Davies, Independent Farm Conservation Advisor karen_adavies@hotmail.co.uk 

Grown in Britain

Sylva is pleased to lend its support to a new movement known as Grown in Britain that has been launched with cross-Government support and the involvement of all parts of the forestry sector across Britain.

Its aims are to:

1. Create a new and stronger market ‘pull’ for the array of products derived from our forests and woodlands.
2. Develop private sector funding that supports the planting and management of forests and woodlands through funding from corporates as part of their corporate social responsibility.
3. Connect together and harness the positive energy and feelings towards our forests and woodlands that many in our society share to create a strong ‘wood culture’.  A wood culture that captures personal health and fitness, well-being, community and encourages use of more wood and forest products.

Sylva is pleased to endorse the movement, and in particular are pleased that its work with partners B&Q and BioRegional (read more) can offer an early and practical example of how the sector can work together to make a lasting impact on the future of Britain’s forests. It also chimes perfectly with Sylva’s mission to ‘revive Britain’s wood culture‘, that we have been working hard towards since our inception five years ago. We look forward to supporting the movement in every way that we can.

Read more about Grown in Britain

They have just announced an exciting opportunity for anyone interested in timber framing to get involved, under expert tuition, through a series of events during May and June.

Plans for the timber frame classroom shelter at Harcourt

The structure will be a traditional timber frame encompassing a cruck design. Timber of various species, from the arboretum’s own woodland is in the process of being milled for the project, and the roof will be shingled.

The build will be run as a course taught by renown timber frame historian, practitioner, and instructor; Henry Russell.

• Part one: 6th – 10th May, repeated 13th – 17th May: Walls and Cross frames.  Elements of traditional tenon and mortice joinery including a very beautiful cruck frame.
• Part two: 20th – 24th May: Roofing.  Truss and purlin construction with common rafters.
• Raising: 29th and 30th June.  All work will be with hand tools, and there will be an opportunity to try hand conversion of the timbers – hewing and pit sawing.

The cost for each course is £375, which includes daily lunch and refreshments, and free camping on site at Harcourt.

Full details are available from the course administrator, Barbara Czoch: barbara@carpentersfellowship.co.uk or please call 07971 629916

Harcourt timber frame – gable end showing cruck frame design