News and Events
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Spring Watch - Wild Day Out in Duchess Wood - Sunday 16 May from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm
Friends of Duchess Wood in conjunction with Lower Clyde Green Space will be repeating our popular spring event, but with a difference.
This year is the year of Biodiversity, which is the focus of the event.
There will be the fun activities for children from 10.30 to 14.30 including:
- Stream Dipping (to catch little freshwater creatures from a stream with
nets and then to examine them using hand lenses)
- Kids' information sheets for them to see what they can find as they walk
around the Wood.
- Practical activities for people of all ages to improve the Wood. First, preparing the ground and planting a wildflower meadow (11 am to 1 pm). And secondly, planting some hawthorn saplings as an extension to the existing hedge.
- 1pm to 2 pm - Woodland walk to explain how Duchess Wood is being managed for biodiversity.
All day there will be an information centre run by the Friends of Duchess
Wood and Everyone is welcome. Children must be accompanied by responsible adults.
We hope to see you there...
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WE NEED YOUR HELP! |
Litter Clear in Duchess Wood - Friday 14 May at 5 pm
As you may have noticed, a lot of litter has built up in Duchess Wood over the last few months and it is now time to do something about it.
If you can spare an hour, please come and get involved.
We are meeting at the garages by Strathclyde court (end of Millig Street). Please wear clothing and footware suitable for the conditions, and please bring gloves. Tools will be provided.
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Hawthorn Hedge Planting in Duchess Wood - Sunday 21 March at 10:00 am
A hawthorn hedge was planted along the northern end of the western most rugby pitch - near to the picnic tables. The new hedge will extend an existing hawthorn hedge; therefore, increasing a natural food source and habitat for British wildlife. Around 60 trees were planted and an extensive litter clear was conducted. You can really tell the difference!
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Fly Tipping Menace!
Its a shame that there is always some careless individuals who seem not to worry about defacing the natural beauty of their surroundings. As can be seen it was Argyll & Bute's only Local Nature Reserve which was the target of these selfish fly-tippers. Fortunately the local Environmental Warden was on hand shortly after this disgusting mess was dumped in the wood. He has now been through the rubbish for evidence and we hope he can track down the thoughtless perpetrator. If he can a conviction and stiff fine could be coming their way.
A thoughtful FODW member has now cleared away all the rubbish.
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Tree identification workshop and ramble in Duchess Wood
Was held on Sunday 07 February 2010. Nine participants, spanning the age-ranges of a general population, joined Rachel Bailey on this workshop where they learnt to identify some of the common broadleafed trees in Duchess Wood.
At this time of the year, trees can be identified from their twigs and the colour and arrangement of buds on the twigs, as well as the general shape of the tree, but this takes practice! The colouration of the bark can give clues to specific trees such as sycamore and birch (young and old).
The participants led by Rachel walked around the wood attempting to identify various trees. Some were very difficult and although we made an educated guess as to their identity, we will have to come back in spring, after the leaves have opened to determine whether or not we were right.
Rachel also pointed out her observations on the wood and encouraged others to do the same.
From feedback, everyone enjoyed themselves and learnt alot.
We hope to hold more workshops in the near future and will return to do another tree identification workshop when the leaves are out to give another dimension to tree identification.
To see photos of the event, see the 'Tree Identification workshop' in the photo album webpage.
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2010 |
Work Parties in Duchess Wood - Get involved!
Have fun whilst working outside and doing something positive for Duchess Wood
Work parties are advertised here ahead of schedule. We plan to hold work parties to mulch the recently planted Oak trees (see below for more information), and to plant 200 hawthorn trees in Duchess Wood.
To be included on the email list, please contact us on fodwg84@fodw.org.uk. Alternatively, watch this page for information about upcoming events. |
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9 Jan 10
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FODW help with grafitti nuissance
Sadly the vandalism of the Millig Street garages (within the Duchess Wood) has returned. Around two years ago the graffitti became so bad that FODW members along with Strathclyde Court residents and the Community Service Team re-painted all the garage doors and some of the walls including a layer of anti-grafitti paint. The move proved to be a wise one when the grafitti returned last week. Thanks to the special paint, it was possible (with a little elbow grease) to remove the offending (and offensive) scrawl.
Once again it was a community solution to a community problem. Although the garages do not form a part of the Local Nature Reserve, access to the wood is not possible from that side without passing through the garages. Although many believe the garages to be owned by Strathclyde Court in fact, most are privately owned. In this case the work was undertaken by FODW members, a Strathclyde Court representative and the garage owner.
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90 Oak trees planted in 1 hour! Tree planting in Duchess Wood was a success!
On Saturday 05 December 2009, a fantastic 90 oak trees were planted in 1 hour by a total of 17 people (13 people planted and a 4 people assisted the planters). A further 2 people, who could not be there on the day, also helped with the organisation of the event that made the day a success.
Depsite the mud and drizzling rain, lots of fun was had by all. And whilst having fun, 90 trees were planted. One planter said "I did not think we would plant this many trees in 1 hour", which is a testimony to what team work can do. For Tree o'Clock photos, click here.
On the morning, we decided to concentrate our efforts on planting the Oak trees, so we will be holding events in the future to plant the hawthorn trees. Watch this space for further information about these work parties.
Friends of Duchess Wood would like to thank not only the volunteers, but also the independent witnesses and Lower Clyde Greenspace; without all these people, the event would not have taken place.
Team photo after planting 90 oak trees!
If you would like to register interest, or would like to be included on the email list for the work parties, please email fodwg84@fodw.org.uk.
This was a joint event between Friends of Duchess Wood and Lower Clyde Greenspace.
Why hawthorn and oak trees?
The hawthorn trees will be planted along the fence at the top of the western-most rugby field, thereby extending the current hawthorn hedge. Hawthorns provide an important food source and habitat for wildlife.
Most of the oak trees will be planted in the clearing made in the north-west of the wood earlier this year. Oak trees are native to the woods. The mature trees support over 200 species of wildlife, and are therefore very important for increasing biodiversity (number and type of wildlife) in Duchess Wood.
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Feedback from our AGM 22 October 2009
Members, and non-members alike, of Friends of Duchess Wood attended our annual general meeting in October. We had planned for Rosslyn Mills of the Community Woodland Association to give a short talk about the community woodlands association after the official AGM business is over; however, due to illness, Rosslyn was unfortunately unable to attend and Sandy Kerr, Chairperson of Friends of Duchess Wood stepped in at the last minute to give us a very good talk on the ecology of woodlands. Sandy Kerr, a forester by training, worked with Scottish Natural Heritage during his career.
There was a very positive vibe during the meeting and especially after the talk by Sandy. Many members expressed an interest in helping with various projects organised by Friends of Duchess Woods and even came up with ideas for projects and for raising awareness of Friends of Duchess Woods. We plan to act upon these over the next few months.
We hope that our membership as well as interest in our projects and Duchess Wood as a whole continues to increase. If you are interested in Joining Friends of Duchess Wood or know of someone who would like to, please see our membership page.
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Wildlife Surveys and other Surveys
Friends of Duchess Wood have commissioned
2 wildlife surveys of Duchess Wood: one focusing on fungi and the other on bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).
The fungal survey and bryophyte survey reports are now available - see the wildlife page for more information and for a downloadable copies of the surveys and species' lists.
We have also had a survey of the drainage done and results of this survey will be published soon... |
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BTCV (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) in Duchess Wood
BTCV have been working hard in the wood over the last few months as many of you will have seen. They have done a wonderful job of clearing away gorse and broom from the stone wall above the western most rugby field.
Volunteers have cleared some of the gorse, broom and bramble near to the entrance of Duchess Wood, again near the western most rugby field to allow other plants to grow in this site, which should hopefully increase the diversity of plants in the area.
They have also started to tackle the rhodadendron problem that we have in the wood by removing this invasive plant from sites near to Kathleen Park. However, this is going to a large job that will take lots of volunteers and time to get the ever increasing rhodadendron population under control. |
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Recent work in Duchess Wood
Five picnic benches were the latest addition to Duchess Wood. These are mostly located at the top of the western-most rugby field, near to the main entrance to the local nature reserve.
Trees in areas to the west and the north of Duchess Wood were chosen for selected tree thinning using a woodland management system of coppicing. To find out more, see work to date. The cut trees have been left in the wood to provide wildlife habitats.
The above work was carried out by Lower Clyde Greenspace working on the FSC funded grant to Argyll and Bute Council.
The bridge to the left of the above described area has also been repaired by Bill Freeland and his team, which we are very grateful. Plans are afoot to replace this bridge with an altogether more robust structure.
The Employability team working with Danny Harkin (Argyll and Bute Council) have been regularly clearing the paths and culverts of leaves in attempt to prevent flooding of the pathways.
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Friends of Duchess Wood Newsletters and other official documents
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Current copies of Friends of Duchess Wood Newsletters
- September 2009 page 1, page 2
- March 2009 page 1, page 2)
Past Copies of Friends of Duchess Wood Newsletters
Other Friends of Duchess Wood official documents
AGM 2009
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