Our first AGM!The Trust held its' first AGM on Tuesday, 7th December.We started with a very interesting and informative talk by Phil Stone of the Re-imagining The Levels group, about "Planting trees to reduce flooding" . Following Phil's talk the trust Chair, Dr Peter Goodenough, gave a general update on the progress of the trust in meeting its' aims and objectives and the acting Treasurer, Mr Alan Cockerell and the Secretary, Mrs Sylvia Goodenough gave reports on their specific areas of interest. Alan was able to be upbeat about the finances as the Trust has a healthy bank balance at the moment. Days after the AGM he reported that the bank had received just under £4000 resulting from the Aviva campaign, as described earlier below:November 29th Stop press on the message below
Exciting news! We were chosen to enter both the Aviva Community Fund and their Climate Fund. Aviva employees are all given £25 Community Fund vouchers to "spend" on the project of their choice and the Climate Fund then matches funding. The funds opened on November 3rd and in the first two days we had pledges of £1250!
Click on the link AGM reports to read the reports:December 2021We have now got the stakes and guards for the next 400 tree (thanks to Alan and Tony for collecting!) and the trees and shrubs themselves should be available in a week or two. We will then be arranging planting days and looking for volunteers to help! Please let us know if you can do some planting - if you supply an email we will contact you with details of sessions or alternatively let us know you can help at the AGM.
Nearly all of the trees planted in December 2020 and earlier this year are thriving, thanks in part to the weather so far this year. The alternating rainy and warm weather has been great for them. You will see that we have already collected a considerable amount of water in the collection apparatus on the land (pictured below: Alan being the chief architect here!) and we hope to have organised a method of getting the water from tanks to trees by the time watering becomes necessary next year. The trees planted last season should be well established by next Spring and will only need watering if we get a very dry period -but we have another 400 trees to plant over this winter and it's too much to hope that the weather will be so kind to them in their first year!
Unfortunately plans for a second major planting session immediately after Christmas 2020 had to be put on hold due to the pandemic restrictions. We were particularly looking forward to a group of 30 from the school, led by Outdoors Coordinator Emily Langford, coming to plant on January 14th. However, to our delight the school group was able to help us plant the last trees for the 2020-21 season on Wednesday 17th March.The children were very excited to be doing something different and they were quick to understand what they needed to do to plant the trees correctly. Peter Goodenough demonstrated a planting for them before they got started and talked to them about how important trees are for all of us, but particularly for their generation, who will have to deal with climate change in the future. He told them that the school has been flooded twice in the last 10 years, with water flowing down Water Street from the fields on the ridge. Our trees will help to hold water in the future and prevent future flooding. We were all impressed with the children's knowledge of environmental matters, which we understand they are being taught about in school.
Chidren, staff and CWCT volunteers alike all had a really good afternoon and hope to be able to repeat the experience soon when the new trees arrive.. We hope the school will also use the Trust land for other environmental topics now they know how easy it is to get groups from the school to the woodland.
Water capturing!It appears some people are not sure where the CWCT land is! Starting from in front of the church, walk away from the green and turn sharp left up Butt Lane. At the top, where Butt Lane meets Dyers Road, carry on straight over into the unnamed lane going north. (It is actually Hellards Hill Lane but isn't marked.) Follow the lane round two bends, first to right and next to left. Carry on on the next bend to the right, but don't turn, instead walk straight ahead into the CWCT land. You can't miss it now as the 200 trees already planted are very obvious in their green guards! It's a nice walk from the green ,taking 15-20 minutes and can be made into a circular walk if you carry on down the lane and take the footpath to your right before the house at the end of the lane. That brings you out to Dyers Road, cross over and keep straight on back to the green!
Our thanks go to the organisations that gave us grants for trees and shrubs and also the stakes and guards to protect them.Our first grant for 400 trees and shrubs involved three organisations- Reimagining the Levels (www.reimaginingthelevels.org.uk,) obtained a grant from the Somerset Rivers Authority (sra@somerset.gov.uk) on our behalf and used the money to procured the plants from the Woodland Trust (www.woodlandtrust.org.uk). RtL themselves provided the guards and stakes for them. This protection is essential as there are many roe deer in the area that will be very happy to nibble young trees given the chance! These organisations will provide the further 400 plants under the same grant this autumn.
One Planet Matters (www.oneplanetmatters.com)has donated 100 trees and 50 tree guards/stakes to the project. They have supplied species that are naturally found in the south west to cut out the danger of introducing disease and the trees are well suited to our ground.
The Trust is very grateful to these organisations, as it is to all those who have helped with planting and those detailed on the "Thanks" page, without whom we would not have been able to purchase the land.