What a fantastic community meeting!

We had a great turnout to our Community Meeting on Aug 2nd at the Stoke Gifford Retirement Village. Heartfelt thanks to the over 40 people who came along, including many residents of the Retirement Village and Scholars Chase. We were delighted to hear how much you enjoy the woodland and are excited to get you involved in the planned improvements.

A Charlton Abbotts Forestry consultant took us on a guided walk through the woodland to discuss the plans for improving access, removing the trees affected by ash dieback and replanting with new trees.

Then we had refreshments at the retirement village and gathered feedback and suggestions from participants about the proposals.
 
The woodland committee will collate these responses and refine the plans with the South Gloucestershire Council Landscape Team and Charlton Abbotts Forestry. We are looking forward to starting work in the coming months. 

Community Meeting Tues, 2nd August at 6pm

 

Photo by Kitera Dent on Unsplash

 

If you live or work near Sims Hill Community Woodland or visit the woods, you are invited to join a community meeting on Tuesday 2nd August at 6pm. Come and find out about the plans to manage the woodland including  removing the trees affected by ash dieback, replanting with new trees and improving access to the woodland.

Meet at the Village Hall, Stoke Gifford Retirement Village, BS16 1YF:

• 6:00 pm at the Village Hall meeting point, then on a woodland 'walk and talk' with our landscape architect and forestry contractor.
  
  
• 7:00 pm in the Retirement Village for refreshments and anyone who can't make it to the walk.
  

If you can, we encourage you to walk to the event. If you need to drive, there is limited parking at Stoke Gifford Retirement Village. Please email simshillcw@gmail.com with any questions. 

We look forward to seeing you there and hearing your thoughts and ideas on the plans.

Things are happening in the woods!

 

image by UWE Photography Society, Rafael Herrera: @rafael2go

Great news!

We have obtained funding to improve this scenic woodland which runs behind Bristol Business Park and the Scholars Chase development in Stoke Gifford.

In May, we held a work event along with Splatts Abbey Wood Conservation Group. Many thanks to the members of the Student Conservation Volunteer group from UWE and Bristol University as well as local residents who joined in. A consultant from Charlton Abbots Forestry provided us with a guided tour and outlined the planned improvements. 

Ably led by a representative from the Forest of Avon Trust, the volunteers cut back bramble from the paths and cleared vegetation from the drainage ditch. Thanks to the members of the UWE Photography Society who were on hand to capture the day's action. 

We are planning a community meeting in coming weeks to discuss the planned improvements including upgrading the paths, dealing with ash die-back and replacement planting.

If you live or work close to Sims Hill Woodland and are interested in joining us, we would love to have you! 

Email simshillcw@gmail.com and join Sims Hill Community Woodland on Facebook for updates.

Celebrating Success

Great news this week. We now have our licence to operate from South Gloucestershire Council, we have an approved management plan agreed with the Forestry Commission and a felling licence to thin out the dense plantation areas. A terrific achievement for a bunch of volunteers.

We must thanks the developer Taylor Wimpy and their consultants CSa Environmental Planning. I would like to give a special thanks to Luke Casey for giving more than he needed to make things happen. We have enough funds to pay contractors to some of the heavier work. You will hear chainsaws from Monday. They are friendly noises helping to bring the wood to life. Please do respect and do obey signage.

UWE volunteer group Greenspace have done some great work and have started to clear around the lost pond. They will be returning on Saturday the 28th. If you want to join in the fun turn up at the Forestry Commission offices at Bristol business park at 10am. Wear good footwear, it is muddy and there are lots of brambles.

Sims Hill Working Party

Sims Hill working party

The Sims Hill Community Woodland crew are getting together this Saturday, 31 January, for more woodland makeover fun. The main enthuses will be on making the woodland more welcoming and a good tidy up

Volunteers from University West of England will be giving us a helping hand.

If you’d like to take part, meet at the Filton Road entrance, Bristol at 10am and remember to bring appropriate footwear, gloves if you have them, and to dress appropriately for the weather conditions.

We’ll let you know how we get on! Watch this space….

Hello can I introduce myself, I am Charlie and I've taken over running the blog site on behalf of our woodland community. It would be great if we can get more two-way conversation going with those of you interested in Sims Hill.

We had a committee meeting on 7 November where we met with the University of the West of England’s representative Charlotte Young. Charlotte is the Project Co-ordinator for GreenSpace which provides volunteering opportunities for students. She has also taken over the volunteering maintenance at Splatts Abbey wood in Filton. Charlotte has agreed to enlist more UWE volunteers to help us with work at Sims Hill as well as taking a look at our management plan in order to schedule the work for the year.

So where are we since we last spoke ? Well the management plan has been approved by the Forestry Commission, and will be reviewed on a regular basis to incorporate any new ideas as we go along...

We have also marked the future road line. It is likely that we will do this and do some thinning work in February or March but definitely before the birds start nesting.

Although we have carried out some general work to clear pathways, remove brambles and generally having a good old tidy up, we will need a licence from the council to do any further work included in the management plan. However we hope to be able to announce a date for another work party soon to carry on this good work. We’ll keep you posted.

Ain't no party like a working party

Goodbye kissing gate, hello better access:
Mark and Chris doing the necessary

Last week's working party (held on Friday, 7 March) was a great success. Blessed with a beautiful spring afternoon, around 13 of us went down to the woodland with one mission in mind: to remove some internal fencing and get those kissing gates out!

We had only 90 minutes to do a fair bit of work and, at the start, it seemed like we'd bitten off more than we could chew. But we needn't have worried. After a quick health and safety briefing delivered by committee member Steve Fowkes, we rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in. 

We concentrated our efforts in the middle of the woodland and by the end of the session had successfully removed one of the troublesome kissing gates, most of the fencing on either side of it and a rotten old tree that was blocking the path. That part of the woodland is now much more open and easier to access. Result! 
 
Another kissing gate and a fair bit of fencing still needs to go, but we're definitely getting there. And now that the weather's looking up, we'll have plenty of opportunities to head back out there and make more improvements.

Watch this space to see how we get on, and to find out how the management plan is progressing.

Busy bees get to it: Nina clears the brambles
while rest of the team have a go at the fence

Baby on board: there's no stopping
Nikki, even with an imminent due date!

Reach for the stars: Andy gets to grips
with creepers

Fancy footwear: Ilze makes a bramble heap