CURRENT NOTICES
MEMBERSHIP FORM
If you would like to download a membership form click here. Please send the completed form along with the membership fee of £5.00 to Dunnet Forestry Trust, Castlehill Heritage Centre, Harbour Road, Castletown Caithness, KW14 8TG.
SPRING 2010 NEWSLETTER
The AGM will be held on 26th May at 7.30pm in the Castlehill Heritage Centre. Three directors, Jean Barnett, Maureen Clarkson and Stuart Young, will stand down from office by rotation. Being eligible, they will stand again for re- election. Any member who wishes to stand for the Board should contact Jean Barnett, chair, on 01847 851353 by Thursday 1 April.
This winter has been severe, protracted and unsuitable for much that needs to be done in the forest. The severity of frost enduring for so long has meant that planting and restocking could not take place as young trees were frozen in the nursery and the ground was too hard to prepare for planting out. Now that the weather is improving we need to catch up with planned restocking and beating up previous plantings. It will be helpful to encourage volunteers willing to assist with various tasks which need to be done throughout the year. Any one who feels able to help with tree planting, path maintenance, removing shelterguards from established young trees, ditching, or seed gathering for nursery should give their name to Andrea Sinclair, Forest Administrator, Dunnet Forestry Trust, Castlehill Heritage Centre, Harbour Road, Castletown. Please indicate what times one may be available. Any help will be greatly appreciated by the Board and by Kevin and Paul who are working two days per week in the forest.
Dounreay apprentices wish to have a building project designed for this year. Details have been discussed by the Board and with Jim Swan who is in charge of Apprentice Training at Dounreay. Plans are being drawn up and will be presented to the Highland Council Planning Department for planning permission. It is hoped that this will be dealt with promptly and that work will then go ahead This, when completed, will be a lasting tribute to the work apprentices have done every year within the forest. Apprentices will design and build structures using timber from the forest. Funding will be required but initially a very generous donation from Nettie Ward has given momentum to any funding request DFT may seek. When plans are finalised and ready to be presented to HC Planning for Planning permission , they will be published and exhibited in a public place for members to peruse and to comment.
It is our intention to move the container to a site nearer to the road which, on the advice of the local police crime prevention officer, will improve its safety situation. The apprentices will make a covered area for the storage of split firewood adjacent to the container. This, hopefully, will be done before the next season's firewood sales commence in September.
DFT chair, has successfully negotiated with Forestry for People, for a part-time post of Community Forest Ranger. This post is currently being advertised. It will not impinge on, but will complement, the good work already being done by the Highland Council Ranger whose job is not confined to Dunnet Forest. The work of the HC Ranger within the forest tends to be seasonal rather than all year round. Naturally, a good liaison between the HC Ranger and the new appointee will be vitally important to avoid duplication of effort, particularly during the schools summer term. Highland Council Discretionary Fund is supporting this venture for a three year period. DFT is grateful to the local councilors for their interest and commitment.
This new post of Community Forest ranger will emphasise and develop education, recreation, health and well-being as well as forest maintenance and bio-diversity. It is designed to strengthen, encourage and maximize involvement of forest users with forest activities throughout the four seasons of the year. For example -- collecting seeds for future stock is done in autumn, while planting out new stock is a late winter early spring task. Hopefully more volunteers will become involved in the day to day workings within the forest so that the burden presently carried by a few will be shared by the community. It may eventually be possible to establish a "Forest School."
Community Woodland - Employability Services is a new scheme to be pioneered by the Community Woodland Association. Dunnet is one of six Highland forests invited to participate. along with Abriachan Forest Trust, Laide and Aultbea Forest Trust, Milton Forest Trust, Assynt Foundation and Culag Community Woodland Trust. All six are seen to be Social Enterprise Groups and constitute the project steering group. The aim is to offer a range of services to excluded groups with a view to providing a full suite of opportunities from confidence building through woodland skills to securing land management and forestry SVQ qualifications where appropriate. The services would be provided in mainly rural areas where there is currently little provision for local people.
Funding has recently been secured by CWA for this project. A work plan June 2010 until March 2012 has been drawn up for implementation once CWA appoint a Social Enterprise Development Officer who will arrange training events for groups and networking meetings between them. Funding has become much more difficult since SNH's financial support to DFT to manage their forest has been withdrawn. This means a considerable shortfall in what is required to fund the on-going forest works. Therefore other funds need to be found if DFT is to be able to continue in the long term to manage the forest as a community forest. It is proposed to take a stall at a car-boot sale on 17th April to be held in Castletown Drill Hall from 10am until noon. Have you anything to contribute?
Because of the severe frost, log sales in February had to be postponed. The March sale was disappointing but hopefully April and May will improve our sales. This income is DFT's only source of unrestricted finance. All other income from funders is for specific use and has to be accounted for accordingly. Unrestricted income allows a degree of flexibility and helps to put the icing on the cake!
Any member who is on e-mail should please send their e-mail address to the Trust if they have not already done so. This will facilitate the issuing of information to members and be financially beneficial to DFT.
CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
The funding support from Scottish Natural Heritage, the current landlord, has dried up and we are now 100% self supporting - which is a huge task. The trust is reorganising itself and must try to balance its books.
We need to save labour costs so we are setting up a volunteer list to help with the planting of trees and path and forestry maintenance that doesn't involve chainsaws. We need volunteers in November and February for the tree planting. If anyone has a couple of hours to spare and wishes to volunteer, please contact us by email at info@dunnetforest.org or telephone 07770697711 and leave a message.
"Friend of Dunnet Forest"
It only costs £5 to become a life member of Dunnet Forest. Anyone interested should email info@dunnetforest.org asking for an application form, and once completed, should send with £5 to Dunnet Forestry Trust, Castlehill Heritage Centre, Harbour Road, Castletown, KW14 8TG. Members receive a Newsletter twice a year.
E-Mail Addresses
If you are a "Friend of Dunnet Forest", ie a member, could you send your email address, with full name and address to info@dunnetforest.org to enable our database to be updated. In future any newsletters or correspondence will be sent by email wherever possible to reduce postage costs.
People Counter
Dounreay apprentices completed a project to provide DFT with two counters, one at each end of the forest. They were fitted on 17 September 2008 and have been checked regularly. Counts in and out have averaged 110 people/day which in turn means 40,000 people visit the forest each year.