woodlands

[Razorstrop]

Doc,
horray someone who has nothing to say but a huge positive!!!!!!!!!!

Likes to see this sort of thing
Mr Strop

 

[bilko]

Gary, Spoony, eric et all. You guys have inspired me so much. Yes i truely believe that very soon the ball will be snowballing for you guys into what will be a wood of your own. I would like to counteract now any negativity that i may have enthused into this thread by saying that this is a wholey doable thing. I have been glued to the net for the past 3 hours searching a place we can use in the south ( see my southerner thread ).
It was only when i realised that i could probably get a 5 grand loan over 5 years for as little as £100 per month that this whole thing suddenly shot sharply into focus for me. Let me stress though that £100 is no small sum for me and 5 years is a long commitment but for it's worth it.
Now these are just figures that i am bouncing around in my head to afford a place with only 10 members butas has been stated here before, the spirit of bushcraft is partly in the community and so the more the merryer .
I won't confuse anymore with my own figures for a southern wood as they are just to concentrate my own mind but i have to say that i am still shivering with anticipation, and excitement for you guys. This is a brilliant thread and i wish you lot the best of luck with it.
Eric had the wonderful idea of a network throughout the country and i for one would welcome all of you to our space ( when we get it ) . I think this goes without saying though realy.
:You_Rock_

 

[JoshG]

Gary, Spoony, eric et all. You guys have inspired me so much. Yes i truely believe that very soon the ball will be snowballing for you guys into what will be a wood of your own. I would like to counteract now any negativity that i may have enthused into this thread by saying that this is a wholey doable thing. I have been glued to the net for the past 3 hours searching a place we can use in the south ( see my southerner thread ).
It was only when i realised that i could probably get a 5 grand loan over 5 years for as little as £100 per month that this whole thing suddenly shot sharply into focus for me. Let me stress though that £100 is no small sum for me and 5 years is a long commitment but for it's worth it.
Now these are just figures that i am bouncing around in my head to afford a place with only 10 members butas has been stated here before, the spirit of bushcraft is partly in the community and so the more the merryer .
I won't confuse anymore with my own figures for a southern wood as they are just to concentrate my own mind but i have to say that i am still shivering with anticipation, and excitement for you guys. This is a brilliant thread and i wish you lot the best of luck with it.
Eric had the wonderful idea of a network throughout the country and i for one would welcome all of you to our space ( when we get it ) . I think this goes without saying though realy.
:You_Rock_

Excellent work!
Once we get this whole thing going who knows where it will lead!
But I reckon for the northern wood we should elect 2 people to look into the situation on a super serious level, round up there people who are definitely going to contribute to the cause and do some sums, contact agencies, hunt down a good site and so forth...so...
any volunteers?

 

[Emberglow]

I have to say that reading all the posts on this thread there are the believers and the non believers. Having met Eric, Spoony, Razorstrop, Josh G, Bilko etc and a few others I maybe havent mentioned I know that they are all believers.. belief is all you need.

We can do this, and we will, and I for one will put my money where my mouth is

 

[Razorstrop]

Eric, Spoony and possibly myself are already working towords this Josh

LIke I have said many times before, we are hoping to be playing for keeps with this, not just having a flight of fancy.

First meeting tomorrow, Spoony, Eric and a flask of tea
Mr Strop

 

[JoshG]

Eric, Spoony and possibly myself are already working towords this Josh

LIke I have said many times before, we are hoping to be playing for keeps with this, not just having a flight of fancy.

First meeting tomorrow, Spoony, Eric and a flask of tea
Mr Strop

Brilliant! :You_Rock_

 

[spoony]

Just worked out an Acre would be about 63 Meters X 63 Meters if the area of wood was square,

So the Middlesbrough woodland would work out to about 210 Meters X 210 Meters

Think thats right

how you work that out that wood is over 11 acres??

 

[fa11en ange1]

how you work that out that wood is over 11 acres??

If an acre is 63m x 63m this is an area of 3969m^2

11 acres therefore = 3969 x 11 = 43659m^2

So the approximate dimensions of an 11 acre wood (assuming a square layout) is the square root of 43659 = 208.9.

So 11 acres is a plot of roughly 209m x 209m.

 

[Stu Mac990]

Theres 4047 square meters in an Acre, I just worked it out to help me and anyone else visulise what a square acre looks like as I can relate to meters x meters.

 

[fa11en ange1]

Theres 4047 square meters in an Acre.

So that would make it 211m x 211m then for the 11 acre plot, again assuming a square lay out.

 

[rich59]

I did a quick search on forums for people who own or want to own a small wood. I found there is a brand new one at http://www.lightwoods.co.uk/forum/ . Might I suggest that people interested in this subject join that forum and explore the many issues there?

 

[Eric_Methven]

Right, we've had the first meeting. Details here http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?p=126301#post126301

Eric

 

[elma]

I think i have come to this thread backwards (went to the woodland update first) but it seams a most excellent Idea, Iv'e only skipped through the thread but count me in.
Well done spoony & Eric

 

[rich59]

Well done Eric and Spoony. On the other hand there is more than one way to skin a cat. One option is to explore on http://www.lightwoods.co.uk/forum/ and help make that forum work. Another way forward would be to request a new subforum on BCUK to do with owning, managing, buying woodland.

Why not pursue all options.

 

[spoony]

We already took the bull by the horns so to speak, and have forked out for a domain name, a site will be up and running with a dedicated forum, rather than burden Tony any more and take up bandwidth, but thanks for the info.

 

[demographic]

I could be fairly interested in this but remembering when I was a nipper and lived on a farm our back field was 10 acres, it wasn't very big at all.

Also I would assume that the further north you get the cheaper the land gets (roughly speaking anyway) so maybe Scotland might be a better bet?

Does it have to be mature woodland? There are decent grants avaliable (well there was a few years ago anyway but I have not checked recently) for planting trees that are native to the British isles.
The parents of a mate of mine planted about 7000 trees in their rather substantial garden and as I remember the trees were about two quid a shot, they got half of that paid by a grant.
It must have been about ten or so years ago now but now they have deer, Badgers and red squirrel coming to the "Garden".

Perhaps call it some kind of woodland/wildlife trust and it we might be able to register it as some kind of charity? I am just throwing ideas about here so don't really know how feasable they are

Regards, Scott

 

[Martyn]

Guys, just a thought. As you have used BcUK to start the ball rolling on this, why cant you keep it a BcUK thing? Why do you need a separate bushcraft forum?

From where I'm looking, it seems yet another example of people using BcUK to create a splinter group for their own ends, and using BcUK to recruit for it. What started as a woodland group buy, has turned into a separate school/business.

I think the idea is great, but when people start using this forum to recruit/advertise/create their own commercial ventures, forums & schools, it seems a bit off to me. Remember, BcUK isn't a government sponsored resource, that we can all tap into for our own ends. It was a forum, created from scratch by one mans dream & hard work.

I think you have a great idea here and I wish you every success, but remember that no schools are allowed to advertise or recruit here, no businesses are allowed to advertise outside of the soon to be market place, so why should BES - which looks like a school/business get a free ride?

I'm sorry if this offends, but I'm not in the habbit of keeping my mouth shut when I have an opinion.

Could someone explain to me why this society is so different from any other society, that it should be allowed to advertise openly on the forums and recruit from BcUK membership without restriction?

Now I'm putting my fireproof suit on here, but please remember, this is a fair question and I would appreciate people giving it some thought before ripping in.

Thankyou.

 

[elma]

Guys, just a thought. As you have used BcUK to start the ball rolling on this, why cant you keep it a BcUK thing? Why do you need a separate bushcraft forum?

From where I'm looking, it seems yet another example of people using BcUK to create a splinter group for their own ends, and using BcUK to recruit for it. What started as a woodland group buy, has turned into a separate school/business.

I think the idea is great, but when people start using this forum to recruit/advertise/create their own commercial ventures, forums & schools, it seems a bit off to me. Remember, BcUK isn't a government sponsored resource, that we can all tap into for our own ends. It was a forum, created from scratch by one mans dream & hard work.

I think you have a great idea here and I wish you every success, but remember that no schools are allowed to advertise or recruit here, no businesses are allowed to advertise outside of the soon to be market place, so why should BES - which looks like a school/business get a free ride?

I'm sorry if this offends, but I'm not in the habbit of keeping my mouth shut when I have an opinion.

Could someone explain to me why this society is so different from any other society, that it should be allowed to advertise openly on the forums and recruit from BcUK membership without restriction?

Now I'm putting my fireproof suit on here, but please remember, this is a fair question and I would appreciate people giving it some thought before ripping in.

Thankyou.

Hi Martyn
You beat me to it
I subscribed to BES this morning and the more I look at it the more it seems a comercial venture, perhaps there needs to be to be some sort of income for the upkeep of the woodland that is to be purchased ? I don't know, but there are questions spinning around in head, for example we go to meets and learn new skills from each other, do the members have to pay for the woods and pay for courses you know will the meets turn into another wilderness gathering, perhaps other BCUK members would like to comment :bluThinki

Ian

 

[running bare]

hi martyn & elma

I think the reason that BES was set up AFTER promoting a group buy on BCUK was because of a lack of interest from members and a great deal of negativeness rather than support for the project ( imho ) I may be wrong and im sure i will be corrected if so. Due to the cost of woods and lack of support there inevitably has to be some form of commercial support to get the project off the ground. if the members of BCUK where more supporting and less anti. then you would not be posting replies like this as there would have been no BES to diss. BES consists of like minded members who want to see this work and not just sit back and talk about it . like a lot of members here do.! this will probably be edited,deleted or closed, but if that happens then it will just serve to prove a point.

lets not get petty about this as the main idea was for members from all over the country to have access..not just the north east as a 2hour radius @ 60 mph takes in edinburgh, cumbria down to derby.

tom.

ps i think the guys should be applauded for the hard work they are putting in as well as holding down full time jobs with unsociable hours for the benefit of others :You_Rock_

 

[Toddy]

hi martyn & elma, I think the reason that BES was set up AFTER promoting a group buy on BCUK was because of a lack of interest from members and a great deal of negativeness rather than support for the project ( imho ) I may be wrong and im sure i will be corrected if so. Due to the cost of woods and lack of support there inevitably has to be some form of commercial support to get the project off the ground. if the members of BCUK where more supporting and less anti. then you would not be posting replies like this as there would have been no BES to diss. BES consists of like minded members who want to see this work and not just sit back and talk about it . like a lot of members here do.! this will probably be edited,deleted or closed, but if that happens then it will just serve to prove a point.

lets not get petty about this as the main idea was for members from all over the country to have access..not just the north east as a 2hour radius @ 60 mph takes in edinburgh, cumbria down to derby.

tom.

ps i think the guys should be applauded for the hard work they are putting in as well as holding down full time jobs with unsociable hours for the benefit of others :You_Rock_

I disagree.
I feel that while enthusiasm has to be applauded, setting up the new site was a case of the horse before the cart.
To then, virtually immediately, begin to create a rival Bushcraft site to bcuk, while still posting and trawling for help and new members here, was a definite infra dig.

I wholeheartedly approve of the venture to acquire land suitable for leisure, recreation and conservation.....many of the members on bcuk have spent, and are spending, considerable time and effort to plough through the financial and liability minefields that would open up access to land. However, I don't believe that this justifies the creation of a new site, and certainly not one that's not dedicated purely to the acquisition of land but in direct competition with bcuk as a forum and expects to be allowed to advertise courses and services in a way that is denied other schools.

I think it's time for a big deep think folks.
People are interested and are prepared to contribute funds, but, and it's a big but, few will contribute a large sum to acquire land that they cannot easily access (two hours drive is too long for me for regular use when I can be in deep woodlands in ten minutes) and fewer yet will contribute when they aren't sure of the agenda behind the propaganda.
This isn't 'negativity', simply logistics. There may well be over two and a half thousand members on bcuk, but how many actually live within the catchment area proposed? How many from that proportion are actually capable of contributing?
Now it seems that these questions won't matter, the site isn't bcuk anyway, but a new school called BES. I know that it has been said that the school is to provide the funding for the land.....if the land is freely available to bushcrafters for meet ups anyway why would anyone pay to go to the school?
Too many unanswereds and from too far out left field.
Eric Methven is well known, and has contributed a great deal to the community here and at various meet ups. I haven't read enough postings by the other major players to have any feeling of confidence in their abilities.

Not so cheerfully,
Toddy