Advice on woods

[Scally]

In the scout district we have a district camp site and a scout group site, they want to hand this back to the district. its had a bit of vandalism so first thing first is to remove two old portkabins which is planned for the next couple of weeks.
next job is to remove a load of rubble or bury as a soak away !!!
its got a sess pit and a toilet block. the block is sound the inside has had all of the water pipes pinched and a little vandalism. its about 3 acres.
we lease it for £1 .00 a year with insurance and water there is some out goings. we dont want to hand it back to the council so looking at a few avenues here comes the questions
we dont know wether to rebuild the toilets to a simple level and then open it back up to scouts as wild camping. there isnt a great amount of trees but what trees we do have are hard and soft. the wood is surounded by woodland owned by forestry and farmers. or remove the toilets altogether
we want to plant a lot of trees but because its near to a built area we dont want to put up guards because the local kids will just target them and rip them up?
any ideas for grants ?
there isnt much dead wood and and the trees are well spaced so no dropping of current stock to supply wood for fires
the ground looks ok to have ground fires and apparently they have had ground fires here for a long time.

it would be good to have a moot or gathering here when were on top of it but the wood supply would be the concern.

so any ideas for grants for fenceing and sapling's
any sugggestions to make the block more vandel proof.
the idea we are looking at is to provide a back to basics campsite for scouts and maybe some were we can utilise for bushcrafting maybe opening up to you guys for a small fee to use at specified times?
still looking at all possible avenues before we make any descions so please brainstorm some ideas thanks
( we may not do anything ) but were looking into anything at the mo

 

[Ogri the trog]

Blimey Scally, you have a job on your hands there,
I'll note down some of my rambling thoughts, but whatever the association ends up doing, it sounds like a lot of work.
You could rebuild the toilet block with all of the pipework indoors, which might deter future thefts, but then you'd have to make the building itself impenetrable - steel shutters on doors and windows. In my experience before we left to south-east, if the vandals can't steal or destroy, they will cover any surface in graffiti - which might be another consideration. Burrying rubble as a soak away might be useful in this project. The alternative is to make the soak-away and use chemical toilets that are brought onto site for every camping event. How about moving the portakabins to a part of the site that you don't use - these could become a sacrificial target for the vandals actions away from the area that you want to preserve.
As to the sapling/firewood issue. If there is wood to burn, again you might find that vandals burn it for you - leaving you with nothing anyway. In Australia recently, I saw public barbeque areas where you are not allowed to burn fallen wood from the forests - instead, fuel wood is brought in by local authorities. Something similar might be useful in preventing the local arsonists association from spoiling your Scouting venue. You might just have to accept that a certain percentage of anything you plant will be ripped up so go for fast growing, cheap things like willow or hazel which can be planted from cuttings from existing sources for the price of a pair of secateurs. You could copice this in the future for firewood, drying it in rotation away from the area. Grants are not my thing I'm afraid so I can't advise there.

You're going to need a big dollop of luck to get this project up and running, so I'll add my wishes to the list.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Nemisis]

Just a thought but is there no way to get some of the vandals on side? Maybe talk to the local law and offer informal bushcraft teaching courses. You never know it might teach them to respect things a little better and i'm sure the police would be only too happy to offer some back up as it would be reducing there work load to some extent. After all one of the main reasons they vandalise in the first place is boredom,this might be a way to offer them a little focus in life.
Dave.

 

[Scally]

we are looking down the vandel angle but the portakabin damage was done by ex scouts. and i found out after i left last night two bikers 20years plus got bored and smashed up some panels that was already battered hummmmmm!!!
did talk through some angles with others today and when sorted might throw a local meet ( to that they said that will frighten them off a group of men and women swinging and wielding pointy things all weekend might deter them )???

 

[Nemisis]

Might be a good idea to invite the cops along to a local meet to show them what your about. It could help on several fronts. Easing there minds about folks with sharp pointy things and maybe even attracting a few to join in that together with there knowledge and contact with the local bored kids could well benifit all concerned.
Dave.

 

[redflex]

Contact your local Forestry Commission Office they will advise on current grants like EWGS etc, they will be able to advise on tree planting as well. Where abouts is the site? I know few people who carry out woodland surveys might be able to get them have a word with you depends where you based.

You will also have a local tree office which should be able to advise you contact the council.
Community projects will always attract more funding this increases in low income areas, before doing any work put a write plan together so you have an outline to show makes getting funding a little easier.

If you are reg charity this will help as well.

 

[redflex]

Here is a link which provides cost of most woodland management and work (including tree planting page 4 and fences page 5), it shows what amounts to claim for during grant applications. This should give a rough guide of what cost are involved in the work you are planning.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/ewgs-on009-standard-costs.pdf/$FILE/ewgs-on009-standard-costs.pdf

 

[Scally]

thanks redflex thats looking good should help with the report i have to write.
the site is about 5 miles away from Sherwood forest.

 

[bambodoggy]

Getting wood for your open fires shouldn't be a problem, go through your yellow pages and look up a heap of tree surgeons, then ring them and tell them who you are and what you do and ask if they'd like to dump there felled wood on your site (remember to tell them you DON'T want chippings...unless you do?) and I'm sure several will bite your arm off to have somewhere free to get rid of the wood.
Everyone's a winner

Hope that helps,

Bam.

 

[swyn]

The only downside to the tree surgeons dumping activitys is that of importing diseases. Please be careful on this front. Once you have a disease in your woodland it is impossible to sell anything. Also to eradicate said disease is almost impossible. As in all timber activities PROVENANCE is very important.
As a rough guide as I'm not near my most recent figures £3.50 per tree is a happy figure. This is on a 2500 plant job with ground prep, trees, stakes, guards and planting gang. No fencing and no weeding for the next three years is in this figure. Also no beating up.
As with all grants you are locked into what is the current vogue. Sometimes it is good and in others indifferent.
Take advice, and if you can get your local RFS group to visit you will have some interesting angles presented.
As with all tree growing activities and forestry this is a long term thing and really at the end of the day should never be rushed. All the very best with an activity very close to my heart. Swyn