COMMUNITY projects gathered at an ‘Our Forest’ event in Cinderford to discuss their progress and share knowledge.

Our Forest is the organisation that evolved out of the National Lottery funded Foresters Forest programme which ran from 2017 until 2022.

Some of the projects present had been funded originally from Foresters’ Forest – and are still supported by Forestry England Community Rangers – and others have evolved since. 

Some of the projects have overlapping themes so the purpose of the meeting was to bring together all the volunteers working hard on their individual projects, to share their combined skills, knowledge and experience, so that that shared wisdom can drive mutual benefits in future. 

The meeting was chaired by Verderers Sue Middleton and Rich Daniels.

 Sue said: “The projects are spread around the Forest, so it is likely that wherever you live, there will be a community project near you. 

“Each of the projects will welcome new volunteers of any age. 

“They also offer a wide range of opportunities for family friendly activities, or useful learning experiences for school pupils/college students or for Cubs, Brownies, Scouts and Guides looking to gain badges. 

“While many of the projects have one particular location, some of the projects operate in more than one place. 

“For example, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has a number of nature reserves and various community initiatives, while Dean Meadows Group provide advice to some of the community projects and helps individual members within their group to develop wildflower meadows. 

“For those projects which have meadows, both Alex Crawley of Grazing Management and Kate Batt, local graziers, were on hand to explain how their respective sheep and cattle can be used for conservation grazing purposes to help manage meadows as an option compared to mowing or scything.

“Forest Community Shed have excellent woodworking skills which they can employ to create useful items for the community projects. 

“For example, they have created a rainwater harvesting unit at Parkend Community Orchard and are making another at Worcester Walk. 

“They have also made the wooden frames for information boards at Worcester Walk to explain that project’s purpose. 

“They also highlighted the mental health and wellbeing aspect of joining in with community projects, which is a benefit common to all of these groups.”