News
News from the Wychwood Project office
Dry stone wallers busy at Cogges Manor Farm Museum - 21 March 2013
Read about the exciting new developments at Cogges Manor Farm Museum in Witney and how Wychwood Project wallers have been lending a hand.
New Wychwood Project Flora Group - 21 March 2013
Are you interested in wild flowers, particularly those in the Wychwood area? Find out how you can learn more through the Wychwood Project.
How are Barn Owls and other Birds in West Oxfordshire fairing this wet winter? - 21 March 2013
Read the latest Barn Owl project report by Ian Anderson
Read the latest Bird Aid project report by Louise Spicer
The Hedgelaying group completes new hedge at Eynsham - 8th November 2012
Click here to find out more about our new hedgelaying project in Wharf Road, Eynsham
Chalara Fraxinea – Ash dieback - 1st November 2012
Chalara Fraxinea is a fungus which is causing a serious disease of ash trees, an issue which has been widely reported in the national press. The disease causes leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees, and it can lead to tree death.
At present we are not aware of the disease having been found in the Wychwood Project area. However, ash forms a major part of the tree and woodland cover in the Wychwood area so it is important that we take this new disease threat seriously.
Further information on the disease can be found at the following web-sites:
Forestry Commission, Exotic pest alert -
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/pest-alert-ash-dieback-2012.pdf/$FILE/pest-alert-ash-dieback-2012.pdf
FERA, Link to video clip on identification -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1GpufLkBto&feature=plcp
Forestry Commission, Link to pictorial guide -
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/Symptoms_guide_Chalara_dieback_of_ash_2012.pdf/$FILE/Symptoms_guide_Chalara_dieback_of_ash_2012.pdf
If you see signs of diseased ash trees now or in the future, please report these to the Forestry Commission • Forest Research Disease Diagnostic Advisory Service T: 01420 23000; E: ddas.ah@forestry.gsi.gov.uk
The Oxfordshire Community Guide to Biodiversity - 9 October 2012
A new guide has been designed to help community groups do practical work on nature conservation.
15th Anniversary of the Wychwood Project - 7 June 2012
Nick Mottram, Wychwood Project Director, led a recent tour of Foxburrow Wood the Project’s new community woodland site on the edge of Witney. This was an opportunity to see the progress that has been made to date on the woodland and to hear about our plans for the future. We also took the opportunity to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Wychwood Project with a piece of birthday cake!
Foxburrow Wood can be found off Foxburrow Lane near Hailey (Grid Ref SP 352 115).
Peasticks for sale (Witney) area - June 2012
Price £4.50 - 8.50. Peasticks harvested by volunteers from Wychwood woodlands. Bundles of 10 and 20. Quite bushy so well suited to allotments and larger vegetable patches. All proceeds go to support the Wychwood Project charity. Self-service from Southdown Farm, Witney Road, near Crawley OX29 9TG.
Bird Aid is Expanding - 10 May 2012
Bird Aid is expanding into new areas thanks to the involvement of the Ditchley Estate near Charlbury which is a 4900 acre arable/woodland/ grassland farm. The Trustees are hoping to help the farmland birds through the lean times of the winter by planting wild-bird seed strips and hand feeding when these are exhausted. We are at the early stages with this project but hope that it will be very successful. This exciting development is part of a big upsurge of interest in the Upper Thames Valley and eastern Cotswolds region that is starting to deliver real benefits for these threatened birds. Meanwhile the farm near Chipping Norton continues to attract huge flocks of linnets, yellowhammers and tree sparrows with smaller numbers of skylarks, reed buntings, pied wagtails and a few corn buntings, both on the arable strips and with hand feeding.
Orchard Group Buys an Apple Press - 10 May 2012
Last autumn we acquired a centrifugal mill and a 12 litre mobile basket press and we would like to acknowledge, with grateful thanks, donations from the Friends of the Cotswolds and the Charlbury Beer Festival which enabled us to buy the equipment. It has already been used at Apple Days and to make cider. A mobile press was preferred so that it can be available for demonstrations and the making of cider and juice from local windfalls. When there is a glut of local apples, (as there usually is), it will be a way of helping to use and store a valuable and delicious local food resource. In January we also organised a well attended wassail in a local orchard by kind permission of the orchard owner and were entertained by the Finstock mummers. Our own cider was served along with all kinds of apple cakes.
If you are an orchard owner or would like to be involved with the Orchard Group, or to use the mill and press, please contact Gwen McConnachie email: gwen@gladrag.co.uk
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