What's New
WELCOME NOTE
From Judith Webb, Chair
Forum members will know that we have been through a period of change, particularly in relation to the support available to the Forum and delivery of the Framework. I am pleased to say that Heartwoods were successful in bidding to provide support going forwards. Reduced resources mean that we do not have the level of funding and therefore time allocation that we had before, however good news is that Sara Roberts has been engaged by Heartwoods to deliver much of the support, providing the Forum with great continuity and continuation of the skills and networks that Sara has built up in the West Midlands over the past years.
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Farewell to Bill Heslegrave, Regional Director FC West Midlands
Bill is shortly to retire and his last day in the office was on July 1st when colleagues and friends joined in giving him a rousing send off. Bill has covered parts of the West Midlands for the last 16 years, most of his career in the FC in fact. He was initially based at Coleford and when Forestry Commission England went regional in 2001, moved up to Worcester. He has overseen a great deal of new working with FC; with Regional Spatial Strategies, Government Office secondment and the Regional Forestry Framework. He pioneered the establishment of a Marches Woodland Forum from Herefordshire and Worcestershire County Fora and from there the West Midlands Woodland and Forestry Forum, which recently celebrated its 19th meeting at the excellent Burwarton Estate in Shropshire.
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Social Forestry Good Practice Guide 2010
This document has been written from the collected experience of the West Midlands Woodland & Forestry Forum’s Social Forestry Task Group. The sector has the potential to be a significant contributor to the social, environmental and economic wellbeing of the region, with particular relevance for disadvantaged groups. The work of the group has shown that more support and help is needed for wood based community projects, and those who work with groups of disadvantaged people.
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Just over five years into the implementation phase of the West Midlands Forestry Framework, the significant buy-in and engagement of stakeholder individuals and organisations who seek to realise the benefits that trees, woodland and forestry can bring to the West Midlands continues. It is through their individual activities, projects and influence that any progress has been charted and future plans incorporated into the three-year rolling Delivery Plan 2010-2013.
For more details see:
Forestry Framework Annual Monitoring Report 2009-2010
Trees, Woods and Forestry Manifesto for the West Midlands
With the refresh and update of the Forestry Framework completed, we took a hard look at what was needed in the years ahead to maximize the benefits provided by trees woods and forestry. The result, this Manifesto, was launched at the June 2010 Woodland & Forestry Forum.
See our briefings for the latest news about the Forum:
Growing Our Future: Issue 14 – September 2011
Growing Our Future: Issue 13 – July 2011
Growing Our Future: Issue 12 – December 2010
Growing Our Future: Issue 11 – July 2010
Growing Our Future: Issue 10 – December 2009
Growing Our Future: Issue 9 – July 2009
Growing our Future: Issue 8 - December 2008
Growing our Future: Issue 7 - July 2008
Growing our Future: Issue 6 - May 2008
Growing our Future: Issue 5 - December 2007
Growing our Future: Issue 4 - December 2006
Growing our Future: Issue 3 - June 2006
Growing our Future: Issue 2 - October 2005
Growing our Future: Issue 1 - July 2005
The briefings are available in Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf files). If you do not have Acrobat Reader on your machine, you can download it here.
