Woodland Work Volunteers Needed
We are working towards acquiring all of the land in Speckled Wood (Upper Ore Valley), that has now been designated as protected urban green space, to create a community-owned woodland.
Sadly, there has also been some unhelpful activity to undermine some of our clearance work – rubbish is still being dumped in the woodland, cleared wood is regularly thrown back into the stream and some steps were dug up. We will not allow the anti-social actions of a few people get in the way of the objective of opening up (and keeping open) the Speckled Wood footpaths and woodland for community use, as this is the most effective way of preventing the loss of this valuable green space to development.
We plan to:
- Treat and eradicate the extensive and invasive Japanese Knotweed
- Enhance the woodland by some clearance of undergrowth, selective felling of sycamores to open up some areas and replanting of indigenous trees, shrubs and plants
- Clear the stream and create a pond and other water features to increase biodiversity
- Improve the footpath network and repair the steps down the valley sides
- Protect wildlife habitat
In addition we want to develop projects for community amenity and activities including:
- A Village Green, children’s play area and an events space below the Salvation Army Hall
- Construction of a ‘Greenway’ through the valley for walking and cycling to link into the planned Ore Valley Greenway routes
- Reinstatement of the disused Allotments behind Old London Road
- Disabled access paths including the ‘Greenway’
- Locating a Volunteer Base & tool store using a site office we have acquired
We have recently taken over an area of land, next to the Church Street track (South of Greville Road), from Hastings Borough Council. Initial clearance work was carried out by the local Trust for Conservation Volunteers and the next stage will be to level and prepare this land for community use.
However, we are very short of volunteers to take on the land preparation and help with footpath clearance and other woodland management tasks in the areas that we are working in. Our previous team of volunteers has reduced over the years and we now need to recruit more help.
The work will involve helping to keep the footpaths clear, undergrowth clearance, rebuilding steps, building small bridges across the stream and other woodland work. We will provide gloves, tools and equipment and basic training
We work together as a team, supervised by a Volunteer Co-ordinator and currently meet on Thursday mornings from 10am to about 1pm, although volunteer sessions can be arranged at other times.
We plan to arrange specific woodland work skills training sessions in due course.
Would you like to join our volunteer team ?
Or would you like to hear more about volunteer work with Ore CLT ?
Fill in the form below and let us know.
or email volunteers@oreclt.org