WHO ARE WE?
We are a collaboration of local community and nature groups, supported by national organisations who are working together to seize this rare opportunity to purchase and manage East Wood with, and for, the community, as well as for wildlife.
For more information about each supporting organisation, please check out these links:
Our willingness to collaborate, combined with our extensive expertise and experience - of developing nature recovery schemes, leading community development projects, undertaking biodiversity surveys, managing nature reserves and leading nature-based education, including Forest School - make us an ideal group to buy and manage this woodland for the long-term good of the community and nature. We are working with Woodland Savers, so we can create a woodland management plan, monitoring and reporting publicly on biodiversity, soil health, and air and water quality.
WHAT IS EAST WOOD?
East Wood (known locally as Weston Woods) , a small (nearly 20 acres) piece of mixed deciduous woodland, with an existing public footpath running through it, which has just come up for quick sale between the village of Weston and the town of Otley, West Yorkshire. The locals walk through it but don’t have the right to roam, unlike the visiting deer, tawny owls and woodpeckers, or resident kites, rooks, goldcrests, tree creepers and warblers. Oak, birch, beech, elder and sycamore are underlain by bluebells, wild garlic, brambles and other woodland flowers. It’s already rich in biodiversity, which can be enhanced. Our hope and plan is that it becomes ‘East Wood Community Woodland.’
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
East Wood is a precious resource for people, wildlife, and the climate, but its future is incredibly uncertain. We want East Wood to become a community asset, improving access, putting land back into the ownership of the community, maximising the potential for birds, insects, plants, fungi - bringing back a rich understory to make this woodland a fully functioning ecosystem, and increasing our connection with nature and encouraging its recovery.
And it’s a truly local, national and global issue, as proven by some of our supporters:
Ian Brand, Vice-President Wharfedale Naturalists: “We all realised during ‘lockdown’ how important the countryside and natural world is for our mental and physical wellbeing. None more so when it is easily accessible and close to home. This is truly a wonderful opportunity to buy and manage a beautiful local woodland, for not just now, but for future generations. Local community ownership and control will allow us to maintain access for everyone, while managing East Wood in a way to increase its biodiversity and richness. I urge everyone to contribute in any way they can.”
Christoph Warrack of Woodland Savers, (a social enterprise helping communities to acquire, protect and regenerate woodlands): “It’s impossible to imagine the story of East Wood without its surrounding community. This historic relationship now has an opportunity to secure a flourishing future for nature, in partnership with generations of local people. This is an outstanding community movement which truly deserves the prize of stewardship of East Wood, in perpetuity and for the benefit of wildlife, people, and planet.”
Phil Sturgeon of the Protect Earth charity: “All over the country our woodlands are in decline, encroached upon by road building, housing, swamped with invasive species, or treated purely as a portfolio investment. This is an opportunity for a community to secure a woodland they hold dear, and secure it for generations to come.”
Dom Higgins, Head of Health and Education at The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts: “One third of people in England do not have nature-friendly places near their homes. That’s nearly nine and half million households that don’t get the proven wellbeing benefits from hearing birdsong, exercising in tree-lined parks or relaxing on a flower-filled bed of grass... We owe it to people to create more natural places where people would benefit the most from them.”
HOW WILL WE DO THIS?
The short-term goal (by 14/02/23) is to buy East Wood! We have the winning offer, pending due diligence and all the other paperwork. So we now need to continue raising funds to repay the loan and pay VAT, legal fees etc. Together we can make East Wood a community woodland managed for nature recovery, wellbeing, and learning.
The medium-term goals include baseline biodiversity surveys (through our collected organisations), risk-benefit assessments, a heritage survey and an opportunity to share your views.
The long-term goals include:
- truly sustainable woodland management (including monitoring, measuring and reporting),
- community involvement leading to improved connection with nature and mental wellbeing,
- enhanced biodiversity including rare species recovery,
- provision of cross-curricular and holistic education opportunities for the numerous local primary schools (with nearly 30% of pupils at the nearest school in receipt of Pupil Premium), secondary school and other groups,
- more inclusive access and participation,
- local reduction in runoff, improved soil health and improved air and water quality,
- protected carbon sequestration,
- heritage preservation,
- genuine community adoption of this special place, East Wood Community Woodland.
Watch this space for more information…
WHY WE NEED YOU?
We cannot buy East Wood without your support. We have been blown away by your response thus far, from over 1,400 supporters, raising £133k towards buying Weston Woods; thank you. However, we need to continue our fundraising to pay off our loan, VAT and legal fees etc.
We are a local community trying to do our bit for the global climate and biodiversity crises that affect us all. We will be promoting this locally, but the benefits will be experienced far and wide. Please donate if you can and share our campaign where you can.
THANK YOU
