Continuing on from yesterday’s blog, I’m reviewing the 2014 highlights of working in Sherwood Forest with our many partners.
A re-submission of the project ‘From Miner to Major: the real Sherwood Forest’ to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Landscape Partnership Scheme was successful. This gives the partnership funding to develop a stage two bid over the next 18 months to bring in significant funding for the habitats and species, built heritage and archaeology, improving access and interpretation, and providing training. Our fundraisers were part of the team that wrote the bid and for more details about it and next steps see here.
We secured funding and helped to lead on two workshops using the approach of ‘Change Conversations. To find out what it was all about see Andy Hollis’s blog.
Our friends at Sherwood Forest Trust continue to play a key role in shaping and delivering the vision of Sherwood Forest, with them now providing the secretariat role for Sherwood Forest Regional Park Board, of which we are a member. The Board is now planning for an official launch of the Regional Park in the summer of 2015.
I continue in my role as chair of the Sherwood Habitat Strategy Group, which included chairing the Sherwood Habitats Forum in November. This was organised by Ian Major, SFT, Bob Thacker, Save Sherwood Forest, Gill Grieveson, Greenwood Community Forest, and Shlomo Dowen, Only Solutions, and held at the Newstead Centre. The Forum’s focus was the work of local community groups in tackling the negative impacts of human impacts in Sherwood Forest and provided them with an opportunity to meet each other. Presentations included an update on the Sherwood Forest Regional Park, the Catchment-based Approach to tackling water body quality, work of Friends Of Groups with Forestry Commission and Greenwood Community Forest, wildlife recording with OPAL, and nightjar studies by Birklands Ringing Group.
There is more work to do in Sherwood and more news to announce in next year. Exciting times lie ahead.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Longhorn cattle in Sherwood Forest NNR. Photo credit Carl Cornish