Blyth Woods

Aims of Blyth Woods:

· To make wildlife corridors and extend wildlife habitats

· To leave new wild spaces as a legacy for the future

· To engage the community so that our wild spaces are secure and safe

· To provide long term resources for the community

The Blyth Woods group got together in 2012 to plan, plant and maintain community woods in the parish of Wenhaston, Suffolk and the parishes of the Blyth Valley. While looking for land to plant on, we started a programme of activities with village schoolchildren, taking out a succession of year groups, collecting acorns, planting them in the school tree nursery, tending young saplings and eventually planting them out around the village, filling in hedge gaps, and along borders of the commons. The children are growing up beside their trees! Then we found the ideal location – the small field adjacent to Vicarage Grove known as Grove Piece. The land became ours in 2018 and great strides have been made in the creation of a community woodland. So successful indeed that we sought further land and have, just over one year later, the ownership of Malster’s Little Field, immediately adjacent to Grove Piece. Blyth Woods then took over management of Vicarage Grove from the Commons Group in 2020. It is is a small area of ancient woodland owned by the Wenhaston Town Estate Church Charity and is the oldest piece of woodland in the parish. These pieces of land neatly join to provide an area of mixed community wild space where wildlife can thrive and which everyone can visit and enjoy. We also manage the community orchard adjacent to Merton Wood.

We continue our search to create more wild spaces in the Blyth Valley.

In recent years the village has lost many elms, oaks, horse chestnuts, and now ash trees, to diseases. This means it is even more important to create new woodland. It is a big job but if lots of people are involved, nobody has to take on too much. If you would like to be part of this project, please contact one of us.

People love trees and trees are good for people. Our trees, hedgerows, woods and forests contribute significantly to the quality of life and enhance the local environment and biodiversity. They support economic growth through regeneration, help mitigate the impact of climate change, assist in reducing air pollution and provide important health and educational benefits.

join a work party, no skill or experience is necessary, just enthusiasm. become a Friend of Blyth Woods Make a donation

visit Grove Woods (Grove Piece, Vicarage Grove and Malster’s Little Field) check what to look out for and tell us what you discover.

Chair – Alan Miller - alanm54@btinternet.com

Secretary - Geraldine Lines - geraldine.lines@hotmail.co.uk

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