We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. This update is a belated summary of December and looking forward to January.
1) December Funding In October our ‘stage one’ crowdfunding completed and has enabled us to make the Wood: (1) safe with the recent installation of the wooden rail and wildlife friendly hedging perimeter, (2) accessible with the delayed Cotswold path (due to pandemic restrictions and weather), (3) enhance preservation with 75 new trees, (4) improve legacy with a rustic sign, and (5) create engagement with community tree planting.
However Stage Two crowdfunding has now commenced between October 2020 and October 2021! We are aiming to raise between £3500/£5000 for community planting in the vacant huge borders, to provide an interesting, educational, naturally beautiful, ecological destination that will engage all parts of the community. To achieve this we have:
(1) established a New Online Crowdfunding Website, at: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/woodend, (2) partnered with the Co-op as one of the charities of the year, and they will donate money for nothing, simply if customers sign up to be a member and choose our ‘cause’, and then every time a customer uses their membership card the Co-op will donate to our charity. Simply visit the Co-op website at https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/53065, (3) we are also applying for suitable grants, and in the meantime (4) cash donations can still be made at Dover Road Post Office, The Chippy, The Blue Star, Morrisons.
2) Implementation Update. What an amazing month despite the pandemic restrictions and weather!
2.1 Media: The Champion Newspaper highlighted some of our November achievements on the front page of the paper https://www.champnews.com/papers/pdf/SS5020.pdf and our tree planting progress in their online version at https://champnews.com/story.asp?id=GN4_ART_1796035
2.2 Treeplanting: We were delighted that Hudson Primary School were able to spend the morning (8.12.20) in the torrential rain helping the Friends of Maghull and District (FOMD) plant 72 trees to future proof the old trees, whilst many other volunteers planted 1350 wildlife friendly hedging whips around the whole perimeter of Bobby’s Wood/Woodend. The children were generously rewarded by Andrea Watkins (the manageress of Morrisons) who gave them each a Christmas selection box. The children from Northway Primary School who could not make the afternoon session due to the bad weather, later planted 20 more Mersey Forest trees in their school grounds the following week.
2.2.1 Requested Tree Types. Perimeter Hedge Trees (1,357) Comprise of: Hawthorn (Crataegus Monogyna) – 966 Blackthorn (Prunus Spinosa) – 299 Dog Rose (Rosa Canina) 23 Guelder Rose (Viburnum Opulus) 23 Corylus avellana (Hazel) 23 Acer campestre (Field Maple) 23 Malus sylvestre (Crab Apple) 23 Underplanted Trees (72) are a mixture of: Beech Alder Silver birch Hawthorn Hazel Hornbeam Pedunculate oak Sessile oak Red oak Rowan Wild cherry The tree planting continued on the 18.12.20 when the community came together at Moss Side Cricket Club (Park Lane), where we planted a further 229 trees. We also have 8000 tree whips healed-in in two Maghull sites and will need to be planted during the tree planting season (November/March), which is quite a challenge during the current restrictions. Most of these will be planted in Maghull parks but we are also hoping to plant the remainder in our local schools. 4000 of the trees have now been planted in various Liverpool Parks, whilst the remaining 4000 are still earmarked for Maghull, and with the plans being revealed in due course.
2.3 New Rustic Sign: this amazing feature was installed on 15.12.20 and provides a beautiful welcome legacy, for which we are enormously grateful to Mike Stock (MJS Joinery MD) for the donation and Derek and Jonathan Aitken (Gorse Hill Nature Reserve) for its loving creation.
3.0 January plans: the weather and the pandemic restrictions may influence what we hope to achieve which includes the path, populating and funding the large rear border, planting several mature trees, planning the planting of 4000 trees in three sites in Maghull, exploring the provision of a large nature reserve and wetland/floodplain close to Maghull.
4) Finally, our previous project on Stafford Moreton Way is very close to having the last two items installed one of which is the recycling rhinoceros, and should be installed in the New Year, with more information available at www.spacehive.com/stafford-moreton Pictured: the fantastic Maghull Town Council maintenance team pictured with the new under planted trees. Thank once again for all your support and many best wishes, FOMD