This one year Heritage Lottery funded, Embrace Cooperation Ltd project (starting September 2009) is run in partnership with Trust for Urban Ecology (TRUE).
Heritage Lottery Fund Website: http://www.hlf.org.uk/english
Embrace Cooperation Ltd Website: http://www.myembrace.org
Embrace Environment Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/embrace.environment
Embrace Environment Blog:
http://embraceenvironment.wordpress.com/
TRUE Website: http://www.urbanecology.org.uk/index.html
The project will focus on traditional woodland crafts, environmental conservation, increase awareness of, and encourage participants to maintain and preserve the Dulwich Upper Wood (London) nature reserve site for future generations. These traditional woodland crafts have been developed over many years and the local native wildlife has also adapted slowly over time. As the wildlife benefits from these practical crafts they have become part of the site management.
The following woodland crafts and environmental conservation techniques will be covered by the project:
- Wildlife Surveys / Walks
- Small Tree Felling / Coppicing
- Hedge Laying
- Dead Hedge Creation And Maintenance
- Traditional Wooden Fencing
- Glade Maintenance
- Wildlife Pond Maintenance
- Making Bird And Bat Boxes
All these techniques are traditional, sometimes ancient methods of conservation and it aims to encourage wildlife and native plants to thrive.
Project Video
A project video will be created with oral history video interviews being organised. The interviews will be about woodland conservation techniques and the site history. With wildlife experts and local community members being interviewed by project volunteers. Also project practical conservation events will be videoed to show the techniques involved in management of the site and woodland crafts.
Site History
The present day shape and composition of Dulwich Upper Wood can be traced back to the Great North Wood (12th to 15th century) and the rapid land use changes in the Crystal Palace area since the mid 1800s. Within the wood lies two old woodland boundaries – a line of ancient coppiced and pollarded trees and a ditch – marking subdivisions of the Great North Wood.
In 1981 the Dulwich Society, together with the GLC and the London Borough of Southwark arranged for the Trust for Urban Ecology (then the Ecological Parks Trust) to manage the wood as a nature park. Since 1988 a number of improvements have been made to the site to enhance wildlife value, improve educational facilities and disabled access.
Site Wildlife
The site has stag beetles which is a globally threatened species, protected under the Wildlife and CountrysideAct 1981 (as amended), and listed as a priority species in the London Biodiversity Action Plan.The site has a small fragment of ancient oak woodland, surrounded by secondary woodland of oak, sycamore, lime and ash with a good variety of other trees and shrubs. Ground flora in the ancient part includes wood anemone, bluebell and yellow pimpernel. A good selection of breeding birds are present, and some interesting migrants have also been recorded. Fungi are particularly well recorded, with over 250 species noted.
Volunteering
There is lots of opportunities for volunteers on this project including:
- Learning practical environmental conservation
- Wildlife surveying
- Help run wildlife walks
- Graphic design for project flyers / event posters
- Administration
- Project blog design / updates
- Project Myspace / Facebook / other social networks design & updates
- Video film making
- Video film editing
- Photography
- Help developing new projects
Local community groups & schools
We would like to work closely with local community groups and schools, including developing tailor made events / sessions for community group members & school students.
Confirmed public project events
All these free events will be run in Dulwich Upper Wood by Embrace Cooperation Ltd and Trust for Urban Ecology (TRUE) staff. Tools, health & safety equipment & refreshments will be provided and all these events will start at the on site portakabin. More public events will be organised throughout this 1 year project.
October 2009
10:30am to 3:30pm Thursday 29th Practical conservation event – Pond Maintenance
November 2009
12:30pm to 3:30pm Monday 2nd Nature walk / Survey – Fungi Foray run by Jim Murphy
10:30am to 3:30pm Wednesday 11th Practical conservation event – glade creation
10:30am to 3:30pm Thursday 19th Practical conservation event – Shrub clearance / dead hedge creation
10:30am to 3:30pm Wednesday 25th Practical conservation event – Hedge laying
For more information about this project and to find out how to become involved in this project
Phone: 0208 72749450
or email: john.c@myembrace.org
