YOUTH & SCHOOLS

"Teenagers got Tir Coed off to a flying start with their Ystwyth Valley project. The event was organised in partnership with Forest Enterprise and 20 teenagers from the Ysbyty Ystwyth and Pontrhydygroes youth club.

Under the guidance of a Wildlife Ranger, the young people cleared paths which run off the newly installed Miners' Bridge at Pontrhydygroes. These historical paths in Maenarthur woods are part of a proposed circular interpretative route, which incorporates dramatic views of the Ystwyth Valley and heritage features from the lead mining era.

Gwyneth Davies, Ystwyth Valley co-ordinator, said, "It is very encouraging to have the youth of the community involved in this project, establishing a sense of commitment and pride in their local surroundings. We hope that many more partnerships will be formed locally over the coming months. As well as community- driven involvement, one of Tir Coed's aims is to create more opportunities for these young people to stay in the valley by adding value to the timber on a local basis, both to boost the local economy and, hopefully, create future employment opportunities in woodland and countryside enterprises."

ACORN COLLECTORS

Pupils from Ysbyty Ystwyth primary school helped to secure the future of indigenous oak trees in their community recently. Facilitated by the Tir Coed Ystwyth Valley Initiative, the pupils collected acorns from a local woodland under the guidance of Mr & Mrs John Rainbow of Ystwyth Tree Services. The children were advised as to the best size and quality of acorns to collect and were later assisted with planting the acorns in pots.

The School has visited the Ystwyth Tree Services nursery at the Hafod Estate to follow the progress of the acorns they collected. Each pupil also has a "chosen" acorn growing within the school for them to nurture; the saplings will then be replanted in a local National Assembly woodland where the children can watch their oak tree grow for generations to come.

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

As part of National Tree Week activities, the six primary schools in the Ystwyth valley were visited by Rhian Jones, Forest Enterprise Education Ranger and Gwyneth Davies, Tir Coed Ystwyth co-ordinator. The purpose of the visit was to collect the children's thoughts on the future of Assembly woodlands in the valley.

The visit began with discussions and ideas on how woodlands can serve people, wildlife, employment and recreation. The children were then split into four groups to play a planning model game where they learnt about the different aspects that have to be considered when designing a forest plan.

Finally, they were asked to sketch their ideas for future local Assembly owned woodlands. These ideas were then shown to the Forest Enterprise designer to be considered within the next forest plan for the Ystwyth valley, which is currently being developed.

"COED CALL" - "TREE WISE"

A two-stage woodland based programme with young people.

Aims

•   to raise environmental awareness among young people;
•   to encourage young people to engage with their environment;
•   to collate their views and aspirations re their environment;
•   to learn new skills and have fun within a woodland setting;
•   to introduce young people to working with wood.

Objectives

•   young people given the opportunity to experience working with wood in a woodland setting;
•   each young person will create a musical instrument made from local timber to keep;
•   young people exploring a woodland before composing and recording rap songs inspired by that woodland, while registering opinions/likes/dislikes re their local environment;
•   to produce a CD of above rap songs for each young person to keep.

Phase 1 :

Each group spent a day at a local woodland, making musical instruments from local timber, under the supervision of 2 instructors.

Instruments produced were:

Xylophones,
Lagerphones,
Bohrans.

At the end of the day each young person had produced a musical instrument to take away with them.

Phase 2 :

Youth Groups brought along their musical instruments and took part in a 1-day workshop. Having first explored the woodland, they composed rap songs inspired by that woodland and expressing their opinions of the environment they live in. The rap songs were recorded and compiled into a CD containing all the work generated by each youth group.

At the end of the project all the young people were given a CD of the songs produced by their youth group.

TREE PLANTING

At Clynfyw Countryside Centre 2ha of land was cleared and prepared for planting. This work was carried out, in partnership with the Prince's Trust, by young people from the "Team 100" programme which is linked to Jobcentre Plus.

After the site had been prepared, local primary schools spent a day at Clynfyw taking part in creating a new area of woodland. They learnt how to plant and care for trees, as well as gaining information about different species and the importance of trees to people and the environment.

In partnership with the Hafod Trust and Forestry Commission Wales, tree planting sessions were also organised with primary schools in north Ceredigion. These took place at the Hafod Estate and, as well as planting trees, the sessions incorporated a guided walk around the Hafod Estate to see the mature woodland, wildlife and to learn about the history of the landscape.

Back to Past Projects

North Wales Officer - Gwyneth Davies
Phone: 01974 282476
e-mail-gwyneth@ystwyth-tircoed.fsnet.co.uk

South Wales Officer - Becky Hulme
Phone: 01570 493224
e-mail-becky-tircoed@fsmail.net