Community Consultation Questionnaire - please share your thoughts!

The woods are owned by and for the community and so it’s essential everything that happens with the woods is driven by you, the local community. 

We are currently undertaking a Community Consultation, and we'd appreciate if you could take a few minutes to follow this link and complete the online questionnaire.

We are seeking your views on the 3 core aims, which are to:
1.       Care for our woods
2.       Learn from our woods
3.       Help our whole community share in our woods

There is also scope for you to give any other thoughts or views at the end.

Many thanks and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

SURVEY LINK: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9NLVJZ8

We can't see the Woods for the Teas!!

We are delighted to be serving tea / coffee with delicious home baking on the Sunday of Gifford Flower Show, with kind permission from our friends at the Gifford Horticultural Society.

Come and support us by buying a quick refreshment at:

• Gifford Village Hall 
• Sunday 18th August 1.30 - 4.30pm 
• Sit in, or take away will also be available. 

Coming to the Flower Show? Come for tea too!

SAVE THE DATE: Our Gifford Woods Annual Meeting

Join us at the Our Gifford Woods Annual Meeting 

Monday 2nd September 7.30pm

Gifford Village Hall

• Enjoy a social evening with food, drink & meeting friends
• Brief AGM – hear a short update on what we’ve done including work on the core paths and future plans
• Have your say on the future of the woods; we want to hear what you think
• Take part in a fun “Mystery Game” – prizes to be won! All will be revealed on the night… 

All free – don’t miss it! No tickets needed; just turn up.

Path news from your woods

The good news:

• Works start on July 1st to create easily accessible paths for all to enjoy.
• They are phased; there will always be somewhere to enjoy.
• The works are due to finish by October.
• Many of your favourite paths will stay the same.
• The new path route in Speedy Wood will open up an area that hasn’t been accessible in living memory. Invasive Rhododendrons and bog combined to make it impenetrable (see image below!), but you will be delighted with this whole new area to explore. Two bridges will enable you to cross Speedy Burn.

The bad news:

• There will be some disruption.  Please bear with us!
• Some paths will close during the works.  Look out for signs and temporary barriers.
• Parts of the woods with new paths may look a bit ‘raw’ to begin with, but nature will soon do her work and by next summer you will think the paths have always been part of the woods.

A map of the paths can be found below.

Want to know more?

Join us for a Community Walk on Sunday June 30th at 4pm.

Meet on Station Road.  Please wear wellies – parts are very boggy!  The route is not currently suitable for buggies or wheelchairs (but it will be).

A Downloadable PDF version of this map is available by clicking here.

Gifford wins at Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards

On Friday 21st June we attended the Royal Highland Show, where we were delighted to win this amazing accolade - Best Large Community Woodland in Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards.

Many thanks should go to everyone who has helped Gifford Woods reach this point; Volunteers, Board Members, Steering Committee Members, supporters and our Recorders!  This really wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for all of you.

Spring Volunteer Dates

Please find below our programme for volunteering with Gifford Woods during spring 2019.

There are some dates which are marked TBC. This indicates that,depending on whether we can engage a contractor, we may be moving some piles of cut Rhododendron into more accessible areas to be mulched, otherwise we will go ahead with the programmed activity.

We hope you will be able to join us on one of these volunteering opportunities, and Nev has even promised to inspire you with new camp fire cooking ideas!

• Saturday 23^rd Feb, 9.00am – 12.30pm followed by lunch: Rhododendron Clearance
• Sunday 10^th Mar, 9.00am – 12.30pm followed by lunch: Rhododendron Clearance
• Saturday 16^th Mar, 9.00am – 12.30pm followed by lunch: Rhododendron Clearance
• Sunday 7^th Apr, 9.00am – 12.30pm followed by lunch: Wood fuel day (TBC)
• Wednesday 24^th Apr, 9.00am – 12.30pm followed by lunch: Ditch clearing (TBC)

Each session is being led by our Project Manager, Nev Kilkenny, and please meet at the camp area at the top of Station Road.

What’s happening this year in Gifford Community Woodland?

We made great progress, with your help, in 2018 and this year looks like more will be happening in the woodland as we heard recently that two grant applications were successful.   These were made to:-

• Rural Payments scheme 
• Viridor Credits.

These grants, together with some of the funds that we had already raised, will allow us to improve some of the paths in Fawn Wood and to create some new paths in Speedy Wood.

In a phased programme over the next 12 months, we will create a network of easily maintained “core” paths.  Outside of these, many of our existing, much loved, minor paths will be left “as is”. The new or improved paths will open up the woods to visitors with access requirements.  They will also reveal new parts of the woods for everyone to enjoy.

Our plan includes paths in Speedy Wood, in order to open this area up for the first time.  We need planning permission for these works; an application has been lodged with East Lothian Council.  We hope to hear back by early March and to start works soon after this. A map of the Paths can be found below, or downloaded in PDF format by clicking here.

Want to know more?

We’d love to share more details of the plans with you, and to hear what you think.  We are hosting a drop in session on

Wednesday 6th February

5pm to 7pm

Gifford Village Hall (Todrick Room)

As usual, if you would like to keep up-to-date with our news, please ensure you follow us on Twitter or Facebook or keep an eye on the village noticeboard. You can also subscribe to our email newsletters by clicking here and giving us your details.

A Downloadable PDF version of this map is available by clicking here.

Volunteering Dates in January & February

Dear Woodlanders,

Our volunteering days for the next two months are now confirmed, and will be:

• Sat 12th January, 9am - 12:30pm

• Sat 26th January, 10am - approx. 3pm (but don't worry if you need to leave earlier)

• Sat 2nd February, 10am - approx. 3pm (but don't worry if you need to leave earlier)

• Sat 23rd February, 10am - approx. 3pm (but don't worry if you need to leave earlier)

To manage 55 acres of ancient woodland does take quite a bit of work, so if you would be able to volunteer on any of these dates it would be much appreciated.

Further details are below.  If you would like to join any of these sessions, please contact our Project Manager, Nev Kilkenny (nev@fungi.co.uk) who will also be able to answer any questions.  Nev himself is also going to be leading all of these sessions.

We look forward to seeing lots of you during January and February, and thanks in advance for your support.

Sat 12th Jan:
This will be a wood fuel day. We are particularly interested in volunteers that have acquired their chain saw ticket with us helping to clear up some of the dead wood from tree safety work. We also need volunteers to split logs, wheel barrow logs and stack logs - so something for everyone!! We'll meet at 9.00 am at the welfare camp and work until 12.30, then I will make some lunch on the campfire for everyone.

26th Jan, 2nd Feb and 23rd Feb:
For the next three volunteering days we will be joined by the Lothian Conservation Volunteers and will be tackling Rhododendron. We're hoping these will be fantastic days where we achieve loads as a big group and learn lots from these more experienced volunteers. These events will start a little later at 10 am and will finish at approx 3 pm, again lunch and snacks will be provided. Don't worry if you can't stay the whole time, we'd love to see you anyway.
This big push on the rhododendron is to clear a broader route for our path network for which we now have 87% of our funding for and are hoping to get started on very soon.

Happy New Year and best wishes to All.