Dear Friend,

If you go down to the Wood today, you are in for a pleasant surprise if you have not visited Hagg Wood recently. With more than a little help from the clearance of invasive undergrowth we and our helpers have been doing in recent weeks and months in several areas of the Wood, there are now wonderful displays to be seen of native primroses, wood anemones, and bluebells, particularly in the southern section of the Wood. In the north-western area of the Wood, just past the stand of beech trees, we have been busy earlier in March planting 200 new trees and 100 native shrubs. These include 70 alder in part of the Wood that has been rather wet, but also wild cherry, rowan and crab apple in the drier parts, together with hazel, hawthorn, guelder rose, dog rose and holly. This has been funded by a Breathing Places grant we have received, with assistance in the clearance and planting also from BTCV volunteers. Together with the other plantings we have done in the Wood in recent years, native broadleaf species should become more visible in the Wood in coming years. We have also been clearing around the oak saplings which have been steadily growing up in the Millennium area that was planted in the year 2000, surrounded by the faster growing but shorter-lived silver birch trees, that are acting as a nurse crop, protecting the oak saplings from the wind and encouraging the oak saplings to grow upwards.

We have also been very busy in recent weeks and months undertaking the Local Heritage Initiative project, that has as its centrepiece the recent landscape survey within and around Hagg Wood of the distinguished landscape historian, Stephen Moorhouse, with much clearance work by FHW and BTCV to expose the ancient drainage channels within the Wood. Stephen will bring us up to date on his investigations in an illustrated talk on the Medieval History of Hagg Wood on Wednesday 23rd May at 8pm in Dunnington Reading Room. We do hope that you can come to what promises to be a very interesting and enjoyable meeting. We will start this session with our FHW Annual General Meeting.   If you would like to stand for the committee, or nominate another member for the committee, please email your nominations to me at  davidmays@onetel.com by 9th May 2007.  If you wish to propose an amendment to the Constitution, please refer to paragraph 9 of our Constitution,

Our new website has been initiated by FHW Committee member, Tony Hudson, and contains many beautiful photographs of the Wood and details of our many activities. These have included a very enjoyable recent visit to the Old Deer Park near Duncombe Park to see veteran trees, including 800 year-old oaks. So there are plenty of reasons for you to renew your annual subscription (see Membership section) as soon as you can, and to encourage others to join, to enable us to continue our good work.

Dr David Mayston

Chairman

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