161202/04 Scouts

As you probably know, some of the troop went away to Winter Camp last week, at Slindon National Trust Base Camp.  We were joined by Anthony’s dad on Saturday morning, who was a great help and said he enjoyed himself. 

On Saturday, under the guidance of National Trust Warden Bob, we did coppicing, which involved cutting down lots of hazel, burning some and keeping the rest to be made into charcoal.  The cut down trees will sprout new stems and create a habitat for dormice. The Scouts worked very hard and were quite tired by the end of it. Some of the adults were tired too, and fell asleep on the sofa when we got back…
The Scouts cooked dinner, under Andy’s guidance, which was enjoyed by everyone.  Deep sleep followed, then it was up for breakfast on Sunday. This time we were planting trees, as the National Trust have a huge project to regenerate Northwood, which used to be ancient woodland, but got cut down in World War 1 and then the ground given over to farming in World War 2. More about the project here:

https://riseofnorthwoodnt.wordpress.com/ 

We were instructed what to do by National Trust Ranger Hannah, and were soon wandering the hillside armed with spades and sacks of “whips” (young trees). Some of the trees were even given names.

We stopped planting at lunchtime and were driven back to our accommodation for lunch and to pack and clear up.  Everyone worked so well as a team that we were all ready well before the pickup time.

It was a really good weekend, thank you to everyone who made it work.

Tim Hall – 7th December 2016