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DEAN GREEN TEAM Wildlife Conservation Group in the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire |
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The Cyril Hart Arboretum
Arboretum day is on the first Thursday of every month
The Arboretum is named after local historian and forestry expert, Dr Cyril Hart. The collection started in 1910 and contains over 400 trees.
It is situated on the B4226 Coleford to Cinderford road close to the Speech House.
OS Grid Reference: SO624118
Volunteers meet at the Arboretum on the first Thursday of every month at 10am
We are now in our 12th year of work at the Arboretum and have made real progress
To see the pictures from 2009 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2010 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2011 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2012 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2013 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2014 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2015 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2016 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2017 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2018 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2019 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2020 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2021 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2022 - Click here
To see the pictures from 2023 - Click here
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Volunteer Group Diary
5 September 2024
Amazingly, since the restriction on loose dogs meaning that dogs have to be on the lead in the Arboretum our monthly litter picker volunteers reported that there were NO discarded dog poo bags at all in the Arboretum. This is very good news!
It was a very wet day but that meant that we could now have a good fire to burn off all the cuttings from the last couple of months.
1 August 2024
The Arboretum is much quieter now as there is a restriction on loose dogs meaning that dogs have to be on the lead.This has also led to a significant lessening of litter which we noticed on our monthly litter picking. The Arboretum is the only area in the forest where dogs need to be under strict control.
Pruning the hedges by the main gate.
4 July 2024
Another lovely day at the Arboretum although the wind was fierce. Masses of brambles and ferns were removed.
The tree surgeons were with us to chain saw the large logs which had been lying on the ground for a couple of years. We had to temporarily close the path round the area .
It is with regret that Forestry England will be putting up signs soon requesting dog owners to keep dogs on a lead in the Arboretum. The Arboretum is well used by dog owners but there have been increasing complaints about people failing to remove dog poo and some dog attacks. Please abide with this ruling.
6 June 2024
It was a lovely day at the Arboretum. Now that the bluebells have gone over we are waiting for the grass to be cut and we continued to clear bracken and bramble.
Once again the Big Leaf Magnolia is in bloom now and well worth a visit. The Big Leaf Magnolia has the largest simple leaves and largest flowers of any tree and is indigenous to North America. It is a rare, native, deciduous, pyramidal tree with a single trunk and develops a spreading, broad, rounded crown with age, and grows 30 to 40 feet tall and equally as wide. Showy fragrant flowers are creamy-white with rose-purple at the petal bases, and measure 8 to 14 inches in diameter.
We also found a beautiful shrub in flower. We think it is Neillia ribesioides which is an arching, rounded, deciduous shrub that typically grows 3-6 feet tall and as wide. It is native to open wooded areas in central China. It is a member of the rose family.
2 May 2024
The team continued with clearing bramble, small holly and self sown small firs. This does entail using a fire to burn off the debris but we do ensure that the fire is fully extinguished at the end of the day.
4 April 2024
At last, there is a feeling of spring in the air! However, the east side of the Arboretum is still the soggiest ground that we have ever seen there. Today we planted a couple of young cherry trees which is very uplifting!
7 March 2024
This is the gorgeous Rhododendron in full flower and it brightened up the Arboretum! We continued to clear bramble around the trees and we could see the Bluebells starting to grow under the fallen leaves.
1 February 2024
We had a good day clearing masses of bramble along the old wall. Yes, we know that they will grow back but we tried to pull them up with the roots still attached.
As usual, we did the litter picking BUT we were counting the dog poo bags as we went and there were 50 of them! This is appalling! The main area we found them was out of the gate through to the forest where litter louts threw them into the ditch. That gate doesn't have a poo bin so irresponsible people just fling them down.
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10 January 2024
A New Year and we went round to collect all the fallen branches from the recent storms.
One of our regular tasks is to fill holes with the burnt cinder from the fire to prevent nasty falls for people!
