Meeting up with the Westonbirt team at the beginning of the day
Westonbirt guide explaining the crumbling bark of this tree
Westonbirt description
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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
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Volunteer Group Diary
4 August 2022
A beautiful day and the Arboretum had recently been mown. However, this enormous pile of branches had fallen which left us with a major task of clearing it and burning the smaller branches on a controlled fire.
At the end of the day we had nearly completed the task but there is still a small pile to deal with next time. We do not use chain saws so the very large logs are removed at a later date by contractors.
7 July 2022
It was a general tidy up day for us! We checked the grassy areas for fallen branches as the grass will soon be mowed again. Bramble and bracken were pulled up around the large trees and along the old wall.
9 June 2022
Today, we mostly continued clearing the very old wall of bramble, ferns and small weed trees. The wall might have been built over a hundred years ago when the Arboretum was first planted but it has been obscure due to foliage growth on top. Local regular visitors remarked that they had been unaware that there was even a wall there!
Innovation! One of our team is designing a bramble root extractor. Once the fork is dug into the ground, the curvy wedge forces upward removal!
31 May 2022
This was the day that the Dean Green Team planted 7 Cherry trees to honour the Queen on her 70th Jubillee as our monarch.
The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Forest of Dean District Council plus Verderers joined our celebrations
5 May 2022
Dean Green Team at the Arboretum on a lovely sunny day! We were clearing along the old walls and around the main gates as there will be some tree planting for the Queen's Jubilee this year. It was mostly bramble on the old wall and it will be an ongoing job!
27 April 2022
Our Arboretum volunteers met up at Westonbirt Arboretum for a very interesting day having a guided walk there by their volunteers!
Firstly, we went round the old Arboretum which had been there for over 200 years and saw the variety of ancient trees. Then, we were treated to a free lunch in the cafe followed by a good walk in Silk Woods. We were supposed to be helping their volunteers by doing some proper work with them but there was so much for us to see that we ran out of time!
The 'Star Wars' tree!
The amazing walkway!
The 2000 year old Lime although it doesn't look that old!
A beautiful curtain display!
14 April 2022
We had a good day at the Arboretum. We were continuing to clear up fallen branches and to pull up bramble from around the trees.
However, as usual, a couple of us went round the Arboretum litter picking. It is shameful that we picked up in excess of 25 dog poo bags. Considering that there are dog poo bins at both the main gates, this is disgraceful! Please use the bins!!!!
24 March 2022
Another one of our extra days at the Arboretum as we have lots of post-storm work still to do. All the branches from one of the tallest trees which came down in the storms a few weeks ago were cleared away. The trunk and logs will probably be cleared by contractors using their chain saws.
It is lovely to see the Rhododendrons in flower!
17 March 2022
This was one of our extra days at the Arboretum as we have lots of post-storm work left to do. It was a beautiful spring day and we have just about finished clearing and burning the brush from the fallen trees on the right of the main gate.
Next week, we are by the enormous tree on the left of the gate. There are a lot of large logs still to be moved so they are being split to make moving them easier.
3 March 2022
The recent series of heavy storms have caused a lot of desecration in the Forest of Dean. At the Arboretum, there were two giant trees down. The Arboretum had subsequently been closed for a week and a half for safety reasons and this had never happened before! Another tree had fallen across the fencing which had to be repaired.
Dean Green Team members spent the day around one of the trees clearing all the branches and burning them on a large fire. As there is still a great deal of work to do, we are having extra volunteer days this month, as we have lots of post-storm work left in the Arboretum. - Thursday 17th March, 9.45am - 3pm and Thursday 24th March, 9.45am - 3pm.
This is the tree we tidied up and took down the standing trunk.
Here, you can see the large scar left on the side of the tree.
This is the tree at the other end of the Arboretum which we will deal with on our next visit there. It was one of the tallest trees in the Arboretum and it is a sad loss.
3 February 2022
Our team were joined today by five volunteers from Westonbirt Arboretum and their ranger. These volunteers do very similar jobs to ours at Westonbirt so they had come out to the Forest of Dean to see what we do. We are lucky here to be allowed to use a fire to burn off the fallen branches and pulled up bramble.
Our team are enjoying a break near to our fire. We are hoping to go to Westonbirt Arboretum for a visit in April.
13 January 2022
It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day! The team were mostly pulling out masses of bramble from around the trees and near to the surrounding walls.
