Chair’s Report 2021
We have had a year of varying fortunes, some good and some not so good. Most importantly, we have had more people discovering us due to lock down and, additionally, more species of wildlife.
Also due to COVID-19 we have not been able to complete our Towards 10,000 Trees project. The lottery people have taken a sympathetic stance and allowed us leeway in using the grant.
In August we replaced several hundred stakes and tree guards plus some trees that had been taken or vandalised.
The Parish commissioned an ecological survey of HBUF and asked us to only do maintenance work until it reported back.
When it finally reported it was very off-hand about the ecological importance of HBUF but broadly supportive of what we were doing. Unfortunately, the RSPB representative who carried out the survey failed to contact us, and we felt it was therefore incomplete. For instance, we have a large badger sett that they completely missed, as they did a family of sparrow hawks.
The tractor that we are sharing with the local Parish Council was delivered with a good variety of attachments,
We once again were given an award by the South-West in Bloom organisation.
In November we planted 1,000 fritillaries and 500 wildflower plugs in the wildflower meadow. The fritillaries were beautiful in March and hopefully we will match North Meadow in Cricklade in the future.
In December we continued the coppicing work that we started last year.
Swindon Borough Council donated twelve multi-stemmed birch trees that were removed due to a road widening scheme; we matched these with fifty whips planted in groups. About half of the multi-stemmed trees survive.
It is our intention to plant more trees this winter, including a Miyawaki forest but using fruiting trees and shrubs. We also intend to put a culvert across a ditch that crosses our land to give tractor-access to an outlying field.
Having chaired the Charity since its inception, I have decided to stand down.
Steve Thompson 9[th] August 2021
Hreod Burna Urban Forest Charity Number 1155603 Income and Expenditure Account 2020/2021
| Balance b/fwd as at 1 July 2020 Income 2020/2021 Less expenditure 2020/2021 Balance of funds at 30 June 2021 Total funds |
£ 14035.73 304.00 14339.73 8410.63 5929.10 5870.73 Bank Account 58.37 Petty cash held 5929.10 |
|---|---|
| Hreod Burna Urban Forest Charity Number 1155603 Income and Expenditure 2020/2021 Income Members subs & donations Expenditure Trees and seeds Tractor Insurance Clearance work Consumables Workwear Rent |
304.00 |
|---|---|
| 304.00 436.00 7400.00 257.48 250.00 41.20 24.95 1.00 |
|
| 8410.63 |