## **’ - Trustees Report for period 6.8.2020 5.8.2021** ## Teazle Wood Trust, Registered Charity no. 1160532 ## **The object of the Teazle Wood Trust CIO is:** **To promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment of woodland known as Teazle Wood in Leatherhead, Surrey.** August 2020 – August 2021 was another year of positives and challenges. The large increase in public use of Teazle Wood seen as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic took hold in spring and early summer 2020 continued, and we were proud to be able to keep the woodland accessible throughout and manage the negatives such as the increase in litter and anti-social behaviour. In mid-August 2020, volunteer Tony Marshall carried out another moth survey. The photographs and results were shared and enjoyed on social media – people loved to hear about the less-well-known moths such as ‘Rosy Footman’, ‘Tree-lichen Beauty’ and ‘Maiden’s Blush’. We carried out ‘Trustees only’ litter picks for Health & Safety reasons to keep litter at bay, and Lucy Quinnell and Caroline Cardew-Smith provided a new illustration and designed an anti-litter banner, and then joined forces with the Leatherhead & District Countryside Protection Society, Friends of River Mole Leatherhead and the Fetcham Residents’ Association to get these printed and installed at key problematical locations. Having solved the problem of omnipresent blue plastic petrol station gloves in previous years, the new scourge was used face masks. Following the popularity of the Helen Macdonald BBC programme featuring Teazle Wood, we saw a new increase in people taking an interest in the fungi. Our resident Woodland Trust volunteer photographer Emile de Sousa took stunning photos of the fungi in the autumn. Teazle Wood became the surprise star of a film in the Crystal Palace Festival 2020, when a video clip of the wood at night as the world emerged from lockdown and the M25 went back to normal was used by the band ‘Fireflies’ for their track ‘Get Out of Town’. In October 2020, we were finally able to resume volunteer activity, with new risk assessments and safer ‘no contact at all’ methods of working. We began with our experienced volunteers only, to test the water, and it worked until the new restrictions came into force. We will retain the new approach of each volunteer keeping his or her own tool set between events and bringing individual refreshments. It’s actually an ideal activity – outside with substantial space between participants. Throughout, we stayed in touch with the wider community on social media. The Facebook group works particularly well, and enables Friends of Teazle Wood to debate all kinds of relevant topics, from trees to insects to forest fires to online ecology talks, etc. In a brief window of restrictions being lifted, we carried out coppicing work with volunteers and with a new group leader Jeremy Breeveld, who was working at the nearby Juniper Hall Field Studies Centre. We were able to coppice a group of hazels and ensure that 2020 had achieved coppicing another set of trees as part of our plan to get back to a healthy rotation. Back in Tier 4 restrictions, we returned to the monitoring of the wood for any anti-social issues and kept an eye on the flora and fauna. Grey wagtails were recorded, the volunteers growing Wild Service trees from Teazle Wood seeds reported their progress online. Emile de Sousa took another set of photos in spring, and we recorded the roe deer giving birth to young and our first pair of nesting Red Kites. In January 2021 we were delighted to be able to purchase a major beneficial share from one of the lenders who had made the original purchase possible. Buying this £40,000 share represents a major step in the plan to achieve community ownership of the whole wood; something remarkable for the community to celebrate. Spring 2021 saw more litter picks by our stalwart volunteers, including help from Allan Scott to clear river channel blockages on the Rye Brook with Lucy Quinnell. Our butterfly and newt surveyor Helen Middlemas encouraged visitors to report butterflies, and some great images were shared. In June 2021, as part of wider efforts to improve the area at the edges of the wood, including a roundabout by very busy superstores, the Lower Mole Partnership installed new public footpath fingerposts at the entrance as well as on the pavement at the roundabout. The Teazle Wood Trust joined the Mole Valley Community Lottery, for fundraising and awareness. We need to replenish funds after the successful purchase of the £40,000 share. Oak Processionary Moth and Hymenoscyphus fraxineus did not seem as problematical in summer 2021 as they had been the year before, but we are monitoring the situation carefully. Lyme Disease cropped up for several local individuals (associated with the general area), and this is something we will be keeping a very close eye on. ## **Teazle Wood Trust** Registered Charity no. 1160532 ## Financial Statement for the year ending 5 August 2021 ## **Cash balance at start of year 06/08/2020** Lloyds TSB Treasurers Account £53,184.08 ## L&DCPS £ 2,924.96* _*A grant of £5,000 from the_ _**Leatherhead and District Countryside Protection Society** has been made to Friends of Teazle Wood, with conditions regarding expenditure (the money can only be spent on goods and services associated with the constitutional objects of the L&DCPS - ecological and archaeological surveys, tree work, signage, projects concerned with litter clearance, etc.). These funds will be held by the L&DCPS for use as required, and the balance shown here._ ## **Income** Donations £ 307.00 ## **Expenditure** Purchase of beneficial share £40,000.00 ## **Cash balance at 05/08/2021** Lloyds TSB Treasurers Account £13,491.08 ## L&DCPS £ 2,924.96* _*A grant of £5,000 from the_ _**Leatherhead and District Countryside Protection Society** has been made to Friends of Teazle Wood, with conditions regarding expenditure (the money can only be spent on goods and services associated with the constitutional objects of the L&DCPS - ecological and archaeological surveys, tree work, signage, projects concerned with litter clearance, etc.). These funds will be held by the L&DCPS for use as required. Nothing was spent in the financial year 20202021._ Signed by the Treasurer John Adam Boydell: _John Adam Boydell_ Signed by the Chair of the Trustees Lucy Elizabeth Quinnell: _Lucy Quinnell_