Earthworks is our community project based in the woods at Treacle Valley. We are rejuvenating this old ash plantation, removing invasive plants and improving biodiversity, and giving people opportunities to learn new outdoor skills. We run a free monthly community session where anyone can come up to the woods and enjoy some outdoor activities in the fresh air, whether that’s helping with some active woodland management, building birdboxes, surveying or just enjoying some stories around the campfire.
Each month we organise different activities for all ages – please see our social media for upcoming dates and details of what you can expect when you come. Sessions normally take place on Saturday mornings between 9.30am and midday and they are open and free for anyone to enjoy.
There are opportunities for people attending Earthworks to gain formal qualifications with us as well as informally learning new skills. We offer our L3 course ‘Leading a Project for Positive Change‘ at Earthworks.
The initial 12 month run of Earthworks sessions was funded by the Devon Community Foundation and Localgiving’s ‘Magic Little Grants’ and we are grateful for their kind support. The programme was such a success that we have decided to keep the project running and we are now funding the sessions ourselves. We are also grateful to our friends at Treacle Valley for allowing us to use their woodland for our activities.
When the humans are away the animals can relax! Here are some pictures and videos from our wildlife cameras from the summer break.
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Earthworks last Saturday saw us focusing on the insect world, namely butterflies. Butterfly numbers are in decline and year on year there numbers seem to drop. Butterfly Conservation hold a Big Butterfly Count every July to get a wider picture of butterfly numbers. It is very easy to follow and you can count from your […]
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Last Saturday saw our May Earthworks and this time we were looking at plant life in the woods. Why look at plant life? Well, we need to create base line surveys of the species that we have in the woodlands so that we can monitor what happens over time. What changes, what plants die back, […]
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Planting Trees is something that you do for your great great grandchildren. It won’t be within your lifetime you see that tree reach maturity. In the right conditions and given time that tree could become colossal and why wouldn’t you gift that to future generations? Our woodland at Treacle Valley has a lot of ash trees and sadly these trees need to be felled. We had a handful of them taken […]
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These are some of the activities we have participated in as part of our John Muir Award this year. Our sessions have had a profound impact on the woodland, encouraging wildlife and allowing more young people to safely access the wood.
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