4 August 2006
Coed y Bobol wins the cup!
Devils Bridge community woodland group judged ‘tree-time’ winner by Royal Welsh Agricultural Society!
The Coed y Bobol Trust, the Devils Bridge-based community group, has been judged not once, nor twice but ‘tree-time’ winner in the Royal Welsh Show’s Woodlands Competition. The group has scooped the prize for the Best Community Woodland in the regional heats between the old counties of Brecon, Cardiganshire and Radnorshire, known as the Meirion Davies Memorial Perpetual Challenge Cup. In addition the judges awarded the group a Silver Medal for Multi-Benefit Woodland (Class Ten) ‘for the provision of public access, environmental and social benefits’. Finally, a Gold Medal (Class 14) was awarded ‘for the creation and management of a local woodland for the benefit and interest of the community’.
The prizes were presented at the Royal Welsh Show last week. The woodland and its community of volunteers now go forward to represent their region, in the national finals in 2009.
The Coed y Bobol Trust is a community group that has successfully taken on the management of Coed y Bobol1, a Woodland Trust (Coed Cadw) wood on the southern edge of Devil’s Bridge. It is the first voluntary, community group in Wales to do this.
The group has been operating for seven years, and worked closely with the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, to help the Trust acquire the site in 2000. This was as part of the successful Woods on your Doorstep project, to create 250 new community woods across Wales, England and Northern Ireland to celebrate the millennium. Supported by the Millennium Commission with an award of £10.5 million, ‘Woods on your Doorstep’ was one of the country’s biggest ever tree planting challenges. The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts and the Forestry Commission also supported the project.
The Coed y Bobol Trust received the Woodland Trust’s Volunteer of the Year Award in 2002, and earlier this year the group successfully took on the management and maintenance of the wood, working closely with the Woodland Trust.
Steve Wigfall, a member of the group, explains: “In the short space of seven years, through hard work and determination, the volunteers have transformed the former conifer clear-fell site, into an increasingly diverse community nature reserve. In the past two years some 12 species of dragon and damselflies have been recorded at the site, while more than 50 species of birds have been seen there in the past year. Many species of small mammals are also present, and they attract an increasingly diverse range of birds of prey. The wood is an ideal location for watching red kites. Earlier this year a pair was seen to embrace, and fall from the air together and mate, a truly unique experience to witness.”
Coed y Bobol is on the western side of the B4242 just south of the centre of Devil’s Bridge1. Like almost all Woodland Trust woods, it is open for everyone to visit at anytime, and for free. The wood has its own website containing all kinds of information and an interactive map at: www.wt-woods.org.uk/coedybobol
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For media enquiries contact:
Rory Francis (Publicity and Public Affairs Officer for Wales) on 07760 171174
Afallon, Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd LL41 3RH
Email roryfrancis@woodland-trust.org.uk
neu Steve Wigfall ar 01970 890371
or The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, e-mail media@woodland-trust.org.uk
Notes to editors
1. Coed y Bobol is at grid reference SN 736 762. A digital, zoomable map of the location can be downloaded from multimap here
2. A photograph of Loretta Wigfall receiving one of the prizes from Ian Forshaw, the Director of the Forestry Commission Wales, is attached.
Coed Cadw (The Woodland Trust)
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 250,000 members and supporters. The Trust has four key aims: i) No further loss of ancient woodland; ii) Restoring and improving the biodiversity of woods; iii) Increasing new native woodland; iv) Increasing people’s awareness and enjoyment of woodland.
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). These include over 100 sites in Wales, with a total area of 1,580 hectares (3,900 acres). It offers free public access to nearly all of its sites. Further news can be accessed via www.coed-cadw.org.uk The Trust adopted a new Welsh language name in 2000: “Coed Cadw”. This is an old Welsh term, used in medieval laws to describe protected or preserved woodland.
