SWOG meeting

Saturday was a great success, thanks to Tracy's hard work, our speakers and the enthusiastic bunch of people who turned up.

We had about 70 people there in total:
Our speakers were:

Ian White, who spoke on the project to monitor and reintroduce dormice in the UK. You can read more about it on his website: http://www.greenboot.co.uk/
Ian is also secretary of the Sussex & Surrey Coppice Group.

Steve Wheatley, who spoke on butterfly conservation. There's more information on various websites:
http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/

http://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/
http://www.kentbutterflies.org/
The Rother Woods Project

Me, talking about chainsaw and tree felling safety - basically telling people to get training and protective clothing! Some of the info is in an old post on our blog, and I used the videos of felling that have been on the blog already.

Tracy, who apart from running the day also spoke on first aid, recommending the course run by WoodNet.

Ian Johnstone, who told us about the Kent High Weald Project, getting communities more involved with the countryside. More info here: http://www.khwp.org.uk/

We also had several group discussions, giving woodland owners a chance to share ideas, information and experience.

Later in the week there will be a detailed write-up of the event on the SWOG website, which at present is kindly hosted by woodlands.co.uk. Visit it here: http://www.woodlands.co.uk/swog/

Mike