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The Small
Woods Association (SWA) is a registered charity whose
aim is to encourage the care and enjoyment of small
woodlands.
The organisation
was originally founded in 1988 and has a broadly
based membership of woodland owners (including
individual owners of small woods, wildlife trusts,
local authorities, larger estates, woodland initiatives
and community woodland groups), practitioners
such as charcoal, coppice and greenwood workers,
and those with a general interest in woodlands. |
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How is
a small wood defined? Not any more by size but
by the attitude of mind and approach in which it
is managed.
SWA members
are generally interested in managing woodlands
for multiple objectives including wildlife, recreation,
coppice crafts and greenwood, quiet enjoyment as
well as timber production where practical. Our
owner members have a range from a few trees in
the back garden to organisations with many hectares.
In order
to achieve our aim, the SWA has established the
following objectives:
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To
bring together everyone with an interest in
small woods by, for example, organising courses
and conferences that enable networking and
the sharing of best practice in woodland management
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To
inform and motivate those who own or manage
small woods and to encourage greater public
understanding and awareness of the many benefits
that woodlands provide. Our quarterly magazine, Smallwoods,
is full of articles on latest developments,
techniques and policies regarding small woodlands.
Our Information Line answers all those enquiries
regarding small woods and our courses brochure
lists hundreds of available courses throughout
the UK from SWA and other partner organisations.
Our website at www.smallwoods.org.uk is
full of freely accessible information and downloadable
publications
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To
manage a Local Woods/Coed Lleol campaign whose
aim is 'to restore the links between people
and woodlands'
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To
continue to have a strong input to UK and regional
policy in order to ensure that issues regarding
small woodlands are properly researched, documented
and translated into policy and action
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To
help preserve knowledge of our small woodland
heritage
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To
act as an umbrella for woodland initiatives
- see
our website for more details
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To
work with a broad range of partner organisations
to achieve our aims
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The
Small Woods association has a wholly owned subsidiary, Heartwoods
Limited, a company limited by guarantee, based within
the West Midlands, whose aim is 'To promote the sustainable
management and production of West Midlands woodland resources
and to develop their use in manufacturing and other industries
in the region'.
SWA also manages Coed
Lleol, an exciting new project 'restoring
the links between people and woodlands across Wales',
with its own newsletter 'Coed a Dail' and a series
of events, as well as a planned Welsh festival of
Woodlands.
SWA also manages Herefordshire
Sustain Project, a project whose aim is 'to
woodlands, people ands business at the heart of a
working sustainability partnership project that could
become a replicable model for sustainability in the
UK'
SWA is also working very
closely with the Green Wood Centre (www.greenwoodcentre.org.uk)
in developing new support mechanisms for the coppice
and greenwood sectors, and encouraging more projects
'on the ground' in social forestry, community capacity
building, social inclusion and community forestry.
For more information
contact:
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Coed Lleol is
hosted by the Small Woods Association in partnership with the
Forestry Commission Wales and the Countryside Council for
Wales |
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