spring has sprung- for now!

Spring is here at last- leaves are starting to appear on the hedgerow trees, birds are starting to sing and lambs are playing in the fields... Sights and sounds like this make it even better to walk on our new waymarked walking trails which have been completed over the winter.

Trails leaflets are to be available from a range of outlets locally- including B&Bs, visitor centres and camp sites- and on our website of course!

Scrub bashing for biodiversity

Crown Estate staff and volunteers have been busy controlling scrub on our heathland at Hopcott recently. We had a successful day on friday the 4th march where 60 people, including pupils from Minehead Middle School and members of the local community joined us on a joint Exmoor NPA, Butterfly Conservation, National Trust and The Crown Estate scrub bash event.

The good work was continued on sunday the 13th march, when we were up there again, this time with Avon Outdoor Group, for an Exmoor National Park help a ranger day.

Both days were enjoyed by all those that joined us- possibly due to the presence of jacket potatoes and marshmallows!.... For details of volunteering see our website, under 'what to do'.

what a start to 2011!

Sorry it's been a while since our last post- it's busy start to the year! so far we have planted 500 native oak trees in Dunster Forest with 70 members of the local community, established a committee of local people to manage the community orchard and arrange events, built owl boxes with volunteers, the forestry commission and hawk and owl trust, installed a brand new network of waymarked walking trails in the forest, and hosted the first of a number of bushcraft courses that will run over the spring and summer.

There is plenty more in the pipeline as we get ready for what we hope to be a busy visitor season, so watch this space!

Dunster now has a community orchard!

Around 40 local residents joined Dunster estate staff and parish council members on a cold Thursday 25 November to create a new community orchard as part of The Crown Estate’s UK-wide commitment to plant 3,000 new trees for National Tree Week (November 27 to December 5, 2010).

At Dunster, the estate and community decided to create a traditional orchard. In less than a hour, volunteers including children from Dunster First School, the scouts, members of the parish council, Dunster estate volunteers, representatives from other local community orchards, National Trust, Exmoor National Park, Orchards Live, and members of the general public successfully planted 57 plum and apple trees.

The Crown Estate is very grateful to everyone who turned out and worked so hard to get the job done. This orchard, which is to be maintained by the community, will be a genuine educational asset and I hope that the volunteers today will return in the future bringing others to enjoy “Apple Days” and similar events.

More Recreational Facilities for Dunster Estate Under Discussion

As part of ongoing consultation and discussion, ideas to expand further the recreational facilities on The Crown Estate’s Dunster estate, including a possible designation of the Dunster Forest as a Forest Park, were given an enthusiastic welcome recently by local businesses at Dunster Chamber of Trade.

The Dunster chamber of trade has itself achieved great success in getting Dunster designated as a "walkers are welcome" town, which will highlight to visitors that Dunster and the surrounding land (largely owned by The Crown Estate), is ideally set up for walkers.

The Crown Estate is very keen to work with the local community and other partners to promote economic activity and tourism in Dunster and the surrounding area. To this end we have a number of plans to add to the recreational facilities on offer in the area and to encourage greater numbers of year round visitors to enjoy the landscape, the walks and the varied attractions of the village.

As part of this process we are consulting with various agencies and community groups about the possibility of designating the Dunster Forest as a Forest Park. Further details will follow shortly, and a period of wider public consultation will be announced when these are available, so watch this space!

Lost and found...

If you have been for a walk in the Dunster Forest in the last week or so you may be concerned that we are playing a practical joke on visitors by confusing the waymarked trail signage!

What we are actually doing is gradually phasing in a brand new waymarked trail network, that will take the number of walking trails from 3 to 7. The walks have been designed as cicular routes which take in all the best bits of the Dunster Forest. They include 3 walks that start and finish on the edge of Dunster, so you can factor in a well deserved pint by the fire or cream tea into your walk!

The old walking trail network will still remain in place for the duration of the installation process, but once all the signage is in place the old trails will cease to exist. Details of the new walking trails are available from our webiste, www.dunsterestate.co.uk.

The existing cycle trail will also be phased out in time, and we will be reviewing this to make improvements to this facility.

New leaflets will be available from the end of october.

If you go down to the woods today . . .

This weekend, to mark this year’s FSC Friday, we are encouraging forest fans and tree lovers alike to celebrate good forestry management by visiting Dunster Forest.

FSC Friday (24 September 2010) is a day set aside to raise awareness of the accreditation scheme run by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Endorsed by organisations such as WWF and Greenpeace, the accreditation is awarded to woodlands across the UK managed with good environmental and social practices. By buying wood or paper products with the FSC logo you can encourage foresters across the UK to work for and maintain high standards in sustainable woodland management.

Each of The Crown Estate woodlands are FSC approved. Some produce softwood and hardwood timber for commercial purposes, including those at Glenlivet, Windsor, Applegirth and, of course, Dunster. All that timber has the FSC logo.

I’d encourage anyone with an interest in the outdoors to take a trip to our woods this weekend to see the standards of the FSC scheme being delivered in practice. Discover for yourself the wealth of wildlife and walks, including the wheelchair and buggy friendly Tall Trees Trail, the first of our new waymarked trails. By the end of 2010 Dunster Forest will have expanded the network to seven walking trails, making it easier than ever to “go down to the woods today”.

You now can find maps of the existing and new walking trails on our website. Look forward to seeing you there.