The London Urban Forest Community Volunteers
The Urban Forest Community Volunteers was established to support community groups to take action on woodland management and tree planting across London.
The project is part of the London Urban Forest Partnership, a network of organisations that collaborate to protect, manage and enhance the capital's trees and woodlands. The partnership meets quarterly to share information and data, help inform tree related programmes in London and promote the benefits of the city's urban forest.
These resources have been produced by TCV as part of the London Urban Forest Partnership and were funded by the Trees Call to Action Fund, the fund was developed by Defra in partnership with the Forestry Commission and is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Having delivered training, mentoring and co-leading practical work with volunteers across the capital, the Urban Forest Community Volunteers project is now culminating to share the findings and good practice. Together with London Wildlife Trust we've produced 'The London Woodland Condition Self-Assessment'
To support community groups to understand the environmental condition of the woods in which they work. To support volunteers with practical guidance on managing woodland, TCV have produced 'The London Woodland Management Volunteer's Toolkit".
The London Woodland Condition Self-Assessment
This tool has been designed and tested with volunteer groups in London that are involved with the management of their local woodlands. The group would use a simple form to self-assess a woodland condition.
Volunteer groups would use this tool to self-assess a woodland space and get an idea of indication of the improvements that can be made. Any size of woodland in London is relevant for this project if there are volunteer groups who would like to get involved. Everyone needs to understand that this is a self-assessment; there is no interest in evaluating the performance of the friend group or competing between woodlands.
The Woodland Volunteer Toolkit
The Woodland Volunteer Toolkit is designed to offer practical advice, guidance and solutions to the Woodland Condition Self-Assessment. The toolkit provides links to a variety of publicly available resources and useful links to TCV’s Handbooks and free resources for members of TCV's community network. Additionally, the toolkit provides a Management Plan Template where you can list your planned woodland management tasks.
TCV offer further support to woodland management volunteer groups through TCV's Community Network and the TCV Conservation Handbooks.
