This evening we held our Annual General Meeting.
All except one of our current committee members attended. In addition, David Preston, ranger with Leeds City Council, and three “Friends” attended.
1. Three Friends sent apologies.
2. The minutes of the last AGM on 26th May 2022 were approved subject to minor amendments.
3. The Chair gave a report on activities since the last Annual General Meeting. This is printed in full below.
4. The Treasurer gave a report on the accounts for the last year. In fact, there had been only one item of expenditure in the last year.
5. Rob Hall was elected auditor for the coming year.
6. The following officers were elected unopposed:
- Roger Gilbert: chair
- Judith White: treasurer
- Stephanie Clark: secretary
The existing members of the committee who were present all confirmed that they are willing to continue as members. In addition, another Friend had a rush of blood to the head and agreed to join the committee. The committee members are therefore: R Gilbert; J White; S Clark; R Hall; D Hampshire; S Chambers; S Joul; T Wragg; D Smith.
7. A vote of thanks was given to David Preston for the work he has done with the Friends of Adel Woods in the last year.
8. The meeting concluded with a wide-ranging discussion of other business including:
- opportunities to apply for grants from Love Leeds Parks for footpath work;
- the tree thinning work around Adel Crag is to continue this year;
- the program of works for the coming year;
- Steve Joul’s regular work on the one patch of Japanese knotweed over the last many years seems to have paid off as Steve could not find any remaining shoots this year;
- how to deal with the problem of dog poo on Adel Moor.
The Chair’s Report
We are very lucky to live near Adel Woods. Steve Joul did a walk around the woods on 16th April this year when he recorded: 23 bird species; 17 plants in flower; 4 species of insects; 7 species of fungi; and 20 grey squirrels. You can find the details in the blog post for 16th April.
The last year has been our first complete year of activities uninterrupted by Covid 19 since 2018-19. It was a bumper year.
We have two types of activities: work parties, and educational walks and talks.
WORK PARTIES
We had 18 work parties when we carried out the following work (NB the total number of activities adds up to more than 18 because each work party involves both litterpicking and some other work such as path clearing):
- 13 mornings of litterpicking;
- 4 mornings working on Adel Moor – removing bracken, brambles and saplings;
- 2 mornings on Adel Pond and ditches (and Judith cleaning the Slabbering Baby);
- 3 mornings on Adel Bog;
- 6 mornings of path clearing;
- A day and a half of surveying and cleaning nest boxes
- 1 morning of working on the hospice woodland (plus a morning in October when Judith cleaned the monument at the entrance on Stairfoot Lane).
Of the eighteen work parties most were led by our chair, but three were led by David Preston; the nest box cleaning and surveying was led by Steve Joul; three of the mornings on Adel Moor were led by Barbara Wakefield; two litterpicking and path clearing events were led by Judith; and one by Rob. It is good that we have a range of people who are able and willing to lead a morning in the woods.
The mornings led by Barbara were a new venture – on a Wednesday morning and focussing on one task which did not need tools, pulling up bracken on the moor. These were very successful, attracting some new volunteers and achieving a great deal. We are going to repeat this in July this year.
EDUCATIONAL EVENTS
We had two educational events in the last year.
The first was a fungal foray with Steve Joul on the 12th November.. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had something like 45-50 attendees.
The second was our our annual birdsong walk on Sunday 14th May, again led by Steve Joul. We had about a dozen attendees. It was a very successful morning: we saw or heard 19 species of bird, and we saw woodpeckers entering and leaving a hole in a tree; a pair of jays on their nest; a woodpigeon sitting on its nest; tits using a Friends of Adel Woods nest box; and treecreepers entering a nesting hole in a tree near the entrance to Old Leo’s car park.
If you would like to know more about our activities, please have a look at our blog entries. They are written by someone I know well and love and respect, and they have some really good pictures!
There are a couple of other things worth noting during the year.
Firstly, in August last year, Steve single handedly scythed and raked the orchid meadow and made a brilliant job of it.
Secondly, in February of this year, David Preston and the Meanwood Valley Volunteer Rangers thinned trees, scrub and holly in front of Adel Crag and they have really improved the crag as a feature of the woods.
Finally, at this time of year it is worth popping into Adel Woods to have a look at a beautiful, fragrant yellow azalea near the Stairfoot Lane carpark. If you go down the steps towards the stream, turn left onto the path after about the fifth step down, the azalea is about 25 yards along. It blooms in May and it has beautiful yellow flowers and a wonderful fragrance.
On the same theme, in the next month, a large lime tree in the Stairfoot Lane car park will be coming into blossom in June, exuding a beautiful fragrance across the area. Make a note to enjoy it!
THANK YOUS
So as usual, I would like to thank our brilliant committee for all the work they have done: likewise all our wonderful volunteers. FOAW would not exist without the committee and volunteers. And I am looking forward to another year of fun, laughter and friendship with you all.
Thank you to Steve Joul for leading two wonderful educational walks over the last year – and for letting use his ladder for the nest box survey.
Thank you to David Preston for leading the events over the last year and we are looking forward to working with you again this coming year.
Finally, thank you to Old Leo’s for allowing us to use their carpark over the last year.
Friends of Adel Woods 