ArbourFest

Tortworth ArborFest

1st May 2016

10.30am – 4.00pm

Entry is a suggested donation of £4-£10

Tortworth Arboretum is holding an open day and we want you to join us!

Come and visit the arboretum at Tortworth, and meet the people who are volunteering their time to restore the woodland.

Activities include:

Forest School

Forest School with Go Wild Education. Join our resident Forest School leader Jackie for some woodland fun for all ages.

Tree Walk

We will take a stroll through the woodland to see some of the notable trees, and hear from one of our volunteers about the plans we have to restore the woodland and look after the trees. May is a fantastic time of year to learn tree ID with the leaves out and many of the trees flowering – including, if we are lucky, the paper handkerchief tree. The walk should take around 40 minutes and you will need sturdy shoes as the woodland is still very overgrown.

Sustainable Bee Keeping

Heather and Tim from Bee the Change would love you to come and help them carve a log hive for the new woodland Bee Garden. A fallen down tree will be revived into a traditional log hive for honeybees, using tools all the way from Poland. Come and help sculpt this natural beehive, and learn how we can help the our bees.

We are keeping bees naturally in the woodland to help with pollination of all our tree species, as well as to offer nature connection through sustainable bee keeping.

Bat Walk with Avon Bat Group

Join the Avon Bat Group on a walk around the woodland to check their bat boxes and have a go at bat detecting. Find out what their plans are to monitor the bats in the arboretum and how to manage trees for habitat.

Tree Climbing with Tree Climber

All day long our partners Tree Climber will be offering recreational tree climbing using ropes and harnesses to access some of the biggest oak trees at the arboretum. An activity for children and adults to see the arboretum from the tree tops!

Meet the goats

Come and meet our goats, who have a big job ahead of them – eating through the knotweed and the bramble! They are very friendly and looking forward to meeting you.

Campfire Cooking

Women from our Wild Women project will be on hand to cook up a warming stew and serve you hot drinks in return for donations.

Interested in buying your own woodland?

Our friends from www.woodlands.co.uk will be in the arboretum to answer any questions you have about buying your own piece of woodland.

Please note that the arboretum remains a restoration project and so there are trip hazards, form bamboo roots to rhododendron stems, and possible falling branches. When walking through the woodland please take care.

All activities are free although donations are very welcome.