Dacres Wood is a fantastic spot that could really benefit from a Friends group to help fulfil its potential. We are therefore seeking local people to help us explore ways in which we can encourage greater access and use, whilst ensuring wildlife is protected. With this in mind, we would like to invite you to an Open Day at the site so you can find out more about this protected green space in your neighbourhood. There will be an opportunity to walk around the site and find out about its history and ecology. Afterwards you are invited to join us in a discussion about what potentially could be achieved here with your support.
So please come along on Saturday 8th September 2012 between 2-3pm for a wander around the site and 3-4pm for the discussion meeting. Refreshments will be available.
Please contact Jess Kyle if you have any questions.
Source here
The site in the Winter
Just a reminder that this event takes place tomorrow (Saturday).
If you are interested in improving green spaces this is a great opportunity to make a little difference.
Dacres Wood is only small but it contains the only large pond in SE23 and is on the site of the Croydon Canal. There is even a theory that Shackleton sailed on this very pond as one of his early adventures.
It would be great to see this site improve with the help of local people, just like in Devonshire Road on the other side of SE23.
If you like woods, there is another event that you might like to attend: The Sydenham Hill Woods open day on Sunday.
http://www.foresthillsociety.com/2012/09...enham.html
There is now a Friends of Dacres Wood group consisting of eager people from the immediate vicinity and wider area who are keen to work on improving the nature reserve and restoring a proper pond.
It is going to take some work to improve this place but with the enthusiasm of those present, and some more volunteers, and some funding, there is a good chance to make a difference to this special site.
The main reasons Dacres Wood and Garthorne Road Nature reserves are not open to the public is that they are nature reserves rather than human habitats. Both sites back onto the railway line and Dacres Wood contains a pond. These aspects of the sites mean that they are potentially dangerous. Furthermore when Dacres Wood was open, it was used as a dump by some people and this can be a disaster for any natural habitat.
Dacres Wood is now open at least once a month but relies on volunteers to manage access. Devonshire Road is open at least twice a month in the summer but is a larger site and has more volunteers. Garthorne Road Nature Reserve is rarely open to the public and as far as I'm aware has no volunteers to do anything.
If you do want to visit a nature reserve, any time of year, there is the Horniman Nature Reserve at the bottom of the park, with a pond at the end which is carefully fenced off. Even better is Sydenham Woods which is a massive area of woodland for Inner London and great at this time of year if you like mud!
Is this a better place for our posts, Michael?
Furthermore when Dacres Wood was open, it was used as a dump by some people and this can be a disaster for any natural habitat.
Funnily enough when the public had access to the site, there were watchful eyes. I cannot remember any dumping. Shortly after the site was closed, we had the lovely incident of the tins of paint being poured in the pond.
Those up to no good like that pest Shackleton, will always find a way into a site like this. The wrong people are being excluded.
Sydenham woods is open to the public 24/7. I do not read of it being a used as a dumping site or a getaway route for burglars. Its pond and the one on the Horniman reserve are not considered dangerous to the public.
they are nature reserves rather than human habitats
A few humans visiting these sites will not do much harm. The humans that the 2 reserves this side of the tracks will be destroyed by, are the ones driving the bulldozers.
If very few local people have actually visited the sites, especially as children, then I'd say it is only a matter of time before local indifference and the pressure for housing means the land is sold.
Maybe that is the idea.
Yes. Agreed. I used to take my youngest (now 9) to Dacres Wood for a potter as a toddler. She loved it, and I just needed to use a simple code to open the padlock.
When I went once, found the code had changed, and I wasn't allowed to know what to, I stopped going, and haven't been back since.