Otley woods 'saved' for community after transfer to Menston Area Nature Trust

More than 1,500 people and organisations, including Otley Town Council, have supported the project by donating over £160,000 - including a “hugely generous” £29,000 from partners of HG Capital.

In December, what locals call Weston Woods was officially transferred into community ownership. Menston Area Nature Trust (MANT) stood in topurchase the woodland on behalf of the community and put forward the winning bid, working with Friends of Otley East Wood, a collaboration of local environmental and community groups including Otley 2030, Wildlife Friendly Otley, Wharfedale Naturalists, Addingham Environment Group, Climate Action Ilkley, Climate Action Menston, Protect Earth and Woodland Savers.

Claire Blindell, a local who uses the woods and communications and engagement lead for Otley 2030 environmental campaign, said: “Otley is quite a small town. You're talking about a significant proportion of the local population putting some money towards and it wasn't all great big donations, it was people giving what they could. But the messages of support were just amazing. It was people whose children play there now, people who played there when they were children, people who go there for nature, people who go there for walking, to walk out on to the Dales Way, people who go there to birdwatch. It was fantastic. It was very heartwarming and the community really did come together in the truest sense.”

The woodland is near the Weston Estate, providing a much needed green space for families, featuring oak, birch, beech, elder and sycamore trees.

“It's extremely popular in the spring because it has an amazing carpet of wild garlic and bluebells in April and May time,” says Claire.

Wildlife seen at the woodland includes Red Kites, Goldcrests, treecreepers, warblers, woodpeckers and Tawny Owls.

The community transfer is also good news for the Otley 2030 group, which is aiming to make the town a carbon-zero and sustainable in that decade but in a “just and democratic way, involving all areas of our local community.”

Claire, who is also a community engagement officer for Yorkshire Rewilding Network, says they want to “tackle a disconnect with nature”.

“It's really important that there's a kind of link between climate action, social action and nature recovery. We don't really see those as separate crises or separate challenges. You want to bring them all together. The community woodland with local people involved, decision making and local schools being involved – we're looking after people and nature and that was a really important thing for us. We don't have nature recovery without reconnecting people.”

She adds: "We've had people in their 80s talking about how important the woodland was to them when they played there as children and now their grandchildren play there. It's very connected to the local community and I think that was reflected in how well we did in that campaign. We only had two weeks to raise the money. It was a closed bid and we didn’t think we had that much chance, really, but the community came together so quickly and so amazingly.”

The first events to taking place since the acquisition include Forest School activities, provided by the Get Out More community interest company, while bird boxes were put up by members of Wharfedale Men’s Shed.

Claire says they have to concentrate on paying back the rest of the loan, about £20,000, but once that is out the way they will start to manage the woodland by making trees and footpaths safe and carrying out ecological surveys.

"There are ways that people can still help us even if they can't help financially,” she says.

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