Thank You to All Our Volunteers!

Bellwood Management Committee would like to say a big THANK YOU to volunteers for helping with our community tree-planting days at Bellwood in March. 

We really appreciate the commitment and enthusiasm, and it was fantastic to see local residents of all ages taking care of our community woodland. In total, 6,300 trees, mostly Scots pine, were planted across three hectares, creating woodlands of the future for people and wildlife.

Check out our poster to learn more!

We are already planning future activities, including community events, regular volunteer maintenance days and more tree planting! Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for volunteers to get involved in a way that works for them, including reporting issues in the woods, litter-picking, path building and maintenance, red squirrel surveys, bumblebee-counting...and much more!

If you are not already on our volunteer mailing list but would like to get involved, keep up to date with news, projects and events in the woods, let us know!

Contact us on:

mdctwoodlands@gmail.com

or call 013398 85222 Mon -Fri between 9am and 1pm.

New Vehicle Access Gate Installed

Community Meeting Invite: Have Your Say on Bellwood's Future!

Come along to our presentation and discussion of the revised Forest Plan.

Meeting details can be found here.

Tree Planting Work Parties March 2025

Make a difference this winter by helping to plant native Scottish trees in the beautiful Bellwood, located in Aboyne. This event is a great opportunity to come together, meet new people and make a positive impact in our local environment and community.

We are running multiple tree planting sessions between 15th March and 23rd March. Check out our poster for details. For more information and to book your place visit:

https://bellwoodtreeplanting.eventbrite.com

Or phone MDCT office on 013398 85222 (Mon - Fri 9am-1pm)

Bellwood Forest Plan: Community Meeting

RTS and MDCT are hosting a community meeting to discuss the Bellwood Scoping Plan. See poster for details.

Monday 25th November, 7.30pm, Aboyne Community Shed.

All are welcome.

Bellwood and Ladywood Long Term Forest Plan Renewal – Public Consultation

On behalf of Mid-Deeside Community Trust, RTS Forestry, are in the process of renewing the Long-Term Forest Plan for Bell Wood and Lady Wood, Aboyne. This will be an updated 20-year plan detailing the silvicultural management proposal for the first 10 years and an outline of the following 10. Prior to preparing the plan we would like to invite you to address any queries you may have as the local community. Through this consultation we hope all the important factors affecting the management of the woods can be brought to our attention and can be incorporated in the plans where relevant.

Details of the initial proposals for the plan are shown below in the Scoping Maps. A guide to the scoping map is also below with definitions of the terminology used. We would be grateful if you could give these documents your attention and respond to victoria.potts@rtsforestry.co.uk with your comments preferably within 28 days of this post.

The below information will be posted to residents directly neighbouring the woodlands and information boards will also be installed at woodland entrances.

Thank you for your co-operation, I look forward to hearing from you.

Click to view the Guide to Scoping document, the Bellwood Scoping Map and Lady Wood Scoping Map.

For further information on the process of writing a Long-Term Forest Plan please refer to the below links:

https://www.forestry.gov.scot/.../132-long-term-forest...

https://www.gov.uk/.../publications/the-uk-forestry-standard

Completion of the new Bell Wood Car Park

We are delighted to inform you that the construction of our new and improved car parking facility in the Bell Wood, Aboyne has now been completed and has been opened to the public.

This has been made possible by the support and funding from:

The MacRobert Trust
Marr Area Committee
Aboyne Residents

MDCT wishes to express its gratitude to all involved in making this project possible.

Badger Setts

There are a number of active badger setts in the Bell Wood. We have been informed that some of the badger setts have recently been intentionally damaged and/or blocked. It should be noted that both badgers and their setts are protected under the Protection of Badgers Act.

See www.nature.scot for more information.

Offences under the Act include (amongst others):

Interfering with a badger sett:

 damaging or destroying a sett or any part of it
 obstructing access to a sett
 disturbing a badger while it is in a sett
 causing or allowing a dog to enter a badger sett

If you see anything of concern or have any information, please contact the Mid Deeside Community Trust Office on 013398 85222.

Aboyne Academy Wood Work

17 way markers and signs as well as some benches have been made by students of the Aboyne Academy and are ready for collection.  Installation is to be arranged with a call for volunteers who can help to install. The School have plenty of ideas and enthusiasm for the nature project and we look forward to arranging a visit to the Academy to firm up the plans.  
 

 Last updated 29th May 2019