On a wet and windy November evening a beautifully decorated village hall welcomed everyone with atmospheric fairy lighting, cafe style seating, little tables scattered with scarlet Liquidambar leaves, conkers, pine cones and aromas of essential oils from Pine and Cedar. There were wall displays of multi coloured leaf prints and 'tree' poems, complimentary mulled wine/apple juice, delicious savouries and cakes. 

There was a most enjoyable selection of tree-themed folk songs performed by our talented and versatile musicians Jaki Alden & Pete Wilks who sang and played a variety of instruments including cello, banjo and flute.

Jaki Alden and Peter Wilks. Photo: Carol Sharp

 There were displays of Ogham (The Celtic Tree Alphabet), exquisite wood crafts to admire and some items to buy, as well as books to browse and native tree saplings to take home. A revisit to the 100 Trees for Forncett project from three years ago pictured a selection of people from the village with the trees they pledged to plant.

Helen Baczkowska talks about the importance of trees. Photo: Carol Sharp

 The main event of the evening was a brilliant and enlightening talk from Helen Baczkowska from Norfolk Wildlife Trust.  Helen’s talk informed us about the value of trees in ecosystems and the connectedness of trees, including very ancient trees and even stumps. She told us about the Fortingall Yew in Scotland, one of the oldest living beings in Europe, its age estimated as between 5,000-9000 years old, and how it has split into several stems as it dies back in the centre, reconfigured, but is still perfectly healthy. Like many Yews it is sited in a churchyard. However, these were sacred trees to people long before Christianity.

Part of the wood wide web. Photo: Carol Sharp

The Wood Wide Web

The fairy-tale forest has long been conjured as a magical place, and now we are finding that films like Avatar, where a Mother tree nurtures the whole forest, is not so fantastical. There is a network of tree communication underground, through their root systems, affectionately called the ‘wood wide web’. Very fine fungal strands called mycorrhiza connect the roots from one tree to another and the largest networks can extend out for several miles.

Rather than continually compete, trees pass nutrients and warning signals to each other - they actually support one another. Just like us they assist their own families first and foremost. Older trees send water to their own saplings in preference to other trees. Mother trees nurture their young.

But these fungal threads also link trees of different species. Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard’s now famous rigorous scientific experiments found that Douglas Fir trees were using the fungal web to trade nutrients with paper-bark birch trees. The evergreen species will tide over the deciduous one when it has sugars to spare, and then call in the debt later in the season. For the forest community, the value of this co-operative underground economy appears to be better over-all health, more total photosynthesis, and greater resilience in the face of disturbance.

The tree and the mycorrhizal fungi are a symbiotic system, working together to exchange nutrients. The fungi need carbon rich sugar from the tree and the tree needs the nutrients which the fungi has enzymes to reach,but the tree’s roots can’t.

The fungi link the trees together into a huge resource sharing community; trees, understory plants, fungi and microbes in a forest are so thoroughly connected, communicative and co-dependent that some scientists have described them as superorganisms. Simard says the forest behaves “as though it's a single organism.”

References

Suzanne Simard : Ted Talk

 February 2024

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Written by: Christina Wakeford and Carol Sharp

Published: 22 October 2023

We are very pleased to report the success of our first event exclusively for children. The morning’s activities were enjoyed by around thirty youngsters, accompanied by their carers.  The workshop was organised around the contribution of sculptor and wildlife enthusiast, Andy Jarrett. He brought a variety of live minibeasts such as garden snails and small aquatic creatures to observe, talk about and draw. Andy had a great rapport with the children who were completely absorbed.

Andy Jarrett has everyones attention. Photo: Carol Sharp

Some of our own FNM steering group (a handy mix of ex-teachers, artists and art therapists) provided a wonderful range of creative activities, from simple colouring and bee puppets on a stick to printing minibeasts with paint and potatoes. There was a great setup of ‘drawing’ a bee or butterfly on a polystyrene tile and using an inked roller and an old manual press to create a beautiful print. 

Magic of the mini-pond.  Photo: Carol Sharp

There was also the opportunity to make a dragonfly from a wonderful collection of natural materials. The finished models were given pride of place in the vegetation around the small raised tray pond that had been specially devised. An easy idea to recreate at home to encourage little ones to spot the wildlife that will arrive.

Mid-morning refreshments were kindly organised by a team of four of our supporters and families, and we are very grateful for their help and for all contributions of salad snacks, sandwiches and cakes.

Simple printing techniques produce great results.  Photo: Christina Wakeford

It was so rewarding to see the children’s engagement and enjoyment - some of them kept busy for over three hours. One mother of a six year old said her daughter was in insect heaven. It’s so important to help to enthuse young people about looking after the minibeasts that are so important for the biodiversity of the whole food chain.

The parents and grandparents present were appreciative of the event too, and we had some great emails afterwards to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. saying their children had been very inspired, and afterwards at least one child had gone straight out in to his garden to search for minibeasts and create a home for the dragonfly he had made. Another budding naturalist.

Join us for our nature loving children’s event. 'The Art of Mini-beasts' is a celebration of insects through creativity, led by artist Andy Jarrett.

Suitable for children of all ages. No need to book. Drop in and out any time between those hours. It’s free of charge and refreshments for children and carers will be provided. (Donations are always acceptable but not obligatory).

Outdoor creative activities will be provided by experienced leaders, but carers are responsible for their children’s well-being and safety. Providing an old shirt is a good idea to cover up children’s clothes for painting etc. If it’s hot please also bring sunscreen and a sun hat. We have a gazebo for shelter but if it’s very wet and windy or chilly we’ll be in the Village Hall.
We are still being vigilant about transmission of Covid 19 so if any member of your household has any symptoms please do not attend this event. Also, please note that no dogs are allowed on this occasion. Thank you.

Insect prints Photo: A Jarrett

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Written by: Christina Wakeford

Published: 07 July 2023

The weather was pretty much perfect as a group of 15 supporters gathered at the home of Ross & Audrey Joliffe. You’d never know this little pocket of paradise existed just a few hundred metres away while driving along the busy A140, but as you turn off towards Saxlingham Thorpe the river Tas runs parallel to Tasburgh road where this lovely couple live. They are lucky enough to have a few hundred metres of it winding along the boundary of their land.

Now one of the rarest of our native trees, the Black Poplar is an inhabitant of floodplains and wet ditches, and was once a common sight in the countryside. The huge tree he pointed out was grown from a cutting he took from some ancient pollards. They grow very fast and can become huge as they can live for 200 years.  During our visit Robert Maidstone found a rare purse gall – it’s the gall of the aphid Pemphigus borealis, found on Black poplar and poplar hybrids.

On the banks of the river Ross has strimmed the nettles, you can see on the other bank what it would be like, where even the sheep won’t approach the river. Another area where he found a pan shaped reedbed, he thought there was probably previously a pond. So he scythes it to stop saplings, creating a different habitat. We were surprised to see a native Daphne here and wild currants too.

 The river curves into a horseshoe bend at a place Ross calls Crayfish corner. He found a dead one in 2021 and called the Rivers Trust in to identify it and look for more.The River Tas is one of only a few rivers that are still home to our native white-clawed crayfish. They found a breeding population. Habitats can be improved with twigs in the river as freshwater crayfish like rotting timber. They are a marker of a clean river as they won’t survive where peoples’ cesspits and insecticides from fields seep into the water.White-clawed crayfish are very sensitive to pesticides, in particular, flea and tick treatments from dogs, horses, cows and sheep so keeping livestock and dogs out of the watercourse is crucial. The water looked very clear and fairly fast moving. Ross has a large chair placed for viewing the delightful otters that frequently appear. And a wildlife camera set up from which he has shot some wonderful footage of them. He said they come out of the river at that point and he reckons they take a shortcut across the bend in the river!

We could hear a woodpecker but were surprised to find that occasionally an Alder tree will fall taking a woodpecker’s nest with it. Ross showed us one that had fallen recently while the Joliffe grandchildren were staying. They were deeply saddened to see the dead chicks and gave them a little funeral. Audrey mentioned how they could see the nest was lined with horse hair, which they would have got from the nearby horse sanctuary, Redwings.

Enjoying refreshments after a wonderful visit. Photo Carol Sharp

 We wandered out of the cool woodland into the hot sun and had some refreshments and chat. It was a wonderful afternoon. Ross and Audrey are both passionate about wildlife and creating habitats for them to thrive and they are a shining example of how to manage land for biodiversity as well as creating a beautiful wild area for humans to enjoy.

May 2023

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Written by: Carol Sharp

Published: 19 June 2023

The sun shone warmly on the day a group of nearly 30 people gathered to enjoy the route and learn from local ecologist Simon Attwood. Simon arrived with a telescope and a mobile telephone which proved to be very useful.  The walk took us down past Forncett school through a lovely piece of land, luxuriant in flora, past the 'Site of Special Scientific Interest' where hazels are beautifully coppiced to offer rich sources of cover and food to birds and pollinators. From thence we went over a well maintained wooden pathway, set among, what is in summer, a profusion of reeds, (happy with the wet habitat), and wildflowers which in July and August are a magnet for darters, butterflies, dragonflies and countless pollinators.  Reaching the top of this path we turned left and shortly, through a gate, entered the Tas Valley Way:  here we walked along a wide ridgeway between a hedge on the right and a steep bank to the left dropping down to a water meadow.  In high summer the bank is studded with wild flowers.  Plants, happy in damp conditions, thrive here. This landscape is startlingly beautiful, a mosaic of habitat and flora, giving a richly changing colour scheme as the eye wanders across to the River Tas.

Simon Attwood, our local ecologist, helping everyone learn a bit more about a rich environment. Photo: Claire Jordan

 Simon gave helpful explanations and answered questions.  Every so often he would say "ah, that's a greenfinch", or a jackdaw, or yellowhammer. He told us about the various apps. we can install to help us identify sights and sounds of interest.  To demonstrate, he merely held his telephone aloft, and his app. called Merlin Bird ID, at once distinguished between the sounds of birdsong to tell us which birds were in our vicinity.  Identifying birdsong is a tricky business, and this piece of technology, certainly simplifies it. He also mentioned eBird, both are by Cornell Lab. He explained that 7 to 7.30 am is a more rewarding time to listen to and identify birdsong as at that time birds are far more active and noisy. After choosing suitable places, he set up his telescope and invited walkers to use it.  It took a tiny adjustment to make it suitable for individuals and the magnification was extraordinary. I was lucky enough to see a slender pale linnet, a musician of the birdworld, showing a pinkness around his breast, sitting among the boughs of a tree, probably resting while his mate sat on their eggs.

After crossing the farmyard, we traced the long line of the young hedge, planted by a group of willing Forncett volunteers during Covid. Our tree warden had secured the whips and trees and the farmer had made his land available and been very helpful.  The hedge was healthy and well grown and it was satisfying to reflect that every one of the hundreds of plants would be a food and shelter source for insects, birds and small mammals, so necessary amidst farmland.

Finally we turned opposite the village hall to cross open fields and the Tas.  At the hall, refreshments were waiting and Simon generously gave a talk, supported by clear slides about surveys and data collection, their importance and use in developing our understanding and knowledge and  how they need to be carefully planned with clear objectives.  I reflected that Simon would have been pleased by the clear and enthusiastic commitment of so many in Forncett, to do what we can, to support nature.  FNM hopes to encourage people to work collectively to this end.

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Written by: Claire Jordan

Published: 05 May 2023