The Fal Landscape Partnership Scheme

Truro, Cornwall, United Kingdom

£265

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This project successfully funded on 13th November 2025, you can still support them with a donation.

Aim

Preserving history, restoring nature, and connecting people with the Fal woodlands through conservation, learning, and community.

Please see our website for you to see our work and vision

We’re Friends of the Fal, a grassroots voluntary woodland community group in Cornwall, born during the COVID-19 pandemic from a desire to connect people with nature, heritage, and each other. Over the past five years, we’ve partnered with organisations such as Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Westcountry Rivers Trust, and many others to transform neglected woodland into a vibrant space for biodiversity, education, and community action.

In recognition of our values and approach, Friends of the Fal were recently highlighted in Cornwall Council’s Landscape Recovery Strategy as a source of inspiration For more information, please visit https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/hub-page/nature-recovery

Recently, we have been actively involved in Cornwall Councils' 'River to Reef' programme team (R2R), an ambitious, 30-year initiative focused on restoring the River Fal catchment from source to sea. This landmark project aims to improve water quality, replant 18,000 hectares of woodland, restore Cornish hedges and hedgerows, support natural flood management, and implement vital changes to help combat the impacts of climate change. The R2R team are currently working to add public information on the Cornwall Council’s ‘Let's Talk’ webpage. https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk

We have also been honoured with the opportunity to be part of the upcoming Kurt Jackson exhibition, Stories from the Fal, launching at the end of August. Not only has Kurt chosen a segment of our woodland to feature in his paintings, and we will also have space in his gallery to showcase the work we’ve done to protect and celebrate this special landscape. For more information, please visit www.kurtjackson.com or https://www.facebook.com/KurtJacksonArt

Our small but passionate team, made up entirely of volunteers, conservationists, and local residents, have worked tirelessly to create a mosaic woodland. This includes caring for ancient trees, planting new saplings, developing an inclusive outdoor learning space for all ages and future plans to restore a significant historical leat. We’ve achieved this using only traditional, low-impact methods, no heavy machinery, out of respect for the land and the environment.

Now, under our new project name, The Fal Landscape Partnership Scheme, we’re expanding our vision with your help:

  • Restore and conserve the medieval leat: We seek funding for ecological and archaeological surveys, along with materials to initiate a 10–15 year restoration project in partnership with CREST (https://crestcornwall.co.uk/) and Cornwall Council Historic Environment Service. This work will enhance flood management, create vital wildlife habitats, limit soil erosion, and offer accredited training courses, enabling learners to develop new skills and supporting future employment opportunities. We seek £3,000 for the initial panel to be restored. By providing funding for this section, it will provide a showcase for future funding opportunities.
  • Implement long-term woodland management and arborist care: Climate change and pathogens are affecting our woodlands at an accelerating pace. Your support will help us assess and mitigate risks, safeguard public safety, replant native saplings and preserve vital tree cover with a long term provision for wildlife. Unfortunately this once coppicing woodland requires radical care to bring it back to a healthy state and so we seek £20,000 to make this happen. We know this is a lot but we have been working with Forest for Cornwall and associated arborists to ensure we bring life and longevity back to the woodland for generations. 
  • Upgrade our website: To better engage our community, build memberships, share ecological data, and host educational resources. We seek £2,000 
  • Design and install a trail board: To help visitors explore and understand the woodland, its history, and wildlife, we’ll create an interpretive trail board that celebrates the site’s heritage and natural features. We seek £1,000
  • Cover core running costs: These are essential to sustain our volunteer-led efforts and ongoing conservation work. We seek £4,000 for indirect costs like insurances, marketing, general maintenance, PPE, training, tools and equipment as examples for volunteers. Our ethos is only to use hand tools and that includes scything as an example. Our ambition is to 'train the trainer' and for volunteers to experience such methodologies in efforts to minimise our impact on the environment by removing fossil fuel powered equipment.
  • Support our organisation’s journey to become a registered charity, unlocking new funding opportunities to ensure the long-term sustainability of our work. We seek £1,000 including legal and professional fees. 

The funds we raise will directly support these goals, engaging skilled craftspeople, ecological and historical surveys, training materials, running costs and essential equipment. Every donation helps protect this unique environment, enhance biodiversity, and connect more people to the natural world.

We believe in community-led conservation, rooted in history, and built to last. Join us in bringing this vision to life.

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