HEARTWOOD FOREST - Pudler's Wood Traditional Cache
Nyreddings: We have moved away from the area so can no longer look after this geocache
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Happy for someone else to adopt it if they wish.
HEARTWOOD FOREST - Pudler's Wood
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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The cache is 1 mile from the Heartwood Forest parking area and can easily be walked on a footpath. The area is owned by The Woodland Trust to create a forest of native trees.
In October 2008, The Woodland Trust purchased 858 acres of farmland to create the largest continuous native forest in England. This is the most ambitious project ever undertaken by the Woodland Trust and will become a fantastic asset to the area. The site is between Wheathampstead and Sandridge, just north of St Albans in Hertfordshire. The new forest will be about the same size as Sherwood Forest Country Park (450 acres) and Regents Park (410 acres) if you combined them together.
The 858 acre Forest will be open to all and new footpaths/cycleways will crisscross over this land linking the existing 4 small remnants (44 acres) of precious ancient woodland with approximately 280 acres left as meadow land. Existing footpaths from Wheathampstead/ Harpenden and St Albans will link up with these new routes for walkers and cyclists - a green lung of living calm in our increasingly urban lives.
Although this is a nationwide project, those in neighbouring villages and towns of the forest will be the most involved. Local children will be invited to help plant trees and take an active interest in seeing the forest develop. Our generation and previous generations have seriously eroded woodland thus making Britain one of the least wooded places in Europe. Less than 12% of our country is covered in trees, compared with a European average of 44% and only a fifth of the forest that is left is ancient broad-leaved woodland. So we owe it to future generations to improve the environment by planting native broad-leaved trees and create more woodland.
For more information click on to www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/sandridge
The cache is hidden in one of the 4 ancient woodlands which had been in private hands for many years. It is also possible to walk to this new cache from cache reference GC3517 after parking up on Nomansland (Wheathampstead) N 510. 47.868 W0000. 18.177. There is an existing cache in Langley Woods (GCNAH8) which is another ancient wood now within the new forest.
The least muddy path is to park by the scout hut in Sandridge. Then follow the path up the track towards the new Kissing Gate N 510 47.332 W0000 19.470, but walk towards the wood on the south side before you get to it. This route is 1.1 miles and it is possible to combine a circular route taking in other caches in the area.
We placed the cache in the autumn and some months later in April, geocachers have noted that the cache is in a wood covered with Bluebells. To avoid disturbing the Bluebells please enter the wood by the south side and follow the path into the wood. It is possible to find the cache without causing damage to the Bluebells which are stunning in late April and into May.
To start the cache we have left 3 travel bugs plus other goodies to exchange.
Happy Geocaching
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Bar pbhyq fnl guvf jnf va n 'Xnatnebb Gerr'
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
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