Legacy Forest for Harnaik

Harnaik Mann was a tunnel engineer, herbal medicine maker, sound healer, yoga teacher, and amateur gymnast. He lost his battle with a rare form of renal cancer in March at the age of 33.

Updated 9-15-19 by Harnaik's sister Kamala:

Harnaik’s love of nature and supporting the natural earth was core to his spirit and time on this planet. The funding raised as part of GoFundMe will support a forest that was saved by his two of his closest friends in the UK, Fran and Ben Webb. He has known both Fran and Ben since he was 18 years old and their love and support to him and our family during the last two years is so much appreciated. Their plans for the forest are something that Harnaik fully supported and something that he dearly wanted to contribute to.
 
He is pictured at the woods in one of his blog  writings and sadly at the time we did not know that would be the last time he visited. What we did manage to do during our time at Deep Dean Forest was set up a fire circle. It’s now a special spot on the land where Fran and Ben, friends and family can visit to be in nature and chat about Harnaik’s adventures.
 
History background
Ben and Fran started to steward Deep Dean in 2016. It is part of a 14-acre copse just north of the wonderful Forest of Dean. It borders an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the river Wye, with views out north towards the market town of Ross on Wye. Ross can be reached via a public footpath that runs through the wood called the Ross round.

It is classified as an ancient woodland which is a term that is applied to areas where trees have been present in the landscape for many hundreds of years, not necessarily as great continuous tracts but as discrete plots or areas. Such ancient woodlands (in the U.K.) usually have a long history of being ‘managed’ by local communities. Their identification is noted through indicator species such as the following: Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa), Ramsons (Allium ursinum), Wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides), Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella).

All are present in Deep Dean wood. Some of the boundary trees and some areas contain beech trees in excess of 300 years old along with some great oaks of similar standing. Parts of the wood were unfortunately felled in 1984. However, these were replanted in 1985 - the year Harnaik, Fran and Ben were born. As family its comforting to know there are trees as old as him that will continue to grow and funding towards the project will mean that the woodland will flourish and become a meaningful healing space for people to enjoy. Part of the plans is to establish a Forest School  (https://www.forestschoolassociation.org/what-is-forest-school/) where children and adults can learn about the woods, the importance of trees on the planet, our connection to them and be in the healing energy of the natural environment.  

Fran and Ben’s Philosophy for the Forest
A trees lifespan stretches beyond our own generation’s and are a gift to the future, with our changing climatic condition, it’s important to think what direction this woodland will take throughout the next 100 years. Preservation and enjoyment of this space is paramount. Harnaik loved being in nature and he spent many nights wild camping in this area. In September 2018 Harnaik visited Deep Dean wood with me (Kamala his sister) to enjoy this space and plans for the wood were discussed some of which are outlined below.  

Aims for conservation
1. Thinning is an important part of managing a forest. Deep dean has been stewarded by Fran and Ben for nearly 3 years however has been neglected to be managed properly since 1984 which means large number of trees need to be thinned and cleared of ivy which is starting to bring some of them down (https://knowyourforest.org/learning-library/thinning-my-forest) . Fran and Ben are currently in the process of a grant application to begin thinning one section next winter and eventually they would love to work on the whole site. It’s a huge amount of work but is required for the management and future of the woods for them with a young family so with grant money they will get some contractors to help out. This will help bring the woodland back to a much greater health and create open space for the regeneration of ancient flora species.

2. Further conservational aims would be to build a pond to help improve diversity, margins are often where the most species flourish and allowing some open space for migratory birds and aquatic species would be exciting.
 
This would be quite a large job to dam one section of sunken earthworks and then line and fill Harnaik discussed this with Ben and both he and Fran feel it would be amazing to get this project done in his honor. It would be really helpful if members of Arup  would give some pointers to Ben on this part of the job as this was Harnaik’s realm - does anyone know any good engineers at Arup??  

3. Fran and Ben are keen to ensure the ongoing management of the forest and have established different ways which the woodland could provide some income opportunities to ensure its sustainable management to include; charcoal burning from tree thinning, mushroom cultivation – inseminating logs to flourish with shitake oyster and other medicinal mushrooms; projects focused on social inclusion and interaction to include educational and therapeutic benefits to the wider community in particular setting up the Forest School for outdoor education.
 
Your Donations
Any contribution to the woods will be much appreciated, at this stage Ben and Fran have established some outline costs to include:

Pond construction £2000
Tree thinning £1000
Charcoal burning kiln £1500
Forest school leadership course and establishing relevant facilities - £1000
Total cost: £5500 or roughly $6,870 USD