The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native
woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...
heritage
Heritage may refer to:
History and society
* A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today
** Cultural heritage is created by humans
** Natural heritage is not
* Heritage language
Biology
* Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...
. It has planted over 50 million trees since 1972.
The Woodland Trust has three aims: to protect ancient woodland which is rare, unique and irreplaceable, to promote the restoration of damaged ancient woodland, and to plant native trees and woods to benefit people and wildlife.
The Woodland Trust maintains ownership of over 1,000 sites covering over 24,700 hectares (247 km
2). Of this, 8,070ha (33%) is ancient woodland. It ensures public access to its woods.
History
![Ireland Wood welcome sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Ireland_Wood_welcome_sign.jpg)
The charity was founded in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, England in 1972 by retired farmer and agricultural machinery dealer Kenneth Watkins.
The Trust's first purchase was part of the Avon Valley Woods, near Kingsbridge, Devon. By 1977 it had 22 woods in six counties. In 1978 it relocated to
Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
in Lincolnshire and announced an expansion of its activities across the UK. In 1984, Balmacaan Wood next to
Loch Ness
Loch Ness (; gd, Loch Nis ) is a large freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately southwest of Inverness. It takes its name from the River Ness, which flows from the northern end. Loch Ness is best known for clai ...
became the Trust's first Scottish acquisition.
From 2005 to 2008 it co-operated with the BBC for their ''
Springwatch
''Springwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' and ''Winterwatch'', sometimes known collectively as ''The Watches'', are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The p ...
'' programme and the BBC's ''Breathing Places'' series of events held at woods. It continues to work with Springwatch and Autumnwatch, most recently in 2015 as part of the Big Spring Watch, which encouraged viewers to record the signs of nature (
phenology
Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation).
Examples includ ...
) through the Trust's Nature's Calendar project.
Sites
, the Woodland Trust had over 80 woods in Scotland, covering .
In Wales, it acquired the Coed Lletywalter in
Snowdonia National Park
Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951.
Name and extent
It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...
in 1980. In 2016, it had over 100 woods in Wales.
Work started in Northern Ireland in 1996 when the charity received a grant from the
Millennium Commission
The Millennium Commission, a United Kingdom public body, was set up to celebrate the turn of the millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery to assist communities in marking the close of the second millennium and celebra ...
to set up over 50 community woods in a scheme called Woods on Your Doorstep.
Headquarters
Its first employee and director, John James, came from Lincolnshire and was living in Nottingham at the time. It had a small office in
Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
, Lincolnshire. James was chief executive from 1992 to 1997, and then Michael Townsend from 1997 to 2004, Sue Holden from 2004 to 2014 and
Beccy Speight
Beccy Speight is the chief executive officer of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Career
Speight started her career working in local government in Scotland and then with the management consultants Smythe Dorward Lambert. Since 200 ...
from 2014 to 2019. The current chief executive is Darren Moorcroft.
A new eco-friendly headquarters, adjacent to the former offices, was completed in 2010 at a cost of .
The building, designed by
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (also known as FCBStudios) is a British architectural design firm, established in 1978, with offices in Bath, London, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. The firm is known for its pioneering work in sustainable desi ...
as architect and
Atelier One Atelier One is a British structural engineering company, established in 1989 with offices in London and Brighton. The company has collaborated with architects, designers and artists (including Anish Kapoor and Rachel Whiteread), and is consistently ...
as structural engineer, incorporates light shelves to distribute natural daylight around the 200 workstations, and concrete panels to absorb daytime heat, to provide the thermal mass that the lightweight wooden structure would otherwise lack. It is estimated that compared to a concrete framed construction, the timber structure saved the equivalent in carbon production as nine years of the building's operation.
[
]
Structure
The Woodland Trust's Head Office is located in Grantham
Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...
in South Kesteven
South Kesteven is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England, forming part of the traditional Kesteven division of the county. It covers Bourne, Lincolnshire, Bourne, Grantham, Market Deeping and Stamford, Li ...
, south Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
, with regional offices across the UK. It employs around 300 people at its Grantham headquarters. Its current president is Clive Anderson
Clive Stuart Anderson (born 10 December 1952) is an English television and radio presenter, comedy writer, and former barrister. Winner of a British Comedy Award in 1991, Anderson began experimenting with comedy and writing comedic scripts durin ...
since 2003. In 2016 Barbara Young, Baroness Young of Old Scone
Barbara Scott Young, Baroness Young of Old Scone, (born 8 April 1948) is a Scottish Labour member of the House of Lords. She was created a life peer on 4 November 1997 as Baroness Young of Old Scone, of Old Scone in Perth and Kinross.
Barones ...
became the charity's Chair.
Funding
The Woodland Trust receives funding from a wide range of sources including membership, legacies, donations and appeals, corporate supporters, grants and charitable trusts including lottery funding, other organisations and landfill tax.
Function
The Woodland Trust uses its experience and authority in conservation to influence others who are in a position to improve the future of native woodland. This includes government, other landowners, and like-minded organisations. It also campaigns to protect and save ancient woodland
In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (or 1750 in Scotland). Planting of woodland was uncommon before those dates, so a wood present in 16 ...
from destructive development. Its projects also include the Nature Detectives Nature Detectives is an online phenology research and education project for 4–18-year-olds in the UK. It is run by the Woodland Trust, as part of the UK Phenology Network.
Participants record the dates they see seasonal events, such as leafing, ...
youth programme, a project for schools learning about the seasonal effect on woodlands – phenology
Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation).
Examples includ ...
– and the Ancient Tree Hunt campaign.
Woodland protection
It looks after more than 1,000 woods and groups of woods covering . Nearly 350 of its sites contain ancient woodland of which 70 per cent is semi-natural ancient woodland – land which has been under tree cover since at least 1600. It also manages over 110 Sites of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
. There are currently over 600 ancient woods under threat across the UK.
Woodland creation
The trust has also created new woodlands: over have been created, including 250 new community woods in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its largest current projects include the Glen Finglas Estate
The Glen Finglas Estate is a property in Glen Finglas in the Trossachs, Scotland managed by The Woodland Trust. The estate extends for over , most of which was once covered in woodland. The closest towns are Aberfoyle Aberfoyle may refer to:
*Abe ...
in the Trossachs
The Trossachs (; gd, Na Tròiseachan) generally refers to an area of wooded glens, braes, and lochs lying to the east of Ben Lomond in the Stirling council area of Scotland. The name is taken from that of a small woodland glen that lies at the ...
, Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and the Heartwood Forest
Heartwood Forest is a planned forest ( woodland creation site) in Hertfordshire, England. The site covers , the largest continuous new native forest in England.
Planting
Heartwood Forest is located near Sandridge, St Albans, in the Metropolitan ...
near St Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
, England, which will cover approximately . It owns 20 sites covering in the National Forest and has twelve sites in Community Forests in England.
The Woodland Trust also provides free trees to communities or places of education in order to facilitate the creation of new woodland.
Completed projects
Millennium woods
The Woodland Trust's Woods on Your Doorstep project created 250 "Millennium woods" to celebrate the millennium.
Trafalgar Woods
As part of the trust's 'Tree For All' campaign, new woods were planted to mark the 2005 anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...
, notably Victory Wood in Kent.
Jubilee Woods
The Trust ran the Jubilee Woods project, which aimed to plant 6 million trees and create 60 commemorative 'Diamond' woods across the UK as part of Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
's Diamond Jubilee
A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...
celebrations in 2012. The largest of these, owned and managed by the Trust itself, is the Flagship Diamond Wood
The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood (initially known as the Flagship Diamond Wood) is a woodland in Leicestershire, UK created in 2012. Covering , it is the centrepiece of a wide-ranging Jubilee Project by the Woodland Trust to mark the 2 ...
within the National Forest in Leicestershire, which will be planted with 300,000 trees.
First World War Centenary Woods
Beginning in 2014, a project commemorating the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
involved tree planting and the establishment of new woodland sites across the UK. The planned sites were Langley Vale Wood (England), Dreghorn Woods (Scotland), Coed Ffos Las (Wales), and Brackfield Wood (Northern Ireland).
As part of the project, the Woodland Trust entered a partnership with the National Football Museum
The National Football Museum is England's national museum of football. It is based in the Urbis building in Manchester city centre, and preserves, conserves and displays important collections of football memorabilia.
The museum was originally b ...
to create team groves to commemorate all the professional football players involved in the First World War, giving supporters the chance to dedicate trees at the English Centenary Wood, Langley Vale in Epsom.
Ongoing initiatives
Nature's Calendar
This citizen science
Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...
project encourages members of the public to record the signs of the seasons near to them in order to show and assess the impact of climate change
The effects of climate change impact the physical environment, ecosystems and human societies. The environmental effects of climate change are broad and far-reaching. They affect the water cycle, oceans, sea and land ice (glaciers), sea level ...
on the UK's wildlife. Thousands of volunteers send in their sightings, providing evidence about how wildlife is responding to the changing climate.
The Trust's records date back to 1736, making it the longest written biological record of its kind. It has become a powerful tool in assessing the impact of climate change and is valued by research scientists.
Ancient Tree Inventory
The Ancient Tree Inventory is a project run by the Woodland Trust in partnership with the Tree Register and the Ancient Tree Forum, which aims to record ancient, veteran and notable trees in the United Kingdom. , over 180,000 trees have been recorded by members of the public on the project's website, which provides a map of the trees.
Woods
Woods that the trust owns and looks after include:
England
* Denge Wood
Denge Wood is a wood located 8 miles southwest of Canterbury in Kent, England. The wood is owned by the Forestry Commission and the Woodland Trust. Part of the wood is also privately owned. Much of Denge Wood is classified as ancient semi-natural ...
, Kent
* Dick Buck's Burrows, Cromer
Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline.
The local government authorities are Nor ...
, Norfolk
* Folke Wood
Folke Wood is a wood near Folke in Dorset, England. It was planted by the Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of ...
, Dorset
* Friezland Wood
Friezland Wood is a woodland in Kent, England, near Tunbridge Wells. It covers a total area of . It is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concer ...
, Kent
* Garratts Wood, Somerset
* Great Wood, Felbrigg Estate, Norfolk
* Hack Fall Wood
Hack Fall Wood, otherwise known as Hackfall, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, or SSSI, of , lying north-east of the village of Grewelthorpe, North Yorkshire, England. During the 18th century it was landscaped in the picturesque style ...
, North Yorkshire
* Heartwood Forest
Heartwood Forest is a planned forest ( woodland creation site) in Hertfordshire, England. The site covers , the largest continuous new native forest in England.
Planting
Heartwood Forest is located near Sandridge, St Albans, in the Metropolitan ...
, Hertfordshire
* Joyden's Wood
Joyden's Wood is an area of ancient woodland that straddles the border between the London Borough of Bexley in South East London and the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. It is located north west of Swanley, south east of Bexleyheath and s ...
, Kent
* Lineover Wood
Lineover Wood () is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1986.
The site is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust, and is near the communities of Charlton Kings, Cheltenham and Dowdeswell. The Cots ...
SSSI, Gloucestershire
* Oxmoor Copse
Oxmoor Copse is just south of the village of Abinger Hammer and to the west of the village of Abinger Common, in Surrey. It is and is in an AONB lying within the Surrey Hills. The previous owners gave the copse to the Woodland Trust as a gift.
T ...
, Surrey
* Philipshill Wood, Buckinghamshire
* Pretty Corner Wood, Sheringham
Sheringham (; population 7,367) is an English seaside town within the county of Norfolk, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban Distr ...
, Norfolk
* Skipton Wood, North Yorkshire
* Uffmoor Wood
Uffmoor Wood is a semi-natural woodland in Worcestershire, in the
English Midlands. It is one of over a thousand woods cared for by the Woodland Trust. The wood has an area of , and . Sitting at the foot of the Clent Hills and about 3 km sou ...
, Worcestershire
* Warren Wood, Norfolk
* Whittlewood Forest
Whittlewood Forest is a former medieval hunting forest east of Silverstone in Northamptonshire in England. It is managed by the Forestry England. There are tracts of ancient woodland within it and old ditches can be found at the edges of several ...
, Northamptonshire
* Weybourne Wood, Weybourne, Norfolk
* West Runton, West Runton
West Runton is a village in North Norfolk, England, on the North Sea coast.
Toponymy
The villages name means either, Runa's farm/settlement' or 'Runi's farm/settlement'.
Overview
West Runton and East Runton together form the parish of Runton ...
, Norfolk
* Wychwood
Wychwood or Wychwood Forest is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Witney in Oxfordshire. It is also a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 1, and an area of is a national nature reserve The site contains a long barrow ...
, Oxfordshire
Scotland
* Backmuir Wood
Backmuir Wood is a woodland in the Scottish county of Angus, about northwest of Dundee. It is located south of the A923, between the villages of Muirhead and Liff. Since 1996, the woodland has been under the ownership of the Woodland Trust, w ...
, Angus
* Glen Finglas Estate
The Glen Finglas Estate is a property in Glen Finglas in the Trossachs, Scotland managed by The Woodland Trust. The estate extends for over , most of which was once covered in woodland. The closest towns are Aberfoyle Aberfoyle may refer to:
*Abe ...
, the Trossachs
The Trossachs (; gd, Na Tròiseachan) generally refers to an area of wooded glens, braes, and lochs lying to the east of Ben Lomond in the Stirling council area of Scotland. The name is taken from that of a small woodland glen that lies at the ...
Wales
* Coed Felinrhyd & Llennyrch
* Coed Ffos Las
Northern Ireland
* Brackfield Wood
* Monkstown Wood
See also
* Forestry in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom,The United Kingdom (sometimes abbreviated to UK) is a political unit (specifically a country), the British Isles is a geographical unit (the archipelago lying off the northwest coast of Europe), and Great Britain is the name of ...
* Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England.
The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...
* The Big Tree Plant
The Big Tree Plant was a Government-sponsored campaign in England in 2010, to promote the planting of trees in neighbourhoods where people lived and worked.
* The Tree Council
The Tree Council was founded in 1974 in the United Kingdom, and became a Charitable organization#Charity registration, registered charity in 1978. Its primary objective is to act as an umbrella organisation for local groups involved in the plant ...
* The Tree Register
The Tree Register, or more fully, the Tree Register of the British Isles (T.R.O.B.I.), is a registered charity collating and updating a database of notable trees throughout Britain and Ireland. It comprises a computer database which in 2022 conta ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Nature conservation organisations based in the United Kingdom
Environmental charities based in the United Kingdom
Forests and woodlands of England
Organisations based in Lincolnshire
Environmental organizations established in 1972
1972 establishments in the United Kingdom
South Kesteven District