The Woodland Trust www.woodland-trust.org.uk
Britain’s precious but seriously threatened woodlands need all the friends they can get, and the Woodland Trust, set up in 1979, exists to help them find more.
Since the 1930s, around half of the UK’s ancient woodlands - areas which have never been cleared or replanted by humans - have been lost, either claimed for farmland or for the timber industry. Only 309,000 hectares of ancient, untouched woodland remain, and although irreplaceable and full of vulnerable plants and animals, very little is protected by law.
This website not only lets you find out more about the many ways that the Woodland Trust is helping to conserve the nation’s trees, it also helps you to enjoy your life more - by helping you to find your nearest woodland so you can go for a walk in it. The clickable map (always the sign of a good website, I reckon) lets you click on your location, and provides you with a list of all the Woodland Trust-managed woodlands within a 30km radius.
After a walk in your local area of outstanding natural beauty, and having read about the conservation problems, you’ll hopefully be inspired to get involved yourself. As you’d expect, you’re in luck here - there’s all the information you need to start helping, for example by sponsoring carefully monitored tree plantings.
The Trust have set out the information and their plans for woodland protection in clear and friendly language, and they explain some of the complex issues involved well, so you can easily see the wood for the trees. So point, click, have a read, sponsor a tree, grab your sensible shoes, bird book and plant identification guide, and get going.
Richard Northover