Woodland Trust celebrates 50 years and calls for trees to be at the heart of fight against climate change.

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By Andy Bond, Senior PR Officer

For 50 years the Woodland Trust has been standing together for woods, trees and wildlife. 

In 1972 a group of friends gathered around a kitchen table in Devon to discuss saving a local wood. That day the Woodland Trust was born.

The kitchen table belonged to Kenneth Watkins OBE – founder and first chairman – who was so concerned about the loss of ancient woodland, he decided to do something about it.

The charity has now planted more than 50 million trees, protects and cares for more than 1,000 woodland havens for wildlife and people, and has saved 1,172 woods from the likes of development.

Its first acquisition was Avon Woods – part of the Avon Valley Woods near Kingsbridge in Devon. By 1979 it had spread its branches further than Devon and a decade later Ken Watkins was awarded the OBE for his services to conservation.

The Woodland Trust has achieved a great deal over five decades yet its fight to protect woods and trees is more crucial than ever.

The country is in the grip of a climate and nature crisis and the need for woods and trees grows more urgent by the day.

Wildlife everywhere is struggling now, and we are fast approaching mass extinctions and catastrophic biodiversity loss. The effects of climate change are all around us and have been particularly evident this summer – extreme weather events, forest fires, widespread droughts, mass flooding, heatwaves.

In terms of trees the stark reality is this:

1,225 Ancient woods threatened by development right now.
1/3 One third of all woodland wildlife species are in decline.
2.4% That's how little of the UK is covered by ancient woodland
the UK has one of lowest levels of tree cover in Europe at 13 per cent and globally ranks 136th out 189 countries – measured by the area of tree cover

Ancient woods and trees: literally irreplaceable, our oldest woods and trees are still suffering ‘slow motion deforestation’. Every year the resource shrinks a bit as a range of compounding threats put increasing pressure on the trees, soil and wildlife that remain. The west coast of the UK is the natural habitat for a very special type of ancient woodland - temperate rainforest. However, the vast majority has been cleared, leaving around 20% of what could be there.

Farmland trees: individual trees in the countryside are vulnerable to a range of threats. Woodland Trust research shows that 50% of ‘trees outside woods in East Anglian Claylands have disappeared in past 150 years. The hardest hit are in-field trees which have often been cleared to make way for modern farming machinery.

Ancient woodland strewn with moss covered boulders

Urban trees: we urgently need better data but studies suggest that urban areas may be facing deforestation. A study of Welsh towns and cities shows 7,000 mature trees were lost between 2012-16. Loopholes in planning policy enable developers to fell trees before development with little penalties.

Long established Woodland: there is virtually no protection for woodland which is less than 400 years old (in England). Woodland older than this is classified as ‘ancient’ and offered some protection through the planning system. But a wood that is 300 years old gets no more protection than one that is 10 years old.

So it all paints a rather grim picture and there is a lot of work to do – but there are chinks of light!

By 2030, the charity promises to make the destruction of ancient woodland as unacceptable as destroying ancient monuments or listed buildings. It’s determined to nurse our native woods back to ecological health, giving nature a chance to thrive, and to get 100 million new native trees in the ground – each one a haven for nature and a climate change warrior.

Fly Agaric mushroom growing out of some thick moss

The charity also has a duty to inspire a whole new generation of supporters: the young people who will inherit the world we leave behind. They have a key role to play – it must get them involved as early as possible, or what sort of future awaits them?

It is fitting that as a charity it is going back to its roots and it has bought a new site in Devon for £.2.5 million to create a new woodland in the backyard of where it was formed. The stunning 54-hectare site near Lympstone, which is set in a wonderful location - a scenic rural valley close to the Exe Estuary, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The charity will look to plant trees and encourage natural regeneration (letting trees and shrubs regrow naturally), as well as leave areas open, to create the conditions for a rich array of species to one day colonise it. These include rare birds such as the nightjar, several threatened species of bat, the hazel dormouse, the dingy skipper butterfly, and a whole host of unusual invertebrates.

The charity has also just launched a new climate campaign with a mission to urge people to donate a small amount to help plant trees: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/support-us/plant-more-trees/

The founder of the Woodland Trust Kenneth Watkins’ mission to protect woods, plant trees and save ancient woodland has always been, and continues to be, incredibly important.

But now, as we fight the effects of biodiversity loss and climate change, it is more vital than ever. And we desperately need more help to achieve this.