“Woodland Rescue” – the Making of the Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust was founded in Devon by Kenneth Watkins in 1972 and run for the first five years on an entirely voluntary basis. In 1977 John James was recruited as National Development officer and over the next 20 years, under his direction, the Trust grew to become Britain’s largest woodland conservation charity.
This website is intended for those interested in the history of nature conservation and sets out to explore the national development of the Woodland Trust and some of the issues that arose in the last quarter of the twentieth century.
In 2002 nature writer, Peter Marren, described the Trust as one of conservation’s “surprise successes”. Looking back, it is possible to identify the reasons for this success. There was throughout a sense of urgency for the cause of woodland conservation in the face of serious threats and the Trust employed an entrepreneurial and opportunistic approach unusual for a conservation charity at that time. For a quarter of a century, the Trust positioned itself ready for the “next big thing” from “Plant a Tree in ‘73” to the Millennium Forests.
The events of the first 25 years of the Woodland Trust fall into five-year periods, Early Days, National Development, Woodland Management, Wider Landscape and Wider Issues. Click on any to find a time-line. As the organisation grew in complexity, common issues developed: Governance and Organisation, Promotion and Fundraising, Conservation and Woodland Management, and Achievements and these are covered these somewhere in each part.
More insights about Woodland Rescue and the Making of the Woodland Trust can be found in a book produced to mark the Trust’s 50th Anniversary in 2022.
From Little Acorns… Unearthing the roots of Britains woodland conservation movement.