Annual review

We lobbied for our Living Legends

Our ancient trees are bastions of biodiversity – yet more than three-quarters have no legal protection against damage and development. In June, our Living Legends campaign set out to lobby for a register of heritage trees with equal legal status to our castles and cathedrals. We won a huge early victory at Holyrood, with Parliamentarians passing strict new guidelines warning planners not to approve projects which destroy or damage ancient woods or veteran trees.

We have to thank our fantastic supporters, too. Thanks to you, 11,000 tree titans were added to the Ancient Tree Inventory by the end of the year.

We helped councils get more trees in the ground

By spring 2023, our Emergency Tree Fund had awarded £3 million in funding to councils in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Sheffield and beyond, planting a whopping 340,000 trees. Our second round of funding kicked in last year, investing another £2 million in six schemes courtesy of Amazon's Right Now Climate Fund. They include plans for a four-million-tree 'climate canopy' in County Antrim, and moves to boost tree cover in Doncaster by over a third.

We opened Mourne Park to the public

There's magic in the air at Mourne Park, and we're thrilled that visitors can now experience it too.

Close to Kilkeel, between the mountains and the sea, this secret riverside kingdom is bright with bluebells and kingfishers, and the estate has the richest spread of ancient woodland in Northern Ireland. Volunteers devoted 1,300 hours to help us give Mourne Park the kiss of life, and in August, we threw open the gates to the public for the first time in 500 years, with 69,000 visitors flocking to enjoy the network of trails and all-action events programme.

And we aren't stopping there. Last May, we snapped up seven nearby fields thanks to £330,000 in donations from our generous supporters. We’re planning on planting 24,000 saplings to extend Mourne Park’s habitat for wildlife, including red squirrels. If you donated, thank you!

We helped people rediscover lost woods

Last year, we partnered with Action in Rural Sussex to rescue and revitalise neglected habitat across the Low Weald and Downs. The Lost Woods project aims to bring 60 oases back to health, create nature corridors to reconnect them, and train locals in the skills they need to care for them.

In September our team scooped £2 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a five-year roll-out, and community groups will be the heartbeat of the work. We’ve already hosted woodland outings and activity days for young carers, people with learning disabilities and more, and in autumn, volunteers began roving across the 300km2 landscape to plot every ancient tree.

We purchased the missing piece of Hall Farm

In October, we made a landmark purchase, acquiring the final piece of our ancestral home – Hall Farm in Devon. It was here that our founder, Kenneth Watkins, began his crusade for wood and trees, and 50 years later we're ready to transform it into a showpiece for regenerative agriculture.

The purchase came just a few months after our Trees for Farms scheme celebrated its first decade. In this time we’ve helped 250 farmers plant 300,000 saplings across the UK – sheltering livestock, improving soils and nurturing insect pollinators.

We gave away thousands of free trees in Wales

Funded by the Welsh government, our My Tree, Our Forest project saw a tremendous 300,000 baby trees offered to households across the country, kick-starting the burgeoning National Forest For Wales. Around 30,000 of trees were handed out to families who turned up to collect their trees from one of 66 hubs all the way from Cardiff to Conwy. The rest of the trees travelled by post or were planted by neighbourhood groups and landowners.

We placed Frodsham Wood at the heart of the community

It might be the biggest wood we've ever created in Cheshire (and our first to colonise a former golf course), but what makes Frodsham Wood really special is people power.

When we acquired the site in December, we knew we wanted the £500,000 project to be a community wood that offered a haven for people as well as wildlife. As a result, each one of its 30,000 saplings is being dug in by volunteers and school children – a brilliant effort that will extend the ancient oakwoods of neighbouring Dunsdale Hollow.

We empowered young people to make a difference

In 2023 we launched our first Igniting Innovation Challenge, which invited young people aged between 16 to 25 to pitch us their climate-positive conservation ideas. Nine successful candidates each walked away with a cash investment to develop their project – from clothing upcycling workshops to jewellery made from rhododendron wood
cleared from Britain’s rainforests – plus mentoring from our expert team.

The Igniting Innovation Challenge will return in 2024, so watch this space!

We saved woods under threat at Oldhouse Warren

When the medieval hunting grounds of Oldhouse Warren were threatened by development last year, we sprang to their defence – and won!

Center Parcs had proposed a £400 million holiday village that would destroy around 300 football pitches-worth of irreplaceable habitat home. Thankfully, in February, after campaigning with a coalition of other conservation organisations, the company withdrew its plans, saving this sanctuary and its special wildlife, including rare purple emperor butterflies.

We honoured Her Majesty with woods and trees

The Queen's Green Canopy project dedicated 70 ancient trees in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II – including the magnificent Coed Glaslyn Rowan – in celebration of her Platinum Jubilee. The project was extended when Her Majesty sadly passed away in September 2022, so people could go on planting trees in her memory. By last March, three million Queen's Green Canopy saplings were budding across the UK.

We gave Hainault Forest a multi-sensory makeover

We were thrilled to be able to cut the ribbon on a brand new interactive visitor centre at Hainault Forest last year. Built in partnership with Redbridge Council and thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage fund, this is our first visitor centre in England and offers everyone the opportunity to get up close and personal with the natural world – you could stroke a rabbit skull or even sniff badger poop!

The £7 million makeover also includes a playground, artisan workshops and wheel-friendly, accessible trails we hope will bring even more people closer to Hainault's wood warblers, nightingales and centuries-old hornbeams.

We rallied behind Scotland's rainforest

Our volunteers have gathered more than 1.75 million tree seeds at spectacular Ben Shieldaig, in Wester Ross. Thanks to them, we can use the seed to expand the rare temperate rainforest around the flanks of the mountain.

In February, we unveiled a partnership to convert the estate’s Couldoran House into a dedicated rainforest centre to help scientists and school groups learn about this special habitat, home to some of the world’s most threatened bryophytes and
lichens, plus iconic wildlife including golden eagles and red squirrels.

Last May, we secured £1 million through the Forestry Grant Scheme to expand and diversify the ecosystem yet further. We hope to green the glen over the next five years.

Thank you!

We're so grateful to the organisations that supported our work to the tune of £10,000 or more. From DFS to Dorset Cereals, Pets at Home to players of People's Postcode Lottery – to one and all, we send our sincere thanks.

Number crunch

Our income in 2022–23 reached a record £82.5 million – an invaluable investment for woods, trees and wildlife! Here's how we raised it – and invested it for the future.