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Living Legends appeal

Our oldest and most special woods and trees are in danger. Please help us protect them from destruction.

They’ve lived through hurricanes and lightning strikes, wars and invasions, royal coronations and celebrations stretching back centuries. Yet these living legends have virtually no legal protection.

And it's not just ancient trees. Just 2.5% of the UK is now covered by ancient woodlands, and they aren't out of the woods either. These precious wildlife habitats are at risk every day – new roads and housing estates threatening to erase centuries of biodiversity before our eyes.

2.5%

of the UK is covered by ancient woodland

50%

of large trees have been lost from parts of England in the last 150 years

75%

of ancient trees live outside legally protected wildlife sites

Hazel dormice are just one species that thrives in ancient woodlands.

Credit: Arterra Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

Wildlife refuges and climate superheroes

Our ancient woods and trees are unique and irreplaceable – we can’t regrow or renew the complex biodiversity which has evolved around them over hundreds of years.

Once what little we have left is gone, it’s gone for good.

The big crowns, gnarled branches and hollow trunks of our living legends might not look like much to some, but they’re brimming with life. Bats, dormice and birds nest in their hollows, insects hide in their crevices, butterflies flutter in their canopies, and lichen and fungi cling to their branches.

Ancient and long-established woods also store 36% of the total carbon locked up in trees in the UK – despite them making up just 25% of our total woodland.

36%

of the UK’s woodland carbon stores is locked up in ancient woods

Whitmore Wood in Staffordshire was saved from destruction by HS2.

Credit: Phil Formby / WTML

Our team campaigned for a protective fence to protect the 500-year-old Grantham Oak.

Credit: Tessa Chan

Ancient woodland has already been lost along the A21.

Credit: Ben Holmes

Help us save our living legends

Our devoted campaigning team works tirelessly to protect precious woods, keep ancient trees safe and help threatened wildlife survive and thrive. But as we saw when the Sycamore Gap tree was felled, the threats keep mounting up. Hundreds of woods and trees are currently in danger in the UK, and we need a helping hand to come to their rescue.

Lobbying government, scouring planning applications, mounting legal challenges – it's demanding and expensive, and we need all the financial support we can get. Please donate whatever you can to support our vital conservation work across the UK, including protecting our living legends and ancient woods.

Prefer to donate offline?

By phone

Call us on 0330 333 3300 between 8.30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, and our friendly team will be there to assist.

By post

Send a cheque to our head office at Living Legends Appeal, Woodland Trust, Kempton Way, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 6LL. Please make cheques payable to the Woodland Trust.