Our Objectives are (a) to create, or help to bring about the creation of, new native broadleaf woodland in Dartmoor National Park and its neighbouring areas to facilitate nature recovery (greater biodiversity) and carbon sequestration (mitigating global heating) and (b) to extend these benefits nationwide by helping others to copy our way of working.
There is no one in the UK who does not in some way benefit from this, but, most immediately, we enhance the environment of the people of Devon through cleaner air, cleaner water, green spaces for recreation and health and the opportunity through volunteering to take part in enjoyable, meaningful activity in a natural setting.
This activity matters because biodiversity and climate are both in crisis, making the world, very much including the UK and Devon, a less safe and healthy place to live with each year that passes.
Our Activities fall into two areas: (a) tree growing and planting (b) outreach, lobbying and education.
We organise parties of volunteers to collect tree seeds in local native broadleaf woodland. Again with strong volunteer participation, we germinate and grow trees from those seeds in our nurseries. During the winter months, with the co-operation of local landowners, our volunteers plant out the trees to create new woodlands or hedgerows consisting of very locally-sourced native trees, the ones which will best foster nature recovery in this area. Finally, we survey our plantations from time to time to enhance knowledge to inform successful woodland creation in the future.
To enhance our positive impact we also take every possible opportunity to influence local landowners, land managers and bodies such as Dartmoor National Park to work for nature recovery through woodland creation where that is the appropriate change for a given area. (Dartmoor National Park in 2022 is only 12% woodland of which a third is commercial non-native conifer plantation of little or no nature value.) We aim to spread our operational model nationwide by advising other individuals and groups around the country on local woodland creation. This has included in 2022 our creation for the Tree Council of the Copse in a Box "how-to" package of which 400 copies are being sent out to applicants free of charge.
