The Woodland Trust
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| Formation | 1972 |
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| Legal status | Non-profit company and registered charity |
| Purpose | Woodland in the UK |
| Location |
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Region served
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UK |
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Membership
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Woodland enthusiasts and conservationists |
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Chief Executive
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Beccy Speight (as of 2014[update]) |
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Main organ
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Board of Trustees |
| Website | www.woodlandtrust.org.uk |
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland heritage. It has over 500,000 supporters and has planted over 30 million trees since 1972.
The Woodland Trust has three key aims: i) to protect ancient woodland which is rare, unique and irreplaceable, ii) the restoration of damaged ancient woodland, iii) plant native trees and woods with the aim of creating resilient landscapes for people and wildlife.
The Woodland Trust maintains ownership of over 1,000 sites covering over 22,500 hectares. It ensures public access to its woods.
The charity was founded in Devon, England in 1972 by retired farmer and agricultural machinery dealer Kenneth Watkins. By 1977 it had twenty two woods in six counties. In 1978 it relocated to Grantham in Lincolnshire and announced an expansion of its activities across the UK. It has supported the National Tree Week scheme, which takes place in late November and is run by The Tree Council.
From 2005 to 2008 it co-operated with the BBC for their Springwatch programme and the BBC's Breathing Places series of events held at woods. It continues to work with Springwatch and Autumnwatch most recently in 2015 as part of the Big Spring Watch, which encouraged viewers to record the signs of nature ( Phenology) through the Trust's Nature's Calendar project.
Its first employee and Director, John James, came from Lincolnshire and was living in Nottingham at the time. It had a small office on Westgate. John James was Chief Executive from 1992–97, and then Michael Townsend from 1997-2004. Sue Holden from 2004-2014. The current CEO is Beccy Speight.
A new eco-friendly headquarters, adjacent to the former HQ, was completed in 2010 at a cost of GB£5.1million. The new headquarters have been designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios as Architect and Atelier One as Structural Engineer, and incorporates light shelves to distribute natural daylight around the 200 workstations, and concrete panels to absorb daytime heat, to provide the thermal mass that the lightweight wooden structure would otherwise lack. It is estimated that compared to a concrete framed construction, the timber structure saved the equivalent in carbon production as nine years of the building's operation.
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