Land


 I am increasingly bothered by Trees and Land. 

When I was at the Forest Research conference there were a lot of landowners who talked about the way they had worked with their land and made it better for the next generation. It was all very nice but concerning  in that if you didn't have access to extensive grounds this was all a bit difficult. 

I decided that:

 1) I was obviously bad as I do co-own a wood (West Wood in Dorset) albeit with my brothers and helped by my lovely cousin Bill who practically lives in a wood with his volunteers who are all burnt out NHS executives. 

West Wood is co-curated with Sean from Natural England, a friar from the Hilfield Friary and assorted dog walkers and farmers. Bill made me a shed in it.   

2) Our project is clearly super important as it is about the way that people have a sense of belonging in woods and how this comes from the act of being in a wood. 

Being in a wood is hard and scary - when I first went into West Wood the brambles scratched, I got stuck in a bog and I got lost, this still happens 9 times out of 10. But I also know the trees my uncle planted and the ones my grandparents planted and why there are old oaks on the boundary - this is because in the war they couldn't get through West Wood to the other side to cut them down, and I know which ash trees are dying and which not and this is because I have spent hours and hours with my uncle with him telling me what he did in the wood. His fingers were cut off in a chain saw - this is a common problem for foresters. This brings me to: 

3) The need for foresters and Liz was talking about this this week - how her son wanted to be a forester and there were not enough routes in for the forester would-be young person. This brings me to: 

4) I am meeting with Mischa from Forus Tree this afternoon to discuss co-funding a community woodland which is for everyone. We have just found four fields in Todmorden and we want to re-wild them. Also our great new doctorate student, Nobila, wants to work with us with her FE young people from Rochdale. 

This is an old pollarded Ash tree in West Wood that has not died. The large space is a home for all sorts of animals including dormice.  

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