With the amazing help of over 90 volunteers we’ve done it: we’ve finished planting the West Field Wood.

Over three days 2850 trees were planted. Added to the self-sown oaks we protected in 2023 and the trees we planted in February 2024 that makes a new woodland of 5000 trees!

Having dodged Storm Éowyn and floods the sun smiled upon us on Friday and 35 volunteers made a brilliant start. Many put in a long day travelling from far and wide including the Bates Wells and HH Global volunteers on the minibus to and from London Paddington!

The weather stayed dry and bright on Saturday and our numbers rose to an incredible 50 volunteers.  On Sunday a diehard team was boosted by yet more volunteers dropping in for the day and we finished planting at lunchtime.

What a wonderful mix of neighbours from The Ten Parishes, friends and family, amazing individuals who had the initiative and drive to seek us out and of course our extraordinary partners Protect Earth and their dedicated followers.  There were lots of new faces and we were glad to see so many returning to help complete the job they started last year.

We couldn’t have done it without these amazing volunteers and we are hugely grateful for all the support and hard work they’ve put in.  Special mentions go to Phil, Andy, Steve, Duncan, Kathy and the Protect Earth team for their guidance and support and of course to Anna-Lisa for turning her studio into a vegan patisserie just for us!

In many ways this is just the beginning, to create a beautiful, carbon rich, biodiverse woodland will take years of ongoing care but we are excited to see it grow into a special place.

We hope that volunteers will accept our invitation to come back and see the woodland they’ve planted as it takes shape and join us as custodians of the West Field Wood to help nurture and care for it.

There will be lots of opportunities for this so watch this space for details of woodland nurture & care days later in the year.