The Woodland Trust

Get outdoors this spring and help us monitor nature 🔍 We're looking for song thrushes, frogspawn, and blackthorn flowers 🌸 By recording nature’s vital signs, we can help keep our planet and ecosystems healthy for wildlife and people 🌍 Record your spring sightings today 👉 https://bit.ly/3WIDz5D

Have you spotted small flowers on a winter tree? These catkins have an important role in spreading tree seeds and show us that spring is on the way 🍃    🌳 Catkins are long slim clusters of tiny flowers that grow on some trees. They enable female flowers to be pollinated when pollen from male flowers is blown by the wind.    🌺 Male catkins drop off after releasing pollen, whereas female catkins collect pollen and then release the seeds.    🐞 Once the seeds have developed, they are dispersed by the wind, except for willow, which is pollinated by insects instead.    ➡️ Here are four catkins to look out for over the next few months!    🔎 See any tree catkins near you? Add a record of them to our Nature's Calendar project here: https://lnkd.in/eW_UYKPA   #NaturesCalendar #CitizenScience #TreeID #TreeCatkins 

It's like Eurovision, but with trees! 🇬🇧 🌳 Last year, you voted and chose the #SkipinnishOak as the UK Tree of the Year. Now, this spectacular Scottish oak is up for the title, European #TreeOfTheYear 2025! 🦉 We believe our ancient oaks deserve some international recognition. The Skipinnish Oak is likely over 400 years old and, like many veteran trees, is a haven for endangered wildlife. Its trunk is coated in mosses and a rare lichen called black-eyed Susan. 🥁 The tree also has its own musical heritage! It's named after the Scottish trad and contemporary band Skipinnish, whose members helped ancient tree recorders first locate and record the tree. 🗳️ Voting is now open for European Tree of the Year! 👉 Vote for the UK's contender, the Skipinnish Oak, here: https://lnkd.in/eY8Fysir #EuropeanTreeOfTheYear #ETY2025 #TreeStories #SkipinnishOak

From reducing anxiety to boosting relaxation, nature is proven to have a positive impact on our mental health 🌳 This #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek, we’re spotlighting ways you can take advantage of our woodlands’ mood-boosting superpowers. Head out into nature with friends or family and soak up the good vibes with one of these activities 👇 If you’re a teacher, why not take the classroom outside and earn points towards your Green Tree Schools Award at the same time? Head to our website to learn more and to take part 👉 https://bit.ly/42v7ZMj

Congratulations to Dedham Vale Society and Campaign for National Parks for their victory in the judicial review below.   It's brilliant to see campaigners standing up for the natural environment and challenging poor planning decisions through the legal system.   This victory has set an important precedent, which means that all official bodies must comply with the new statutory duty to 'conserve and enhance' National Landscapes and National Parks in their decisions.

Explore a wet woodland with us on #WorldWetlandsDay! 🐸 🌳 Wet woodlands - woods that occur on soils that are often or seasonally wet - are one of our rarest wooded habitats. 🐸 They've disappeared from much of the UK but harbour many kinds of rare wildlife. One of the UK's fastest declining resident bird, the willow tit, is actually a wet woodland specialist that nests in rotting trees. ♻️ Some wet woodlands even form peat soils, which lock up vast amounts of carbon, but little research has been done on how re-establishing wet woodlands could help us fight the climate crisis. 🔎 With support from us, researchers from the Wet Woodlands Research Network are working to improve our understanding of how wet woodlands trap carbon, and create the first estimate of how much carbon is stored within them. 👉 Learn more about wet woodlands and how we're helping to protect and restore them across the UK here: https://bit.ly/3EkvhKS #WWD2025 #WetWoodlands #ConservationResearch #WetlandsForOurCommonFuture #WetlandsCOP15 Royal Holloway, University of London, University of Plymouth, University of Cambridge, University of Leeds

"The challenge will be to demonstrate how nature is essential for a healthy, growing and sustainable economy." 🌱 Andrew Allen explores the new Land Use Framework consultation for England 👇 https://lnkd.in/evdJXu2K

Join us for the first edition of our Day in the Life series of 2025! 🎉 There are a wide variety of roles at the Woodland Trust, and in this episode, we're spotlighting our Diversity and Inclusion team. From site visits to developing guides for staff networks, take a deep dive into the work of our diversity and inclusion assistant, Zaphos Brouard. Thinking of a career in #conservation? Find out more about working for us 👉 https://lnkd.in/emkM3qq

Our response to the Government's planning reforms 👇 It’s right that we protect the built cathedrals for future generations, and it's equally important to do so for our natural cathedrals. We can have both #NatureRecovery and high-quality sustainable development. Indeed, the government previously said that, and it must not back down on its promises. But that requires coherent, properly resourced long-term planning—something successive Governments have failed to deliver. Reforms must protect the remaining fragments of ancient woodland and other precious habitats, not play them off against other objectives.   To use the government’s own language ‘we can't afford not to’. We look forward to also hearing from the government how it plans to ‘tear down the barriers ‘to nature’s recovery'.   New plans must include effective green infrastructure, such as trees and nature, on every new development. Healthy and functioning ecosystems will make our new homes more resilient to climate change and underpin a sustainable economy. Planning reform must play its part towards meeting legally binding species and habitat recovery targets and commitments to genuinely protect 30% of land by 2030. Darren Moorcroft (he/him)