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Due to Covid-19, we have reduced personnel at the offices of the Sylva Foundation and our premises at the Sylva Wood Centre. Emails and phone messages are being checked but please allow a little longer than usual to receive a response. Please do not arrange a formal visit without first checking with us. Members of the public are free to enjoy our network of permitted paths through the Future Forest as usual.
Seen from the offices of Sylva Foundation, we’ve had a privileged view of the making of the new Future Forest (if not a little work in making it all happen!). Over the span of seven months we’ve taken a photograph most days looking south across the field. We’ve added all these together to make a two-minute timelapse which features the last arable crop being harvested, the arrival of archaeologists, surveying the ground and marking it out, planting with our new Forest Friends, and finally the emergence of a stunning display of wildflowers.
Last weekend we welcomed more than 50 families and hundreds of people to the Future Forest to plant trees in their sponsored plots.
The Forest Friends scheme has attracted support from far and wide, and it has been a privilege to meet all our new supporters and to hear their stories for why they chose to sponsor a plot in the Future Forest.
Following the busy weekend we welcomed a team of conservation volunteers from South & Vale District Councils who helped plant a large number of trees around the outside of the forest and along ride edges.
There are just 37 plots (each holding 25 trees) left to sponsor in the dynamic new Sylva Future Forest. Final planting session for Future Forest Friends will be on Saturday 11th March (or we can plant your plot for you). Don’t miss your chance to be a part of this wonderful project – become a Future Forest Friend today at www.sylva.org.uk/forestfriend
Grown in Britain (GIB) have generously supported the Sylva Future Forest by sponsoring a cluster of plots now known as the Grown in Britain grove.
GIB planting team. Left to right John Weir (Forestry Commission England), Laura Sceal (GIB), Judith Millidge (Small Woodland Owners’ Group), Helen Bentley-Fox (GIB), Dougal Driver (GIB). Tom Barnes (Vastern Timber), Gabriel Hemery (Sylva Foundation), William Jackson (Certainly Wood), and Jen Hurst (Sylva Foundation). Behind the camera, Matt Larsen Daw (Woodland Trust).
Last Friday a team assembled by GIB got to work planting a wide selection of trees from our pallet of 40 species. In between the tree planting they enjoyed hot drinks, soup, tea cakes and marshmallows on the open fire, naturally burning GIB firewood (kindly provided by Certainly Wood). In fact they enjoyed planting so much that Tom Barnes (MD of Vastern Timber) generously sponsored an additional two plots (50 trees), which were planted after lunch.
Matt Larsen Daw, project lead for the Charter for Trees Woods and People helped ‘Show the Love’ for trees (see photo above). The Future Forest has been part-sponsored by the Woodland Trust and it is fitting that its creation is taking place during the year of the Tree Charter.
Vastern Timber MD Tom Barnes planting
Vastern Timber MD Tom Barnes planting
Certainly Wood provide GIB firewood
Certainly Wood provide GIB firewood
GIB planting team
GIB planting team
GIB planting team
GIB planting team
Show the Love for trees
Gabriel Hemery 'Shows the Love' for trees as part of the 2017 Charter for Trees Woods and People
This week we’ve welcomed more business Forest Friends to plant their trees and learn more about the work of Sylva Foundation. We’re looking forward to meeting several more over the coming weeks. If you are looking for an usual team building event for staff and a lasting legacy in sponsoring a plot of 25 trees in the name of your business, we have a few opportunities left. If you’re interested we recommend you don’t delay, but read more about our Earth, Wind & Fire event.
This weekend we welcomed more than 30 of our new Forest Friends to help plant their sponsored plots. Over 900 trees were planted with some 40 different tree species.
Despite some light rain on the Sunday and muddy conditions, spirits remained undeterred. The wonderful Education shelter designed by Julian Angus helped considerably, as did toasted marshmallows and hot drinks served round the fire. It was heartening to hear the stories from our new Friends; whether celebrating a new life or remembering a loved one, or sharing in the simple passion of planting trees for the good of us all.
Nine hundred down but 6,400 trees still to plant! Over the coming weeks we’ll be welcoming more planting help, including hundreds of local primary school children, and some of our business sponsors. If you’re an individual interested in sponsoring one of the few remaining plots for your family or loved one, or interested in business sponsorship, then don’t delay! The final public planting weekend is scheduled for 25th and 26th February.
We hope you enjoy a few of the many photos capturing the creation of the Future Forest. If you’ve already planted your trees then do share any of your photos in our Facebook album.
Julian Angus: designer and builder of the Future Forest education building
Julian Angus: designer and builder of the Future Forest education building
education-shelter
The completed Education shelter
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Just a few of the 40 tree species available to plant
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A Forest Friend planting near the Education shelter
Forest Friends celebrating successful planting
Enjoying a well-deserved break round the fire
Burcot Youth Group
180-degree panorama during the first planting weekend
Sylva’s Tree Team Educators Jen Hurst and Pieternel Overweel teach the Sylva Plant a Tree! song to Robins Reception class at St Francis Church of England Primary School.
We have welcomed in the New Year in the best way possible: inviting hundreds of young people to plant trees in the Future Forest.
Sylva’s staff, Education Manager Jen Hurst and volunteer Pieternel Overweel, have been working closely with 20 primary school classes (500 children) thanks to funding from Tesco Bags of Help and the Ernest Cook Trust.
Sylva Tree Team
During January we have been visiting the schools to talk about trees, forestry and tree planting. All the children will be visiting the site of the Future Forest to plant their trees during February. These young students are excited to be joining the Sylva Tree Team.
School students planting the Future Forest
In addition to preparing the primary schools we’ve been welcoming secondary school students and special needs groups, thanks to collaboration with Earth Trust who have long-established links with local schools.
The 600+ children helping us plant the new woodland will be a long way forward in a journey learning about and taking responsibility for the environment, after all:
“All human beings should plant one tree for every year that they live on Earth.”
Gabriel Hemery & Sarah Simblet, The New Sylva (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014)
Beccy Speight and Gabriel Hemery plant the first tree, a Wild Pear, in the Future Forest
This week Woodland Trust Chief Executive Beccy Speight visited Sylva Foundation to discuss the various collaborative projects running with Sylva Foundation. After discussions with CEO Gabriel Hemery concluded the pair planted the first tree in the Sylva Future Forest; a wild pear! We’re very grateful to various funders for supporting the creation of this new woodland at the Sylva Wood Centre, among them the Woodland Trust.
The main area of the Future Forest will be planted with our Forest Friends in the New Year. It will contain some 40 species, including locally-sourced native trees, native trees with ‘exotic genetics’ (i.e. matched to projected climate), and exotic species from around the world. Read more about the Future Forest.
Beccy Speight and Gabriel Hemery plant the first tree in the Future Forest
Regular supporters will be aware we are planting the Future Forest at the Sylva Wood Centre this winter. Our CEO Gabriel Hemery visited the planting site recently with lifestyle woodworker Paul Sellers to talk about the vision for the Future Forest and how people can get involved.
Why not give a completely unique gift this Christmas – a woodland plot in the name of your family or friends.
An exclusive winter planting day, a green space for summer walks, woodland picnics for years to come and involvement in an environmental project that helps explore what a sustainable woodland could look like in future – that’s a really special gift to put under the Christmas tree this year. Plots in the unique, new ‘Future Forest’ being planted by environmental charity Sylva Foundation make the perfect Christmas gift for eco-conscious friends or family who love trees or wood, enjoy getting outdoors or simply have enough ‘stuff’ already.
Give this gift to one person or a family and the new Future Forest Friends will be able to get their hands on a spade, boots on the ground and, with the help of expert Foresters, chose and plant twenty-five trees at special planting days in January or February 2017. Aside from creating their own stake in the future, Forest Friends will be able to follow the development of a unique ‘demonstration’ woodland that’s helping discover which tree species can withstand climate change. Each Future Forest Friend will receive a certificate, annual updates as the forest grows and their own hand-carved ‘leaf-key’ to their plot, designed and made by wood-carver Simon Clements.
The Sylva Future Forest of 7,500 trees will be planted on former farmland at the Sylva Wood Centre in Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire in winter 2016/17. There are about 300 plots of 25 trees each which are available for individuals or businesses to sponsor. Gift sponsorship can be done monthly at £5/month for three years or a one-off payment of £180.
Children from Willowcroft Community School at the Future Forest, September 2016
Tesco Bags of Help grant supports the Future Forest
We announced two weeks ago the fabulous news that we will receive a grant from the Tesco Bags of Help scheme – read more. Voting by members of the public in Tesco stores near us in south Oxfordshire could help us attract even more funding and help us support more work with young children from local schools. Voting opens 31st October to 13th November.
This week the local paper visited to cover the story and we were lucky to have the support of children from one of the primary schools taking part in planting the Future Forest. Seven children from Willowcroft Community School came to see the bare arable field, where they will return after Christmas and help plant 7,500 trees.
