Woodland Trust

Barry Woodhouse, a representative from the Woodland Trust was the guest speaker at March Rotary Club on Monday evening, the 16^th July. Introduced by Terry Emery, Barry explained, with the aid of projection photos, how in1972 the Charity was founded in Devon, the inspiration of Kenneth Watkins.

The idea was simply to acquire land and plant broadleaf native trees. The Trust now owns some 50000 acres across Britain, with 200000 members actively engaged on upon conservation and protecting ancient woodlands.

12 percent of Britain is woodland, and the Charity plants an amazing 20 million trees a year. Most are grown in the UK, being young saplings, with approximately 1000 woods being under their supervision.

Gault Wood and the Oliver Cutteridge Wood, privately owned, but open to the public, are just two local woodlands managed by the Trust, and only a short distance from March.

Tring Park, home of the Rothschild dynasty, was an early example of tree conservation, and Barry dealt with this at some length.

Question time raised some controversial topics, on hedgerows and arable land, being a subject close to some members with agricultural backgrounds, Mike Endersby then proposed a vote of thanks, and the evening concluded with the presentation of a donation to the Woodland Trust by President Ross Davies