Review of the year

In the year to May 2025 we forged alliances to save disappearing rainforests, acquired 581 hectares of new woodland, and devoted a record £82.6 million to restoring the UK's precious ecosystems.

We also reintroduced pine martens to the Dart Valley, fought 200 planning battles, and worked with farmers and landowners up and down the UK to transform the landscape for the health of woods, wildlife and people.

Enormous thanks for standing beside us over the last 12 months. We couldn't do it alone.

We rescued a rainforest...

In April, our work to restore the UK’s precious temperate rainforests kicked up a notch with our £1.65 million purchase of Buckland Wood. Nestled deep in the wilds of Devon, this moist and mossy oakwood is bursting with potential that we can’t wait to realise through restoration work that will benefit pied flycatchers, greater horseshoe bats and more special wildlife.

We couldn’t have rescued Buckland Wood without our supporters, who donated more than £735,000 to our appeal – a sum match-funded by a longstanding Trust donor in memory of his wife, Heather Corrie.

... and restored even more

Devon isn’t the only place we’re rejuvenating the UK’s rainforests. In November, we helped publish a seminal report on the state of Wales’ rainforest, pledging to protect and enhance 620 square kilometres of surviving habitat. Up in Scotland, a £680,000 National Lottery grant is powering Our Rainforest Futures, a new team tasked with upskilling local people to revive remnant habitat all the way from Sutherland to Argyll.

In the Dart Valley, we’ve been hard at work restoring the balance for wildlife. After a successful reintroduction programme in September 2024, we saw the first pine marten kits born in Devon for 150 years. And if that wasn’t enough, we took tree planting to new heights in neighbouring Cornwall, dropping 75,000 tree seeds onto Bodmin Moor in a bid to extend the rainforest there.

We fought for our living legends

If the destruction of the Sycamore Gap tree wasn’t devastating enough, 3 April 2025 heralded another dark day, when the 400-year-old Whitewebbs Oak was felled in North London on the order of a nearby Toby Carvery. We were quick to respond, calling on supporters to back our Living Legends campaign, which saw 100,000 of you back our call for a legal register and proper protection for our oldest and most special trees. In November 2024, we delivered our petition to 10 Downing Street, demanding ‘listed’ status for exceptional trees, on a par with castles and monuments.

We reclaimed forgotten forests

A whopping 2,300 square kilometres of irreplaceable ancient woodland were felled and supplanted with non-native conifers after the two world wars. Now, these forgotten forests have reached a turning point – they’re ready to harvest, with landowners facing a choice between restoring these sites to their former glory or replanting them with more conifers. So, last May, we launched a campaign urging UK governments to embark on a rescue plan. Six thousand nature lovers and counting have emailed ministers to demand action, and you can join them.

We saved a Domesday damsel

When we classify Harrison Woodlands as an ancient wood, we really mean it. This long-lived site is almost 1,000 years old (at least!), having been recorded in the Domesday Book. When the opportunity came up to purchase this 500-acre oasis in January, we jumped at the chance, bolstered by £1 million raised by our generous supporters.

A year later, we’ve hatched a plan to restore its degraded habitat back to full health, allowing struggling species including goshawks and white admiral butterflies to thrive. And by the time you read this, Harrison’s five kilometres of footpaths should be open for visitors, so you can discover its beauty for yourself.

We netted new funding to restore nature

In February, our five-year rejuvenation of the riverside bluebell woods at 500-year-old Mourne Park, in County Down, was turbocharged by £2.5 million in funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This incredible boost will help us add six kilometres of new walking trails and plant 24,000 trees; increasing access to the site, buffering ancient woodland and linking up the habitat for red squirrels and pine martens.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government shared £1.25 million from its Nature Restoration Fund between our own Loch Arkaig Pine Forest and our neighbours, Achnacarry Estate and Arkaig Community Forest. Together we’ll reconnect primeval Caledonian pinewoods across an area larger than Edinburgh.

We forged new connections at Gleann Shìldeag

Our teams on the ground planted more than five million new trees last year. That equates to around 2,548 hectares of woodland – a 25% boost from 2023/24. Three hundred and thirty thousand of these saplings were dug in at Gleann Shìldeag Estate, around Ben Shieldaig mountain, extending precious patches of Caledonian pinewood and temperate rainforest which red squirrels and golden eagles call home. Many of the trees were grown from local seed collected by our amazing volunteers.

We bought Ervey Road Farm in Northern Ireland

Our dream of forging Northern Ireland’s first native national forest came a step closer last year when we bought £1.4 million Ervey Road Farm in Derry-Londonderry. We’re planning on planting 100,000 trees there, further linking up the 1,000 acres that make up the mosaic of the Faughan Valley Woodlands, home to otters and purple hairstreak butterflies. Eighty per cent of the funding for the new land came from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, while another £100,000 came from a very unlikely backer… musical legend Nile Rogers and his We Are Family charity foundation.

We championed agroforestry

Agroforestry helps shelter livestock, improve soils, boost pollinators and improve yields, and we’ve spent more than a decade helping farms across the UK reap the benefits of trees. At the last count, we’ve delivered 300 agroforestry schemes through our Trees for Your Farm fund, and in 2024/25 we planted a grand total of 45,000 farm trees and 100km of hedgerow. If that wasn’t enough, we’ve been working with Sainsbury’s beef and dairy suppliers across North West and South West England to scatter 20,000 saplings on their land.

We took the classroom outside

Since we launched our Green Tree Schools Award in 2008, we’ve challenged two million children to bug hunts, nature walks, recycling initiatives and more. In 2024, we surveyed teachers about the impact the award has had on their pupils, and the results are inspiring. Ninety-two per cent said it raises children’s environmental awareness, while 88% said it boosts mental health and wellbeing.

We brought the community together at Brynau Farm

Sitting within walking distance of Neath town centre and 20 miles from half a million potential visitors, Brynau Farm is a woodland made for people. In September, we welcomed more than 130 people from Seren Dwt – a charity supporting families of children with Down syndrome – to Brynau for a day of bushcraft, den building and fun in nature. We also hosted a lively volunteer crew and pupils from local schools who helped us transform the hillside with 150,000 saplings.

And we aren’t stopping there. In October 2024 we invested £1.75 million to buy neighbouring Cefn Morfudd, a 140-hectare (346-acre) spread of peatland and pasture that has more than doubled the size of Brynau. We’ve already added 12 football-pitches worth of trees during a week-long programme of public planting events, laid a buggy and wheelchair-friendly surfaced track, and begun re-wetting the desiccated moors to reduce the threat of flooding down in town.

Thank you!

We're so grateful to the organisations that supported our work to the tune of £20,000 or more in 2024–25. To one and all, we send our sincere thanks.

Number crunch

Our income in 2024–25 reached a record £89.4 million – an invaluable investment for woods, trees and wildlife! Here's how we raised it – and invested it for the future.