Trees and Woodlands

Chair: Nick Phillips, The Woodland Trust
Vice-chair: Andrew Weatherall, RSPB
Link Manager: Lisa Manning, Policy Officer 

Update from the Group:

The Trees and Woodlands Group is working to highlight the importance of trees and woodlands in supporting nature’s restoration, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the benefits they can bring to communities. The group addresses issues including grants, managing woodlands for nature and climate, and will be scrutinising the Government's progress towards tree planting targets. Ancient woodland protection is high on the groups agenda. 

The group published a briefing which makes the case for updating the legal duty of the Forestry Commission and its agencies to meet legally binding nature targets.

The group have positions on how woodland management and woodland creation can best be delivered for nature, climate and for people. The latest briefing published by the group covers ancient woodland protection. On behalf of the group, Link representative Lisa recently attended and spoke at the Institute of Chartered Foresters first conference 'Celebrating Ancient Woodlands: Past, Present and Future'.

For further information, contact Lisa Manning, Policy Officer (lisa@wcl.org.uk).

Last updated: December 2025

Trees and Woodlands group on a site visit hosted by Rewilding Britain, May 2025