Can you imagine a world without woodlands?  

Development, disease, pollution, and climate change are pushing UK woodlands to crisis point, and threatening the plants and animals that depend on them. 

It’s a global problem, but it’s a local one too. Right now, woodlands in Kent are in danger.  

Will you help us save them, before it’s too late? 

While our county’s overall woodland cover has increased in recent years, the picture is more complicated than it might seem. Much of this new growth comes from monoculture plantations – areas of dense, non-native trees, such as conifers that are grown for commercial timber. These single-species woodlands lack diversity and aren’t able to support the variety of plants and animals that can be found in older, more complex woodlands.  

That’s why it’s vital that we protect existing woodlands – particularly our long-established ancient woodlands, which are our richest land-based habitats, and home to thousands of species, many of them endangered (Woodland Trust).  

Ancient woodland covers just 2.5% of the UK. In Kent we have 30,832ha of this precious habitat – it accounts for around 8% of our county’s land area. 

Continue vital woodland management across our existing woodland reserves, including protecting ancient woodland habitat – ensuring that the precious habitat we still have is in the best possible condition and can support thriving wildlife populations, from bees and birds to butterflies and bats. 

Facilitate urgent advocacy work – supporting our expert planning team to carry out their essential work to ensure that Kent’s woodlands remain safe from damaging development and that planning decisions prioritise the preservation of natural habitats.  

Increase of amount of woodland under our protection– we will set aside a portion of the funds raised to support viable land purchase opportunities that may arise in the near future. The opportunity to buy at-risk land is often highly time sensitive – having designated funds in place will give us a better chance to secure threatened woodlands that may come up for sale unexpectedly.  

Read more about our plans for our woodlands

The threats facing our woodlands are growing day by day. Housing developments are expanding, and in Kent we are especially susceptible to the diseases, pests, pathogens and non-native species that, if allowed to take hold, can decimate diversity within our woodlands. We are already witnessing the climate change impacts, like increasing temperatures and wetter winters, that can exacerbate these threats.  

Much of our woodland management work needs to be carried out in the autumn and winter months to minimise disturbance to wildlife, so donations to the appeal will enable us to do more to protect woodlands right now, and throughout the winter. 

We’ve already lost so much of the woodland we once had, and many of those that remain are damaged – only 7% of the UK’s native woodlands are in good condition.  To make things worse, many woodlands, whether privately owned or parcelled out to numerous owners, often have no official designation protecting their use, or safeguarding their future. If sold on the open market, these woodlands could soon fall silent.  

We need to raise £475,000 by the 18th November to support vital woodland  management and protection this season.  

The more we raise now, the more we can do to safeguard woodlands across Kent.  

Donation packs