Environment Systems is proud to celebrate its 20-year partnership with the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. Our first collaboration was to develop “Woods for People,” a database of accessible woodlands in the UK. This essential data helps the Woodland Trust to make the case for accessible woodland close to population centres. We have maintained Woods for People for many years and recently moved the data to an online portal so that Woodland Trust partners can more easily update information on their accessible woods.
The Woodland Trust is committed to ensuring that the general public can easily access woodlands for recreation. This means ensuring that there is publicly accessible woodland close to where people live so that they can enjoy the physical and mental benefits of spending time in woodlands, and to ensure that woods are valued by society into the future.
Every year we help the Woodland Trust to refresh their accessible woodland data. They use this data to analyse the location of accessible woodland in relation to people; to inform its policy and advocacy work, and to target its conservation and engagement activities.
The benefits of woodland access
As the Woodland Trust states, “Woods and trees are good for us. Many of us feel this intuitively. But there is also an increasing amount of research to back this up. It shows that access to woodland can make us physically healthier, improve mental wellbeing and increase quality of life. Scientific studies have shown that ‘green exercise’ – such as walking and cycling – can improve self-esteem and mood, reduce stress and anxiety disorders, and help ease attentional fatigue and depression. And the closer green spaces are to where people live, the more likely they are to use them.”
Environment Systems is proud of its long-standing partnership with the Woodland Trust. We will continue to work together to protect and promote woodlands, and to make them accessible to everyone.
You can read more about the work of The Woodland Trust here