REVEALED: Nearly three-quarters of England's woods are inaccessible to the public, according to official stats
@righttoroam.bsky.social local groups are organising upcoming trespasses to woods to show how pheasant shoots & private logging firms prevent access:
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Guy Shrubsole said “It’s appalling that three-quarters of all the woodland in England is inaccessible. Everyone loves trees, but thousands of woods are off-limits simply because of corporate logging interests or due to a landowner using their woods for pheasant shooting.”
@righttoroam.bsky.social 🌳
Everyone should be able to access, enjoy, and protect our woodland. We need the right to health-giving exercise in beautiful nature - as well as the right to connect to the stories and myths people have told about our glorious ancient trees for centuries.
Right to Roam Local Groups are undertaking a month of trespasses to inaccessible woods and trees across England from mid-March to mid-April. They will be highlighting the numerous instances of how the public are being shut out of our woods by private landowners, logging companies and pheasant shoots
35% of the ancient trees on the Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Inventory are inaccessible, that’s 29,121 trees on their database with no access, across England and Wales.
ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk
73% of woods in England have no known public access. The statistic comes from a buried government report quietly published by Forest Research last year.
storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5451...
If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise... most of them are closed off to the public.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Co-director of Right to Roam, @jon-moses.bsky.social, has authored its launch report: The Welsh Way to Wild
1) Read the report and sign up to the mailing list at: rewildingalliance.cymru
2) Give the alliance a follow: @cynghrairalwylltio.cymru
It’s live! The @cynghrairalwylltio.cymru has launched and Right to Roam are proud to be one of the core organisations supporting its call for a wilder Wales.
We’ll be advocating a vision of rewilding which opens access, builds community, and drives ecological recovery from below.
Very happy to be representing @righttoroam.bsky.social as a member of this new rewilding alliance, and to have authored its launch report: The Welsh Way to Wild.
1) Read the report and sign up to the mailing list at: rewildingalliance.cymru
2) Give the alliance a follow: @cynghrairalwylltio.cymru
Welcome to the Welsh Rewilding Alliance 🌱
We’re building the power and momentum needed to deliver rewilding in Wales, by Wales, for Wales.
Sign up to our newsletter to join the movement — link in our bio.
#Rewilding #WelshRewildingAlliance #Cymru
The government must know this line is nonsense. Yet still keep repeating it.
Nine river walks & three forests won't change the postcode lottery on access to nature. Even where these initiatives are happening they're so far only upgrading the existing infrastructure, not creating new access at all.
Today 25 of us went trespassing along the River Dart near Buckfast. In just 5km we walked through woodlands and along riverbanks owned by 4 different landowners who don't want the public on their land (including the monks at Buckfast Abbey). It's time for a right to roam! @righttoroam.bsky.social
"The quiet revolution that both books will further charge is of potentially planet-changing importance."
Super-proud of this joint review of my book The Lie of the Land and @righttoroam.bsky.social's Wild Service, in the Journal of Historical Geography (£):
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
We absolutely want to address this issue; we love dogs, but a right to roam would not automatically extend to them. We recommend reading our detailed policy proposals addressing the challenges of England’s rising dog population. drive.google.com/file/d/1uJ8I...
For more on the architecture of belonging, see WILD SERVICE: Why Nature Needs You.
A publication from the Right to Roam campaign. m.cmpgn.page/kqCFTs
Following the Police, Crime and Sentencing Act words like ‘intent to reside’ have become criminalised.
Wild camping remains unlawful across nearly all of Wales and England.
The most normal of things have been rebranded as sins.
Because a den is a counter-claim to ownership; an incitement to belong.
Every creature needs sanctuary. And den-making brings us into affinity with our most creaturely instincts.
Which is exactly what the law of the land cannot abide.
Building a den is the most natural thing in the world.
Yet today it has become guerilla architecture; a spooky reminder that evolutionary instinct and modern property law rarely make good den-fellows.
Landowners admonish. Councils tear them down. In some bizarre cases, police are called.
A den is a childish statement of belonging, but let’s not mistake childish for trivial. Den making is the instinctive behaviour of homemaking: collecting materials from the world around, as you work out what can be borrowed, salvaged and adapted into shelter. Nearly everyone has built a den.
OUR LAND
A film about the Right to Roam campaign.
Preview screenings from March - April.
Cinemas nationwide from May.
Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=est-...
Screenings: www.metfilmstudio.com/distribution...
There will be preview screenings in cinemas across the country from early March to early May, followed by a national release. With the help of our local group network, we’ll be attending as many screenings as possible for post-film Q&As. Tickets here: www.metfilmstudio.com/distribution...
This spring sees the release of a documentary about the fight to defend and extend access to nature in England and Wales. OUR LAND, directed by Orban Wallace and shot by Gallivant Film, follows the Right to Roam campaign as we trespass estates and challenge removal of rights on Dartmoor and beyond.
We are delighted to be part of this exhibition at
@themerl.bsky.social, with the fight for Dartmoor's right to Wild Camp and the resurection of Old Crockern. On 14th February - 24th of May, not one to miss!
We're also marking the launch of Radical Rural, a gallery trail championing many more voices who champion and care for rural England today. From summoning the folk spirits of England's woods and tors, to meticulously mapping the data of who really owns England.
merl.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/rad...
This May sees the release of Our Land - a feature length documentary film about the Right to Roam campaign, directed by Orban Wallace.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=est-...
Exciting news: this May sees the national release of OUR LAND.
A beautiful documentary feature film about the @righttoroam.bsky.social campaign, directed by Orban Wallace.
Trailer here 👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=est-...
For more on the architecture of belonging, see WILD SERVICE: Why Nature Needs You.
A publication from the Right to Roam campaign. m.cmpgn.page/kqCFTs
The rope swing is our most common example of the commons.
A raucous, everyday insult to the claims that belonging equates to ownership.
A ‘common lore’ superseding the fiction of ‘property law’.
Once a rope swing becomes established it becomes a local theatre of experience. A place where relationships play out, where memories are forged.
It is the hearth of an invisible, numberless community.
