Press Release: Protect Earth Purchases High Wood

Thanks to the extremely generous donations of all sizes, Protect Earth is now the proud owner of a historic 64-acre ancient woodland known as High Wood, in Liskeard, Cornwall. High Wood has been woodland consistently since before 1600, and despite being used for commercial timber production for decades, it still retains an impressive amount of biodiversity and wildlife.

High Wood is an integral part of the Liskeard community, a place for serene dog walks, peaceful gatherings, and wildlife spotting, and Protect Earth is happy to say that will not change. Public access will stay a priority. The existing permissive footpaths will continue to be open, and there are plans to try and restore various footpaths connecting to High Wood that have been closed over the decades.

Phil Sturgeon, Chair of Protect Earth, said "Our first priority is to end the destructive use of clear cutting, which has resulted in a dire loss of plant life and animal habitats. We're excited that there's evidence of natural regeneration happening already, with hundreds of oak, hazel, ash, willow, and holly popping up out of the scarred landscape, and we will help that process along by planting in selective locations to establish a canopy faster."

The main goal at High Wood is to immediately halt all clear cutting, by switching to more sustainable forestry methods. The non-native conifers will continue to be harvested for timber for decades, but instead of felling several acres at once, a selection of trees will be removed from a given area at a time. As the conifers are removed, more light will make it to the forest floor, allowing natural regeneration to take place, and the seed bank in the soil will spring to life, with seeds that have lay dormant for years growing into saplings.

Protect Earth’s decisions are advised by experienced ecologists, forestry management consultants, and local Woodland Trust representatives. With all of this combined experience, Protect Earth is confident in its ability to bring High Wood back to its full potential. Restoring High Wood to its former glory will take decades, but over time this woodland will return to being a temperate rainforest—a habitat that’s all too rare today. The benefits of this are improved habitats for wildlife (more birds, insects, and critters), and far more effective carbon sequestration.

In other sections, the majestic Douglas firs have been planted so close together they’ve been causing each other trouble, and bullying some of the few Oaks in the woodland. Most will not grow to their full potential unless we split them up, but the rest will be given a stern talking to. They should fill out sideways after that, rather than all awkwardly reaching for the sky.

What’s more, there’s a distinct lack of undergrowth in some sections of High Wood, which needs addressing in order to encourage biodiversity. After all, what’s an ancient woodland without flourishing fern, moss, and lichen? There is evidence of this in the eastern edge where ferns and moss are growing all over the oaks, but we need this to spread throughout the site.

Sadly, the introduction of non-native conifers to a few areas has acidified a lot of the surrounding soil, and blocked a great deal of light from reaching the forest floor. While that’s given the place a beautifully haunting look, it’s desolate, and wildlife has nowhere to set up home. Some gradual thinning will be necessary in these sections so the dormant seeds in the earth will have a chance to sprout, and the soil should balance itself out, too.

Taking the approach of minimal natural regeneration means High Wood itself will take care of the rest over the coming decades, filling itself out and turning our nominal meddling into maximum propagation. Essentially, don’t panic if you see a couple of trees being felled here and there; all this tweaking will eventually work toward mitigating the biodiversity crisis, as well as the climate crisis, which is something Project Drawdown list as a huge source of carbon sequestration: Temperate Rainforest Restoration.

Protect Earth considers itself to be a steward of the land, and will not allow High Wood to be turned into anything other than a glorious woodland. We will do everything it takes to restore High Wood to its halcyon day splendour, while keeping public access and wildlife conservation at the heart of the project.

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Notes to Editors:

1) Protect Earth is a registered charity in England and Wales, established in 2020, with a focus on the climate and biodiversity crises. The goal of the charity is to reforest and rewild as much of the UK as possible, by working with landowners, environmental and voluntary organisations, and the general public, to access land, plant trees, and monitor their growth. We also acquire land of our own to rewild and protect indefinitely, for reforestation and conservation.