High Wood

Restoring High Wood - an ancient Cornish woodland

Protect Earth is incredibly proud to be the stewards of this beautiful ancient woodland. Together with the help from the local community we are restoring this woodland back to its former glory, as a temperate rainforest, bringing back the wildlife that has been clinging to the edges around all of the non-native conifers and unsustainable commercial forestry practices.

How Protect Earth manages High Wood

High Wood is an ancient woodland that's been repeatedly clear felled since the 1960s, and doesn't have a single ancient tree. A lot of it looks like this thanks to these non-native conifers dumping acid into the soil and preventing anything else from growing there.

The overall plan is to take down some of the non-native conifers to make room for the native saplings to recolonise the woods, which will mean more native wildlife, more woodland flowers, fungi, and lichens, but in the mean time we'd love to make it a nicer place to be for humans too.

In November 2022, the Forestry Commission granted approval to restore High Wood to a temperate rainforest. Acres of young conifers were then taken down, revealing native species struggling for light and destined for failure. We then brought in some tree species that are just not in the area, but should be.

As a result, all of the 64 acres are being restored to a state of temperate rainforest, but this will take decades. Wildlife, carbon sequestration, and community involvement, are all going to thrive under our watch.

The rail trail and Cornish mining heritage

Not only does High Wood hold important ecological value, but it also has a rich history. The woodland is located on the site of part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It may not have been as famous as the Taj Mahal, but it holds real interest for historians.

In February 2026, the President of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, joint sponsors of the project, unveiled a heritage board at High Wood on the site of the former Liskeard & Caradon Railway.

This railway ran through High Wood and provided the link between the Caradon mining area and the outside world through the port of Looe.

How is this work funded?

The land was purchased with donations to our Land Fund, and a large philanthropic donation which covered 80% of the £480,000. Since then we have received a small amount of income from felling 30% of the non-native conifers for timber, but that only covered two years of costs.

Our main cost is our local site managers who do all the work to keep the trails clear and keep the wildlife happy.

We do not sell carbon credits, and there are no government grants for ancient woodland restoration that organizations like us can access.

At this point we are entirely reliant on donations to continue our work.

Work parties at High Wood

For High Wood to reach its full potential for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and the community, much work must be done.

We run regular work parties - hosting open days for community members to make a difference in High Wood - to achieve some of these goals, from improving access, installing bird boxes and benches, and fighting invasive species.

Our work parties at High Wood fall on the 3rd weekend of every month, alternating Sundays and Saturdays. We meet at 10:00 and wrap the day up around 16:00.

High Wood Work Party Dates 2026

• Sunday, 17th May
• Saturday, 20th June
• Sunday, 19th July
• Saturday, 15th August
• Sunday, 20th September
• Saturday, 17th October
• Sunday, 15th November