The north’s leading woodland management social enterprise, Living Woods, is moving to a new HQ at Hexham in the Tyne Valley.
Living Woods CIC work to create, care for and connect with woodlands across the north of England, with a strong base in the north east.
Our team, led by director Mark Shipperlee, will supervise hundreds of conservation volunteers from new offices at Legion House in Beaufront Park, Hexham.
Living Woods, a not-for-profit community interest company, helps create new woodlands and orchards. We work with land managers and communities to help them put “the right tree, in the right place, for the right reason” and create diverse and productive habitats for people and wildlife.
We look after existing woodland, working with managers and custodians to care sustainably for their woodlands and orchards. And we have have a new brand project, Rekindle, producing sustainable local firewood, charcoal and coppice products like hurdles, besoms, and bows. We also operate coppicing and woodland management at a site in the Tyne valley.
“Hexham is an ideal base for us,” said Mark Shipperlee. “There’s a lot happening in this area. We are focusing on getting small woodlands into management as well as producing material to make products which can be sold in different markets to help to make this work sustainable.”
The team was recently recently working with volunteers at Hagg Bank near Prudhoe, protecting young saplings and learning tree identification skills.
Mark has been involved in countryside management, woodland work, and environmental campaigning for many years, and has been based in the north east since 2003. He comes from a background in countryside management, and he is passionate about local, regional and global sustainability and resilience, and also about bringing woodlands back into sustainable management in the region.
He noted that the new office was opposite the factory of Egger (UK) which manufactures chipboard: “There’s a lot of waste wood available in this area.”
Volunteers join in tree planting days, orchard harvesting, seed growing, and apple grafting, along with coppice work and charcoal making. “We are always pleased to welcome new people onto the team,” said Mark. “You can commit to as much or as little time as you wish. But there’s always a lovely atmosphere working in woodland.”
For more information see https://living-woods.org.uk/what-we-do/