PRESS RELEASE EMBARGOED: 00:01hrs Friday 4th July 2025

Government targets to restore native woodland will be delivered 81 years late unless urgent action is taken, say campaigners who have teamed up with the Oscar-winning actress

Dame Judi Dench has backed a new campaign calling on Forestry England to fulfil its commitment to bring back the nation’s “ghost woods” – ancient woodland sites felled and replaced by timber plantations in the 20th century. An investigation by grassroots campaign group Wild Card, has found that the agency is so far behind on government woodland restoration targets that it is set to meet them more than 80 years¹ later than promised.

Dame Judi Dench said: “Forestry England is responsible for over 100,000 acres that were once ancient, life-filled woodland. These were places of deep memory and wild beauty. But instead of letting nature return, much of the land has been smothered with fast-growing timber plantations. These places are now often uniform, silent, and sterile. In the process, we’ve lost so much of the rich biodiversity that once thrived there.

“I’ve always felt there is profound wisdom in trees, an ancient wisdom that we need to retain and let speak again. That’s why this matters so much to me. Thankfully beneath these silent ghost woods, the heartbeat of life is still beating. Fragile threads of fungal networks and native seedbanks are still clinging on. But scientists are warning us that they won’t last much longer. If we don’t act soon, they’ll be lost forever. It’s time to let these forests live and breathe once more.”

In 2022, DEFRA set a new national target to restore or start the restoration of the majority of ancient woodlands covered with plantations by 2030, following a missed initial target of 2020. However, according to detailed analysis published by Wild Card today, at the current rate of progress Forestry England won’t be able to deliver on this target until 2111, over 80 years late. 

Together with Wild Card and people-powered campaign group 38 Degrees, Dame Judi Dench has launched a petition to demand that Forestry England make good on their commitment by accelerating the restoration of ancient woodland. The campaigners acknowledge that whilst restoration is best done sensitively over many years, native species are running out of time. Historic delays and failures mean that there is now an urgent rush to start restoring all of their plantations before it is too late. Wild Card argues that the agency needs to publish a fully funded detailed plan on how this will be achieved, which allows their progress to be held publicly accountable. If reached, an area of native forest the size of the Isle of Wight could be created².

The call follows an alarming new report from the Woodland Trust, which found that woodland biodiversity is continuing to decline and that only 9% of England’s forests are in a favourable condition. As one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, restoring ancient woodland, which supports more biodiversity than any other land-based habitat in the UK, has never been so critical.

Rosie Smart-Knight, Campaigner at Wild Card, said: “The state of Britain’s nature is a source of national shame and nowhere is this more apparent than with the appalling treatment of our ancient woodlands. We recently saw the public outcry over the felling of just two trees, the iconic Hadrian’s Wall Sycamore and a 500 year-old oak next to a Toby Carvery. When you consider how many similarly wondrous and charismatic trees would have stood in our ancient woodlands you get a sense of the devastating loss across the nation. 

“Despite being the guardians of our public forests, Forestry England receives shockingly little support from DEFRA for the restoration of our nation’s ghost woods. DEFRA must step up and financially support Forestry England to follow through on restoration targets or risk losing half of our ancient woodlands forever.”

Over the summer Wild Card will join forces with environmental groups including Youngwilders and author James Canton, to host a series of “ghost hunt” events across the country to raise awareness of the suppression of our ancient forests and call on local Forestry England officers to accelerate their restoration.

Dame Judi has been vocal about her love of trees for many years. Reflecting on her own woodland she once said: “I think of my trees as part of my extended family”.

Matthew McGregor, CEO  at 38 Degrees, said:
“In communities right across the country, people care deeply about their local green spaces and woodlands – that’s why every year hundreds of thousands of members of the public take action through 38 Degrees to demand a safer, greener, clean environment for all. 38 Degrees is thrilled to collaborate with Dame Judi Dench and Wild Card on this important issue, with the launch of our huge new joint petition fighting for the restoration of ancient “ghost woods”.”

FOOTNOTES

¹ The 2030 target set out in Keepers of Time states that DEFRA aims to: “restore or gradually restore the majority of plantations on ancient woodland sites to native woodland”. Between 2013/14 and 2022/23, (the earliest data available) the Natural Capital Account data suggests that Forestry England have restored  2,484ha, or 5.8% of the public forest estate plantations on ancient woodlands (PAWS). They have started to gradually restore 3,553ha, or 10.5% of the public forest estate PAWS (not including the 9,066ha that were already restored in the 2013/14 baseline). In the data, restoration is indicated when areas have increased at least one Semi-Natural Score. At the current rate of progress (5.8% over a decade) it will take 86 years to bring them all into gradual restoration, 81 years later than the 2030 target and a further 123 years from now to restore all of the Forestry England PAWS. You can read Wild Card’s detailed analysis in their new report “Lost in the Woods: How Forestry England Fell a Century Behind on Ancient Woodland Restoration Targets”.

² The Isle of Wight measures 94,000 acres. Forestry England has 105,000 of PAWS.

Response to Forestry England’s comment on the campaign:

Forestry England do not release data showing how much of their Plantations on Ancient Woodlands (PAWS) are in restoration, instead they use the Natural Capital Accounts to demonstrate to the public how quickly they are moving to protect our ancient woodlands. As such, whilst it is not possible to track each hectare individually, it is possible to extrapolate the speed at which hectares are moving between Semi-Natural Scores – the percentage of the woodland that is native tree species. Using this data we have been able to work out that over the course of a decade Forestry England have only been able to improve the score of 3,553ha – just 10.5% of their total PAWS. In 2022/23, 20,601ha (48% of the PAWS estate), remained at less than 20% native tree cover. Whilst it is possible that Forestry England may have started restoring these areas (and the removal of a single conifer could be considered justification for saying so), there is no publicly available data to show this and therefore no way to verify their claims. They must work harder to be transparent in their treatment of these vital habitats, these woodlands are too important for their progress not to be able to be held publicly accountable. We have a rapidly shrinking opportunity to save our ancient woodlands, they simply will not survive if we delay much longer. This is acknowledged by Forestry England themselves on their website, “We’ve got a long way to go, and in the midst of a nature crisis, we need to move faster.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS

View the petition here.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Heather Carswell: press@wildcard.land / 07815 741183

Kate Wilsea: press@38degrees.org.uk / 07970 237188

ABOUT WILD CARD

Wild Card is a citizens’ movement campaigning for the UK’s biggest landowners to urgently rewild their lands in response to the climate and nature emergency. With over 250,000 people supporting their campaigns to date they have already claimed successes in persuading the royal estates and other landowners to begin ambitious nature restoration schemes. Discover more about the campaign to rewild the Ghost Woods here. 

ABOUT 38 DEGREES

38 Degrees is a community of a million people who – in a moment away from their busy days – take small actions on issues they care about, which all add up to something bigger, a movement for a better Britain for everyone who calls our country home. 

Whether it’s the grieving wife who forced the Government to review betting laws after the tragic loss of her husband to gambling-related suicide, or 1.2 million of us who forced Post Office boss Paula Vennells to hand back her CBE, every time we win, we move our country a step towards the fairer, more sustainable place we’re fighting for, where we are treated – and treat each other – with respect.