Following the cancellation of this year's summer and autumn shows due to Covid-19, UK forestry management company Tilhill quickly took to releasing a series of free public webinars, all with a common theme –‘Making Trees Work for You’ – in order to spread the word to farmers and landowners on the benefits that tree planting can bring.

The firm took a virtual tour round the UK, starting in Scotland, dropping in on England and finally settling in Wales, extolling the virtues of woodland creation and how it remains a steady and loyal partnership option when it comes to providing farmers and landowners with an extra income stream.

The webinars were presented to over three-hundred attendees with detailed case studies showing how unproductive land has been transformed into woodlands to enhance the natural landscape and to increase the natural capital through woodland creation grants and professional management.

The webinars covered topics such as:

• Why plant?

• Where to plant;

• What to plant;

• What grants are available?

• Woodland creation results and returns;

• Benefits of woodland management;

• Carbon – its role in woodland creation.

Tilhill’s forestry director, Tim Liddon, with over forty years' experience in the forestry industry, opened the webinars with a reminder of the importance of woodland creation: “The rural landscape is changing, Brexit, common agricultural policy, changes in the new planting support and now coronavirus, there is also a greater significant focus on carbon and climate mitigation for us to consider – which of these are threats and which of these are opportunities is difficult to fathom at times and one size certainly doesn’t fit all.

"Through everything, forestry and woodland remain a steady and loyal partnership when it comes to providing farmers and landowners with additional income streams. We hope the webinars give a good glimpse of what a woodland can provide and the funding available to help landowners create it, enabling more informed decisions going forward to help gain greater financial security for their families and future generations.”

The webinars are intended to help landowners understand the in-depth process Tilhill undertakes to design, plant and execute woodland creation, leaving attendees with a sense of the benefits that woodlands can provide together with the importance of planting more trees.