Review of the talk by Earth Trust

This talk by Terry Hurley, a Trustee and Volunteer, and Kirsty Somerville, the education tutor, took place in the Melland Room on 23 February. It covered the 40-year history of the Earth Trust from its establishment in 1967 through to its current plans for expanding its headquarters at Wittenham Clumps.

The Trust’s story is remarkable. It was founded as the Northmoor Trust by Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood to promote environmental conservation, subsequently acquiring sites such as Little Wittenham Woods and the Wittenham Clumps in the 1980s and College Farm in 1993.

Rebranding as the Earth Trust in 2011 it has since:

• Taken management of community spaces like Wallingford Castle Meadows and Thrupp Lake

• Brokered the first ever biodiversity offsetting scheme with Taylor Wimpey in 2013

• Launched the ‘River of Life’ project to create wetlands along the Thames in the 2010s

• Continued to expand management with areas such as Abbey Fishponds (2014) and

  Besselsleigh Wood (2024)

Terry described how the work of the organisation’s paid staff is supported by some 300 active volunteers who operate in teams guided by the Trust’s three Rangers. Some volunteers participate in specialist teams for hedge laying, coppicing or scything, while others support administration, community engagement and education. I was struck by the opportunities for young volunteers aged 13 to 18, by the Young Ranger programme for 14 to 16-year-olds, and the support given for those working towards Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Kirsty talked about the extraordinarily varied range of outdoor and curriculum related learning programmes they offer under the headings of Earth School, Explorers, and Earth Skills. They engage with some 7000 children locally and from further afield: as well as sessions for schools there are opportunities for pre-schoolers through the ‘Acorns’ project, explorer camps for 8 to 13- year-olds, a new edible classroom for children with special educational needs, and family events. Kirsty’s enthusiasm for revealing the historical context of the countryside is particularly inspiring:

she described how she talks of the Ridgeway as the “motorway of prehistory” and the Thames as “the motorway for Romans and Saxons” while encouraging children to engage with the woodlands, grasslands and riverscapes around them.

The Earth Trust seems to me to be a prime example of an organisation that has developed, adapted and thrived without losing sight of the core values of its founders. The scale of its operation surprised me, yet there are several transferrable lessons for Sustainable Blewbury which we can explore: these include ways of managing and motivating volunteers, engaging young people in formal and informal learning settings, working in partnership with other organisations, and crucially holding firm to our founding principles.

Anne Millman