Woodland Heritage
What they do:
UK charity dedicated to sustainable forestry and preserving native woodlands.
What they Sponsored
The Dining Table Video
Why we Worked with Them
Matt bumped into John Orchard at Makers Central one year and together discussed the potential of a collaboration at some point in the future. But as these interactions tend to go, that seemed to be the last of it.
That was until Christmas 2024 when Matt noticed their family dining table falling apart, which prompted him to reach out to John to see if he could get Witney Sawmills to sponsor us a slab in return for promoting them and Woodland Heritage.
Long Term Opinions
We love the ethos and long term vision of Woodland Heritage and are supporting them through 10% of sales gained from London Plane and English Walnut Marking Knife sales.
After the video was posted, we had some pushback from Climate Change deniers. A view in which I respect and can steelman a lot of their views even though I don’t necessarily agree with them. I’m especially interested in the theory of how our predictions for the future may be based on flawed models.
However the critiques on the video stemming from this viewpoint completely missed the mark and were just being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. Likely because they were triggered after hearing the word ‘climate’ and couldn’t help resist giving their opinion. So let me address that.
The work Woodland Heritage is doing is a positive sum game for everyone involved. Because unlike climate change, the topic of deforestation is not politicised. We all inherently know that trees are a good thing, and having more of them is a no brainer. In a nutshell, this is Woodland Heritages primary goal. They’re just taking it a step further by making sure they’re managed properly during their lifecycle, and can be put to good use at full maturity.
In the long term, this means more accessible, affordable timber in the UK. It means we have woodlands that we can guarantee will be enjoyed in generations to come. Finally it has potential for economic benefits thanks to our ability to begin exporting timber, rather than buy everything from the USA or Baltic countries.
So if you’re a sawmill owner in the USA worried about the goals of Woodland Heritage from an economic point of view, I get it. But anyone else with a critical opinion should probably think about the basis of their arguments before opening their mouths.
It’s a shame none of us will be around to see the work of Woodland Heritage bear fruit because of the long timelines involved. But in a lot of ways, this makes their work even more admirable than it already is.