Restoring nature at scale while supporting farming livelihoods is a critical challenge.
Research led by Priestley member Dominick Spracklen sets out a twenty year plan to restore ecosystems in the Lake District, while securing a viable future for fell farming 👉
climate.leeds.ac.uk/news/twenty-...
Exciting news! We've opened a new path at the woodland we planted in 2023 🎉
As the trees grow, we're studying the way that woodland ecosystems, biochemisty, soils, acoustic environments etc. develop. Plus, more established trees means more resilience to disturbance, so more public access! 🌳💚
Our research woodland has just opened a new public pathway! We're excited to open this first new path along the edge of our growing woodland, as well as adding a new sign to help visitors understand some of the research we're doing at #GairWood 🧪🌍🌳
Joining up with the Meanwood Valley Trail and the Leeds Country Way, walkers on those routes can now pass through Gair Wood and enjoy the developing woodland.
Read more about the project and community partnerships 👇
www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article...
Wooden post outside Gair Wood near King Lane with the symbols marking walking routes and arrows for the Leeds Country Way and the Meanwood Valley Trail
A new public footpath has opened at Gair Wood in North Leeds, connecting with two popular routes, helping visitors avoid walking alongside busy roads 🌳👣
More than 60k trees were planted there three years ago to enhance the local environment and provide a valuable resource for research and teaching.
🌳Free Webinar Alert!🌳 We're excited to join the Improving Access To Trees webinar next week (April 22nd) from White Rose Forest x Green Streets, where @ellesmith.bsky.social, will present recent findings and upcoming research. 🧪🌍🌐 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/white-rose...
This webinar will be of interest to colleagues working in local authorities, not just in Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield and York, as well as combined authorities and other community forests.
Sign up here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/white-rose...
As this work is still evolving, attendees will be invited to contribute ideas about what outputs they would like to see from this research and how it can be made useful for them.
Elle will share her recent research and introduce the next stages: producing tree planting maps for Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield & York.
These maps will indicate optimal locations to plant new trees to help meet White Rose Forest canopy cover targets and improve performance at the 3-30-300 principle.
The “3-30-300″ guidance, proposed by international urban forestry expert Cecil Konijnendijk, recommends that every house, school, and workplace has a view of 3 trees, that there is 30% canopy cover in each neighbourhood, and that each building has a public greenspace within 300m
🌳Free Webinar Alert!🌳 We're excited to join the Improving Access To Trees webinar next week (April 22nd) from White Rose Forest x Green Streets, where @ellesmith.bsky.social, will present recent findings and upcoming research. 🧪🌍🌐 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/white-rose...
Cockley Beck farm in the Upper Duddon has one of the best planted areas of woodland we've seen. Really good survival rate. The trees are now ready to come out of their tubes & we're happy to help.
@nfudc.bsky.social
@cumbriacvs.bsky.social
@leedsleaf.bsky.social
Chopping down areas of tropical rainforest is causing rising temperatures linked to thousands of deaths. @domspracklen.bsky.social explains the science🌳🧪 theconversation.com/chopping-dow...
"There's five times as many butterflies on cattle grazing sites compared with sheep grazed sites,"
@bcyorkshire.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The University of Leeds and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) are currently hosting an international Workshop on forest fires, smoke and air quality in Brazil! More info here:
Another successful team up of Upper Duddon Landscape Recovery and @nationaltrust.org.uk staff. 1000 trees planted at Black Hall farm in the north of the valley. Aspen, oak, birch, hazel & willow were added to a couple of existing fenced areas. @lakedistrictnpa.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social
🧪🌍🌐
Decorative LEAF Day 2026 logo
This week we're excitedly preparing for LEAF Day 2026 - our one day annual meeting for folks interested in trees and woodlands!
If you're based at the Uni of Leeds, are free on Friday, and that sounds like you, then check out the programme and register at leaf.leeds.ac.uk/events/leaf-...
We're currently curating our winter newsletter, out soon. What to expect? A farmer pointing at a post, carcass ecology, new staff start, we're the topic of "Wildwood" a photographic talk. Plus volunteer dates & wildlife videos. Sign up▶️
mailchi.mp/1dd189bd3314...
Decorative LEAF Day 2026 logo
This week we're excitedly preparing for LEAF Day 2026 - our one day annual meeting for folks interested in trees and woodlands!
If you're based at the Uni of Leeds, are free on Friday, and that sounds like you, then check out the programme and register at leaf.leeds.ac.uk/events/leaf-...
Our research with the SECO project to understand the trajectory of the dry tropics depends on a team of wonderful people across the world, working in Peru, Brazil and beyond, in fieldwork, data management and lab analysis. Here are some of their stories:
www.leeds.ac.uk/directory-re...
A new study from @ellesmith.bsky.social highlights consistently low levels of access to trees and greenspaces across English cities. Read more about it here: leaf.leeds.ac.uk/news/english... .🌐🌍🧪
"Trees: from seeds to saplings" was the theme of the last event of 2025 from the Cumbria Biodiversity Data Centre. Really useful knowledge sharing. Next year's events are linked below. @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social @forestryengland.bsky.social
www.cbdc.org.uk/get-involved...
Dr Robin Hayward, interpreting what trees are trying to tell us, at our Christmas Quantum Sauce event!
Dr Robin Hayward, interpreting what trees are trying to tell us, at our Christmas Quantum Sauce event!
Dr Robin Hayward, interpreting what trees are trying to tell us, at our Christmas Quantum Sauce event!
A cute little Christmas tree… about to drop needles all over your living room.
- and finally, a lesson in tree translation from Dr Robin Hayward (@canopyrobin.com), of @leedsleaf.bsky.social!
How do we best learn from tropical trees, to promote and manage woodland regeneration? Also featuring some scent-sational seasonal stocking fillers…! 🌲 🍊 🌴
Seedling growing in the forest
University of Birmingham, UK, are advertising a permanant position (Assistant or Associate Professor) in *Forests under Global Change*. A wide net has been cast - ecology, physiology, modelling, remote sensing, functioning, biodiversity, management... 🌲🌱🌳🌳🦌🌳🛰️🐿️🌲🔬🌳
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPS459/a...
Excited to see the Upper Duddon Landscape Recovery project highlighted in this recent blog from @naturalengland.bsky.social. We're working together with partner organisations and local communities to bring landscape recovery benefits, plus new opportunities for nature-based learning and volunteering
One space left for our last volunteer day of 2025! Please share.
@envleeds.bsky.social @leedsleaf.bsky.social @forestryengland.bsky.social
www.trybooking.com/uk/FIGS
If you've been enjoying #NationalTreeWeek as much as we have and don't want the fun to be over, we have good news!
For those local to Leeds, @canopyrobin.com will be representing the team with a talk on Christmas tree communication at Quantum Sauce next tuesday! 🎄
It's #NationalTreeWeek and yesterday we planted 800 trees along the edges of a newly rebuilt bridleway. It'll stablise the work and create a lovely mixed corridor of woodland in years to come. Oak, aspen, alder and grey willow pegs went in.
@leedsleaf.bsky.social
@forestryengland.bsky.social
Looks like my scything efforts last week paid off to get a few hundred trees planted into our new hedgerow!