Introducing our Woodland Charter

Forestry for the wellbeing of the planet

The wellbeing of our planet is in peril. The environmental changes facing our world will bring problems that we are not yet equipped to deal with. That’s why companies must strive for innovation, rejecting business as usual. At TreeStory, we are committed to finding new and better ways of doing forestry, combining research and experimentation with our passion for the natural environment. Our mission is to build a future where people and the planet can thrive together. 

We want all our actions to have a net positive impact for people and the planet. Later this year we will be launching our Woodland Charter, which will serve as a testament of our commitment to the way we manage woodlands and encourage others to get involved. It is based on four guiding principles that form the backbone of everything we do and inform our project decisions:

Protect

Preserving our unique natural heritage of flora, fauna and complex ecosystems, treading lightly in all our management operations. 

  • ​​Ancient Woodland – We provide special attention around the remaining irreplaceable ancient woodland fragments that once covered Scotland.  
  • Soil and water – We minimise our footprint as much as possible with a presumption against the use of high impact establishment and harvesting techniques, as well as plastic and chemicals.
  • Natural and cultural heritage – We protect habitats where woodland is not suitable such as species-rich grassland, mire and peatland. We also preserve heritage assets, including historic landscapes, individual heritage features and landscape viewpoints.
Expand

Reforesting our bare hills to provide Scotland with a dynamic and thriving woodland resource. 

  • Landscapes – We encourage a holistic vision for landscape change and woodland creation.  Even in a smaller setting we aim to create areas of ‘interior’ woodland habitat. 
  • Habitats – We design woodland habitat networks to provide permanent corridors of native woodland framing productive areas. Where possible, we seek to expand the forest habitat to natural transitional habitats (edge or treeline woodlands).  
  • Innovation – We want to encourage our team and clients to think outside the box: changing landscapes requires expansive vision, stretching the boundaries of what exists right now. 
Connect

Developing opportunities for individuals and communities to engage with woodlands and participate in the restoration process. 

  • Impact investors – We will help reconnect individuals and businesses to our projects through our EcoCarbon platform.  We want investors to get involved, to plant trees and get their hands dirty! 
  • Collaboration – We will work together and collaborate with passionate and like-minded individuals, businesses and contractors to co-create amazing projects.
  • People – We want our projects to encourage local communities and visitors to enjoy the forests, helping ignite a connection to, and passion for, the natural world.
Diversify

Building natural resilience into our woodlands through encouraging and stimulating the diversity of tree species, age and woodland types. 

  • Species – Where ecologically possible, we aim to include no more than 25% of any one species in restructuring or designing woodlands. 
  • Silvicultural practice – We have a strong presumption in favour of continuous cover forestry systems when managing or designing new woodlands
  • Projects – We work on a diversity of purpose-driven projects that cover a range of ecological objectives. 

We want to look facts straight in the face, daring to believe that things can be different. We want to demonstrate that we still have time to make a positive influence on our environment and we mustn’t become discouraged . There is perhaps no greater expression of hope than planting a tree you will never see grow into maturity.

Avatar photo

Sonia Brown

As the co-founder of TreeStory, Sonia’s passion is to rewrite stories of soil and soul. Aside from helping lead the business, she heads the communications team and is heavily involved in the development of the EcoCarbon platform, uniting individuals and businesses with our projects.

Continue reading

Your adventure starts here
Exciting things are coming – we'd love to share our stories and update you on new projects and opportunities to get involved.