Client
Heart of England Forest
Charity growing a large new native woodland in the heart of England.
About the work
The Heart of England Forest is an environmental charity based near Alcester in Warwickshire. It’s planting and caring for a large new native broadleaf woodland across Warwickshire and Worcestershire, and works with volunteers, schools and local communities to connect people with nature.
From 2022 to 2025 the charity led the Trees Call to Action Project, a partnership with Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick and Wychavon District Councils. It was funded by Defra’s Trees Call to Action Fund and delivered through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project aimed to increase tree cover across a 193,400-hectare landscape around the River Avon and the historic Forest of Arden, where tree cover stood at just 7%.
The Heart of England Forest appointed Always Possible as independent evaluator for the project. We ran a Theory of Change workshop with all the partners to agree a shared goal and measurable outcomes. We then built an evaluation plan following HM Treasury’s Magenta Book. We designed practical data collection tools for project staff, including volunteer and staff questionnaires available online, on paper and by WhatsApp, with user guides, case study templates and entry and exit surveys. The project had warned that volunteers might be put off by survey fatigue, so the tools were built to make giving feedback as easy as possible.
Our final evaluation reported 275,254 trees and 21,450 metres of hedgerow planted, 209 hectares of new woodland, all 205 parish and town councils across the area contacted, 196 landowners consulted and 130 communities engaged. Volunteer attendance at training and planting sessions passed 7,100, against a target of 500. Four forestry apprentices were trained, and all went on to jobs in the sector. The evaluation was also honest about what was harder. It explained why the woodland target was missed, pointing to policy uncertainty, land availability and landowner hesitancy. It recommended ways to build on the partnership’s momentum towards its 2030 and 2050 tree cover goals.
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