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Woodlands Awards

WOODLANDS AWARDS Previous winners

WOODLANDS AWARDS 2023

The Woodlands Awards are continuing their furlough in 2023. News of their return will be posted here as soon as the current review is completed!

WOODLANDS AWARDS 2021

The winners of the 2021 Woodlands Awards have been announced.
You can see a list of all the winners, along with a brief report on why they were judged the best, by clicking on the 2021 tab above.  
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The Woodlands Awards celebrate their fifth year in 2021, having been launched in 2017.

Once again we have made a few changes to the awards categories, introducing two new awards for 2021 (see below). Last year the new categories – Best Woodland Instagrams, Best Woodland Huts, and Best Woodland Tree-Planting Projects – proved popular, and we intend to keep making changes year-on-year to spotlight changing areas of interest and activity.

But the overall intention remains the same: to celebrate – and give due recognition to – all the wonderful and innovative things that are taking place in the woodlands sector.

TWO NEW AWARDS for 2021: This year we have two new categories: Best Makers in Wood, and Best Woodland Toilets. See below for the details, and how to enter.

Please note this stipulation: The competition rules say that winners cannot win an award twice in the same category, but there is nothing to stop them entering (or being entered) in another category.

Awards categories

There are fourteen awards altogether, divided into two groups: awards for individuals (woodland owners and users) and awards for enterprises (woodland organisations, businesses, educational programmes and so on).

DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS: 31 JULY 2021.

Entries should be sent to: [email protected]

Terms & Conditions

HOW THE AWARDS WILL BE JUDGED

A panel of judges will draw up a shortlist of the best entries, and then award the prizes. There may be a number of winners: all entries judged to be of equally high merit will be awarded a First Prize (i.e. no Second, Third).

The 2021 award winners will be announced in September. Winners will be contacted by email.♦

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Any questions?

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Click on each of the awards to learn more about them, the judges’ criteria for making the award, and the prizes.

Awards for individuals

Awards for enterprises

Awards

Best Small Woodland Websites

DESCRIPTION
We’re looking for the best small woodland websites – websites created by owners or users of woodland that demonstrate their passion and knowledge, and perhaps their trials and tribulations. Good website design, presentation, navigation, writing, photography and/or illustration may also tip the balance towards an award.

PRIZES
The prize will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER

  • Send a link to your own small woodland website; or
  • Recommend a small woodland website that you think deserves a prize.
  • Email address for your entry: [email protected]
[Photo, above: Karen Elliott]

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Best Woodland Photography

DESCRIPTION
Calling all woodland photographers: submit your best, most evocative, most moody, most stunning and romantic photos for a chance to win this prize. Woodland scenery, nature, activities, shelters, in detail or writ large: all welcome!

PRIZES
The prize will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER

  • Submit your best photos to [email protected]
  • Submissions can include up to six photographs.

Note: it is particularly important in this category to study and observe the Terms & Conditions regarding copyright ownership and permissions.

[Photo, right: Sam Auger-Forbes]

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Best Woodland Instagrams

DESCRIPTION
Instagram is a great way to share your observations and experiences of woodlands, and a spontaneous way to communicate your enthusiasm and knowledge. The aim of this Woodlands Award to celebrate the best UK woodland Instagram accounts.

PRIZES
The prize will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book, and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER

  • Send us the link to your own woodland Instagram; or
  • Recommend a woodland Instagram that you think deserves a prize.
  • Email address for your entry: [email protected]

Note the stipulations in the Terms & Conditions regarding permissions and use of photographs.

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Best Makers in Wood

DESCRIPTION
The Makers in Wood Award is a bit of a catch-all prize designed to celebrate the broad range of woodland crafts that use wood: furniture, turning, gates and fences, sculpture, tool-making, spoons, jewellery… and perhaps some imaginative products we have never dreamt of. All makers of such things, please consider entering.

PRIZES
The prize will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book, and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Send us photos of your product or products made from wood, along with a brief description (up to 250 words; may include links to websites and Instagram if you wish).

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Best Woodland Tool Recommendations

DESCRIPTION
Is there a woodland tool that you really, really like and want to tell the world about? It could be a traditional hand tool, or the latest labour-saving power tool. What we want is your personal recommendation and, if possible, a photo or two of you using the tool – and the most persuasive, convincing entries win!

PRIZES
The prize, given to the entrant(s) who submit(s) the most convincing review(s), will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment. The manufacturer(s) of the winning tool(s) will also receive an award certificate – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Write a short article (up to 250 words) describing what makes this tool so special. You can accompany your entry with photographs, or a link to the manufacturer’s website.

Note: Submissions for this award cannot be made by employees of the manufacturer or a commercial distributor of the tool recommended, or their families or associates. (We don’t want commercial plugs!) See Terms & Conditions.

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Best Woodland Huts

DESCRIPTION
There is something special about woodland huts: be they just practical sheds and stores or cosy shelters from the elements (or both), huts are often ingeniously designed and highly individual, and intricately linked to the surrounding landscape. And huts and hutting are back in vogue – especially in Scotland, where an old tradition has been reinvigorated by recent legislation that has relaxed and clarified the building regulations.

Whatever your hut – ramshackle and improvised, steadfastly traditional or stylishly post-modern – we want to see it and share your love!

PRIZES
The prize will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book, and a woodland tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Open only to hut-owners. Submit photos of your woodland hut, along with a brief description (up to 250 words). See  Terms & Conditions.

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Best Woodland Toilets

DESCRIPTION

Here we are celebrating solutions to a topic described aptly elsewhere as “close to every woodland-owner’s heart”. The judges will be looking for ingenuity and technical aplomb, as well as the application of time-honoured ways, plus pleasing aesthetic choices – perhaps with a sprinkling of humour. Of course our judges will not be able to test the entries personally, but will base their decisions on your photographic evidence, descriptions and stories, which can embrace failure (and lessons to learn) as well as success.

PRIZES
The prize will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book, and a woodland tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Submit photos of your woodland toilet, along with a brief description (up to 250 words).

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Best Woodland Contractors

DESCRIPTION
This is an opportunity for woodland owners to give recognition to the good work of their favourite professional woodland contractors: individuals or businesses contracted to perform specialist woodland tasks such as tree-planting, harvesting and extraction, creating tracks, building shelters or any aspect of woodland maintenance and management.

PRIZES
The prize, given to the winning Contractor(s), will consist of an award certificate – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Recommend your favourite woodland contractor, with an appraisal of up to 250 words, plus full contact details. In judging the award, special attention will be given to such considerations as the recommended contractor’s safe working practices and proven record in minimising damage and disruption to the woodland. Please provide full contact details (for you and the Woodland Contractor in question).

Note: Submissions for this award cannot be made by contractors themselves or their employees, their families or associates. See Terms & Conditions.

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Best Woodland Tree-Planting Projects

DESCRIPTION
Tree-planting is in the news: a key strategy in carbon offset, in the global bid to avert catastrophic climate change. In the UK, new woods are being planted by individuals, communities, charities and businesses – and of course there are real, tangible advantages for all who get to use and enjoy the woodlands that result. There may be other practical community benefits too, such as woodland burial sites, or a supply of woodfuel, or restoring biodiversity to a depleted post-industrial landscape, or as an educational tool. We are looking for model tree-planting projects in the UK – big or small, in their early stages or well advanced – that envisage bringing some or all of these benefits to fruition.

PRIZES
The prize, given to the organisers of the best Woodland Tree-Planting Projects, will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book, and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Write a personal recommendation (up to 500 words) of a UK Woodland Tree-Planting Project that you think deserves the award. You can supplement your submission with photographs or website or social media links. Please provide full contact details (for you and the Woodland Tree-Planting Project in question).

[Photo, above: Sarah Axon and Sue Davis]

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Best Forest Schools

DESCRIPTION
Forest Schools offer hands-on learning experience in woodlands (or other natural environments), mainly to young people – a priceless contribution to the public understanding of woodlands and nature. Forest Schools are a growing movement, and this award offers recognition to the best of them.

PRIZES
The prize, given to the winning Forest School(s), will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Write a personal recommendation (up to 250 words) of a Forest School that you think deserves the award. Submissions can be made by parents of learners attending a Forest School, or the learners themselves – and Forest Schools are invited to encourage them to do so. You can supplement your submission with photographs (but this is optional). Please provide full contact details (for you and the Forest School in question).

Note: Submissions for this award cannot be made by the organisers, staff or teachers/trainers of the recommended Forest School that is the subject of the submission. See Terms & Conditions.

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Best Woodland Courses

DESCRIPTION
Woodland courses provide vital training in all aspects of woodland management and activities (tree identification, pest control, timber grading, chainsaw use, coppicing, wood turning, hurdle-making, spoon-carving and so on). Here is a chance to publicise your appreciation of a woodland course that has proved especially worthwhile and/or enjoyable, and which you think deserves an award and recognition.

PRIZES
The prize, given to the winning Woodland Course(s), will consist of an award certificate – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Write a personal recommendation (up to 250 words) of a Woodland Course that you think deserves the award. You can supplement your submission with photographs (but this is optional). Please provide full contact details (for you and the Woodland Course in question).

Note: Submissions for this award cannot be made by the organisers, staff or teachers of the recommended Woodland Course that is the subject of the submission. See Terms & Conditions.

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Best Community Woods

DESCRIPTION
Community Woods provide a whole host of benefits that flow both ways. They connect people with nature and deliver a broad range of social, environmental and economic public benefits (such as opportunities for outdoor recreation or the supply of woodfuel). They can also be of great benefit to the woods themselves: work undertaken can improve woodland habitats and restore native woodlands. The award seeks to give recognition to Community Woods that work particularly well, and make a special contribution to community life.

PRIZES
The prize, given to the organisers/owners of the winning Community Woods, will consist of an award certificate, a selected woodland book and a woodland hand tool and/or piece of equipment– and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Write a personal recommendation (up to 250 words) of a Community Wood that you think deserves the award. You can supplement your submission with photographs (but this is optional). Please provide full contact details (for you and the Community Wood in question).

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Best Woodland Books of the Year

DESCRIPTION
What were the best books about woodland and all woodland matters this year? Was it a gloriously illustrated book about trees, or a well-presented practical book about woodland management, or a personal memoir? All could qualify, as long as they were published between January 2020 and July 2021.

PRIZES
The prize, awarded to the authors of the winning books, will consist of an award certificate – and recognition! The publishers of the winning books will also receive award certificates.

HOW TO ENTER
Simply email us with details of a book that you think qualifies. Recommendations are welcome from authors, publishers and the reading public.

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Best Regional and National Woodland Organisations

DESCRIPTION
Many of the UK’s Regional and National Woodland Organisations do a wonderful job promoting and supporting the woodlands sector in various ways, be it supporting the interests of woodland owners, promoting awareness of woodlands, actively campaigning for the protection and preservation of woodland, and so on. Which of them has made a particular mark – deserving the title Regional and National Woodland Organisation of the Year?

PRIZES
The prize will consist of an award certificate for the winning organisation(s) – and recognition!

HOW TO ENTER
Send us a short appreciation (up to 250 words) of the Regional and National Woodland Organisation that has particularly won your approval, explaining what makes it stand out.

Note: Submissions for this award cannot be made by anyone directly involved (employees, volunteers) in the organisation that is the subject of the submission. See Terms & Conditions.

Tree Identification Guide

Trees
Read our guide to trees woodland and hedgerow