31/10/2026
🎉🌳 IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! 🌳🎉
Eight years ago today, Led by the Wild was officially registered as a Community Interest Company. And what a journey it's been! 💚
We started with a little woodland, a big vision, some Forest School adventures and some conservation work. In our first year, we supported 82 families.
Fast forward eight years and over 2,000 people now join us each year, many returning time and time again, to learn, explore, connect and care for nature together.
Today, our work spans our Eco-Changemakers programme with primary schools, Branching Out with young people, family environmental days, Rural Crafts and and Heritage, community conservation, woodland management and our wonderful, thriving volunteer programme.
And goodness, the things we've done along the way!
We've led countless projects of nature restoration - across our own site and beyond, planted trees, restored and created ponds, created wildflower meadows, managed woodlands, built wildlife habitats, surveyed bats, supported mammals, counted birds, monitored butterflies and moths, searched for reptiles, discovered fungi, explored pond life and celebrated the incredible wildlife around us.
We've hosted music festivals and grown our annual Wildcraft festival, welcomed Guides, Scouts and Woodcraft Folk, danced around maypoles, celebrated the turning of the seasons, camped beneath the stars, shared stories around fires, listened to dawn choruses and danced around maypoles.
We've woven willow, carved spoons, made baskets, worked with green wood, laid hedges, coppiced hazel, made charcoal, dyed fabrics, felted wool, crafted with clay, cooked over fires and kept traditional rural crafts alive.
We've built dens, climbed trees, jumped in puddles, toasted marshmallows, watched the stars, made art, explored the seasons and made countless memories.
We've danced, we've sung, we've laughed, we've learned, we've got muddy, we've worked hard and we've made wonderful friendships along the way. 🌸🦋
Underpinning it all has been a deep commitment to community, conservation, nature and collective action. A belief that when people come together to care for a place and for one another, extraordinary things can grow.
And perhaps that's what we're proudest of. Not just the projects or the numbers, but the wonderful community we've built together. 💚
And we're certainly not finished yet! With new projects launching and so many exciting plans ahead, there's plenty more to come.
❤️ To every volunteer, family, child, young person, supporter, funder, partner and friend who has been part of our journey - THANK YOU! You have made all of this possible.
Here's to eight wonderful years, everything we've grown together and all the wild adventures still to come!
Happy Birthday, Led by the Wild! 🎂🌳💚
