Dear Friends,

Thank you all so much  for your support over the year. There are so many of you who step up in a myriad of ways from sharing our social media posts to fundraising support, volunteering and just being alongside us. Thanks for taking the time to care for wilderness and wildness.

Writing now in the depths of winter has opened my thoughts about  ‘time’ and ‘cycles of life’. I have recently been reading a wonderful book called ‘Wintering’ by Katherine May, and the need for hunkering down for healing at times of stress. In  some research I was doing winter is regarded  ‘as the season for tending to the garden of the inner soul’. For Katherine May it was about befriending the emotions we don’t allow ourselves to feel, such as sadness, and that this is a skill to be learned. To learn to accept the all of us such as the year could not be the same, or as rich,  without the bleak, cold winter and what it brings.

Nature embraces all the seasons, and they all have purpose and bounty.  For us humans, there is value in us appreciating our own dark and lightness of emotions and relationships as being  interconnected parts of ourselves. Jung would see this as an essential part of integration and the making of us whole – something we seek to address as therapists for our clients. It is fragmentation that can bring the most distress and dis-ease.

Our busy-paced modern lives need  Nature’s reliability to help give us a structure, purpose and meaning through the year and beyond.  Although we have so much to look forward to in the months after winter, such as blossoms and new shoots in spring, orchards dripping fruit in summer, and foraging and  food prepping like squirrels in Autumn. They all bring us round again to be ready for winter’s scarcity and demands for survival.

The connection to natural cycles  is essential for our wellbeing as they offer hope, resilience, forward planning, joy, tolerance, challenge, adaptation, managing loss, and reward. These are some key elements needed in order to flourish.

So ‘seasons blessings’ in our card wishes to others is truly a lovely thing to say.

Using this reflective wintering time sitting at my desk with a fire burning, grey cloud above, and a damp chill in the air – I have been reflecting over the past year at the Foundation.

It has been a monumental year in terms of growth and achievements.  First, we finished the year financially positive overall – but still with some projects still wanting.  Secondly, although the team are tired, there is an overall warm sense of satisfaction knowing that through our joint efforts and skills we have genuinely shifted the lives of clients who engage with us in nature-based therapy in groups and one to one. Equally, we, recall and relish the excitement and wonder experienced by the many, many children who come through our education programmes. This is evidenced by feedback, research and by the speeches at graduations that leave not a dry eye in the room.

Adults, teens and children, many with complex and SEND needs, spend time with us where they may be different but are 100% equal, and can draw on the benefits of Nature’s non-judgement and its rich offerings to flourish, and to feel safe and heard in a world that can feel harsh. This applies hugely to our women and children who are survivors of domestic violence and whose sense of safety and need for connection is paramount. They can find a safe haven with us here.

However, the most dramatic organisational shift in 2024 was the acquisition of  Mann Wood in March – 92 acres of semi-natural ancient woodland in Essex -through support from the Biffa Award and Banister Trust. This is truly a pinnacle in our long history of 48 years. Now we have the opportunity to practically engage with a rich biodiverse and wild space to care for the existing wildlife, and start creating corridors to other woods, to build models for others to copy in woodland protection. We have our own space to call home for the Foundation where nature’s needs can be kept paramount.

In addition to the environmental agenda, the woods are enjoyed by the groups that almost daily arrive and thrive in the varied therapy programmes. Here people find sanctuary, beauty, and peace.

With caring for Mann Wood and thinking about how we do more to protect these rare spaces, I continue to have deep concern about space for nature as we enter the next few years. We are confronted by demands for exponential growth and housing, and open land, woodlands and  wild spaces are at risk unless they are designated or can evidence their worth.

The way many relate to the land appears to be purely  transactional, and at times objectifies nature in the sense that nature can be picked up moved to make way, or repositioned somewhere convenient, and Mother Nature does not sit equally at the table of human need.

We only have to read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben or Wilding by Isabella Tree to understand how long even small ecosystems or patches of wildness took to form and how much life they carry. To remove and replace through developments will take years to achieve the same results and we shoot ourselves in the foot as evidence shows how rich biodiversity is one of the key mitigations for climate change.

I am keen that the Foundation continues to advocate for Nature to always be at the table, that space for Nature is not a luxury but a fundamental, and we continue to teach and grow our next generation of children and others to understand that ‘nature is me, and I am nature’.  This connectivity is good for our souls, our mental health and all other life on the planet.

We have much work to do in 2025 – as the world faces many challenges globally, politically, socially and environmentally.

2026 will be the 50th year of the Wilderness Foundation being established in the UK and we will be planning in 2025 how we celebrate that milestone.  We look forward to journeying with you along the way.

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and positive wintering – with connection, meaning, time in nature, and of course-   lots of love and laughter.

Jo

CEO