Forestry Youth Camp opens doors for young people

This summer, a group of young people took part in a unique residential camp designed to inspire the next generation of forestry professionals. The Forestry Youth Camp, led by 58�Թ� and supported by Welsh Government and the Scottish Forestry Trust, aims to address the UK’s growing skills shortage in the forest industry by engaging young people who are currently under-represented in the sector.

With the UK facing ambitious tree cover targets as part of its net zero commitments, the forest industry needs to grow its workforce by up to 72%. Meeting this challenge will require not only more people, but a broader range of skills and greater diversity across the sector.

The week-long camp offered participants a fully funded opportunity to explore how forests and woodlands connect to everyday life and global issues. Through outdoor learning, hands-on activities and conversations with professionals, the camp helped young people build confidence, develop new skills and consider careers in forestry and forest science.

One participant, Damyan, shared his experience of the camp:

“From 23rd to 29th July, I had the chance to take part in a rare opportunity especially for someone like me. Accessing nature in the UK can be difficult and expensive, but this camp gave me the chance to stay in the outdoors, completely free of charge.

The camp was run by a group of dedicated facilitators who helped us reconnect with nature and learn about forestry practices. I’ve always been interested in the natural sciences but seeing things in action like someone harvesting and using willow bark made the theory come alive.

I enjoyed being trusted with responsibilities like preparing firewood and managing campfires. It helped me build confidence and feel more capable.

Everyone took away something different from the experience. For me, it was the chance to explore a new place, see new landscapes, and learn about forest management from professionals. I even made some useful contacts that could help me in my future career.

The camp offered a mix of practical and theoretical activities, and the isolation from phone signal gave us a rare chance to disconnect and reflect. The facilitators were passionate and supportive, and their guidance was invaluable.

Overall, I’d recommend the Forestry Youth Camp to anyone who wants to reconnect with nature, learn new skills, and broaden their horizons.”

The organiser of the camp Dr Bid Webb, said: “Forestry is relevant to all young people, whether they realise it yet or not. Forests are at the heart of some of the biggest challenges we face, from climate change to biodiversity loss, and we need a wide range of voices and perspectives to help tackle them. The camp is about opening that door, showing young people that they belong in these conversations and that their ideas and experiences matter.”

Watch - Forestry Youth Camp 2025

“It was hard to know what to expect really, bringing together a group of young people that I’ve not met before. But actually, I’ve been really pleased and pleasantly surprised at just how much they have engaged. It’s been really beautiful just to see them coming alive in nature.”

“It’s nice to get out, especially if you’re in a really busy area. Camping isn’t really that bad. So, I mean at home, I’m used to like a lot of big sounds or constant moving around. When I’m here, everything is really slow and really relaxed, which is something I kind of really needed as well. So that’s something I’ve realised, it’s much slower and calmer here than in London.”

“So when you’re ID’ing different trees, the main thing you need to essentially look at is the leaf shape. This is the lime tree and these are edible as well.”

“Kwesia is now…I’m responsible for her safety. She’s in a really vulnerable position. Then I’m going to stand back and just let her explore the tree using all of her senses apart from her vision.”

“This is actually one leaf. It looks like it is one, two, three, four, five. That’s actually one leaf. So it’s what we call a compound leaf as opposed to an oak, which is what we call a simple leaf that’s just one piece.”

“I really enjoyed pulling back the outside of the tree after cutting it down because it was really interesting to see what was inside the tree”

“When you see a lot of aspen all together, it’s all the same tree. It’s all connected underground as one individual and they just send up all of these suckers.”

“I think my favourite part is probably the managing and creating fires. It’s really great to be, you know, hands on with a facet of the camp, especially as it’s more involved, everyone benefits from it. And then there’s the responsibility aspect, of making sure there is enough wood in the fire so it’s not smoking too much, or that the fire doesn’t go out and people will end up cold. That’s probably my favourite part.”

“So once you’ve done yours, you’re going to go over to either station, that side or that side, but we need 6 on each side.”

“That’s the wood, see the difference? Outer bark, inner bark, wood.”

“Template on, draw around it. And then we’ll use a saw and a knife to cut into this bit.”

“I knew we were going to be camping. But in terms of what I didn’t expect to happen is I’d have so much fun. Only within five days, I managed to build pretty strong relationships with people, which is really nice. Managed to become friends with people really quickly. I really liked hiking yesterday up on the moors. It was really nice and we got to see the view from way high up. I enjoyed sitting around the fire and just, like, communicating with everyone, getting to know people.”

“I’ve really enjoyed seeing them using tools in the woodland, felling a tree and then carving a butter knife from the tree that they felled. They were really responsible and safe with the tools and made beautiful things and then carved their Mum’s name in and put their own names on and Forestry camp 2025. It was just really, yeah, really beautiful to see them really engaging with that.”

“I think…I really like when the young people ask questions because it shows us how they are thinking about things, thinking about the environment, thinking about what they are looking at…they are looking at things, they are really engaging.”