Woodland Heritage is delighted to announce the appointment of Louisa Pharoah as its new Chief Executive.

Louisa brings more than 25 years’ experience in the charity sector, with a strong track record in fundraising, partnership development, team leadership and organisational strategy.

The most common question about James wood has been “How did the trees at James Wood fare in the 2026 drought?”.

Here is the answer. Some did not make it, but more than expected survived. Some went into a false autumn. A strategy where trees go dormant in mid September, much earlier than normal. We will see next spring if this strategy has worked for these trees and we will see if they survived.

Tony Kirkham MBE, VMH was on a lecture tour in the Midwest and eastern USA at the Morton Arboretum, Chicago Botanical Garden, and the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago in the state of Illinois, Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis, and Oak Spring Garden in Virginia and was so excited to meet some of the remarkable oak trees in these states.