Help us to make a new woodland in November!
The creation of the new Bear Wood will begin in the first week of November 2025, and friends of Wytham Woods can join in at a tree-planting event on Friday 7 November, from 10am to 1pm.
Donors, permitholders and other supporters of the Woods took home acorns collected from some of the oldest oak trees in Oxfordshire, and nurtured them into seedlings. These have now grown into vigorous young saplings and are ready to be planted out and form the core of the new woodland. Many thanks to everyone who has taken part in the project – we’ve loved hearing the stories associated with your acorns.
Oak saplings ready for planting in Bear Wood
Many of the saplings have already been returned to the Woods, where the team are looking after them until they can be planted. If you still have yours, it’s now time to bring it back. You can either drop it off at the Sawmill Yard at the main entrance to the Woods, where we’ll add it to our temporary nursery area – or you can join the supporters’ planting event on 7 November.
If you’d like to come and help in person, please email us on oge@admin.ox.ac.uk and we’ll be happy to provide directions and more event details.
The public event will follow a day of planting with local schoolchildren on Thursday 6 November.
The site for the new woodland is on the banks of the Thames, between Wytham Woods and the village of Swinford to the west. We will also be installing Chronlog posts so you can take photos from the same spot and help us track Bear Wood’s development over time.
Bear Wood is situated along the banks of the river Thames, between Wytham Woods and the village of Swinford
Some of you may be interested in this BBC article about some of Britain’s oldest and most impressive oaks, which are likely to be exceptionally tough survivors, judging by the way they’ve managed to live through every challenge they’ve faced down the centuries. Scientists think studying these trees could reveal secrets that let us manage our woodlands more effectively to stand up to threats like climate change and new diseases.
The acorns our supporters have raised are also gathered from magnificent old trees that have held their own for hundreds of years, so the saplings we’ll be planting in November could easily turn out to have superpowers of their own!
