Elizabeth Agate

Found volunteering in woodlands and enjoyed the experience but wanted to know more, the more I discovered. What make woodlands tick and what role might volunteers have in that process. This book is eminently placed to do just that and by and large does a very good job on it.

Initial reactions were wow, never knew that, now I understand and really got into it. That is where it began to pall. Cannot precisely put my finger on it but the recurring themes are, whenever it gets complicated we will leave that to the experts, a constant nagging, do be careful woods can be dangerous places unless we take safety precautions and skating across the top of a subject but lacking real teeth depth and insight.

This is an excellent wide ranging book covering all, well surely most, aspect of volunteering concerns and interests in working in woodlands. Stuffed with many practical tips, advice and suggestions. Invaluable, as far as it goes.

Setting aside the parental concerns for a wayward child, maybe an essential tone for such a proper and serious book my end reaction was it was a smorgasbord of titbits from here and there, wide ranging, ticking all the possible boxes but without a central heart and core, a laboured love. There was no substance, few examples of of successful, or unsuccessful projects, no looking up beyond the clod and my overriding question, what are the benefits to woodland owners to make them more community accessible, remained unanswered.… (meer)