We’re very pleased to have been asked by the Forest of Dean District Council along with our colleagues in the Forest Voluntary Action Forum to do this exercise with our community.

Like many, we’re aware that there is real potential here in the Forest yet to be realised. There are also big challenges coming our way. Might we get some insight into our future by considering the many and rich stories that local people carry inside them? And could becoming a UNESCO Biosphere be helpful in bringing this potential to life?

We’ve scheduled a whole range of dates for local people to share in this conversation: from the drop-in centres around the Forest to youth group meetings to food and climate groups, even online video chat rooms, and a text-based conversation tool that’s been used all around the world where participants start with a prompt but then take the conversation where it needs to go. More details on those options very soon.

If you’re a town or parish Councillor there’s a special event on 7th Feb at The Wilderness.

Sign up here if that’s you!

We’re looking forward to the conversations.

Calling our Forest Community…come and shape a story for the future.

Wylderne is an evolution of the outdoor activities and residential experience that the Wilderness has offered for over 50 years.

Our vision is now to be a learning centre for the whole Forest community. One way of describing what we’re becoming is to call us a ‘bioregioning’ centre. Bioregioning describes how human beings related to the land for thousands of years before industrialisation and a wholly globalised economy. It’s the mindset that will make a success of a Biosphere!

You can read more about bioregioning here. 

Suffice to say, given its facilities, history and ecological vitality the Wilderness is a natural hub for people to connect with each other, and with Nature.

Children and young people are at the heart of our vision. Building thriving lives through good mental and physical health with an appreciation of how the natural world works will be a central theme in all Wylderne’s programmes and activities.

Our Long Term Vision

Winter’s colours at The Wilderness

Since last summer we have been busy. Repairs and upgrades of the main building are underway thanks to our crowdfunder, and replacements for worn equipment used for outdoor activities have been ordered in. We have also just finished in draft our habitat development plan ‘Our Wilder Wilderness’. This is key. This is the plan to breathe new life into the Wilderness Centre. It will guide everything we do from now on. If you’re planning to visit here in any capacity then your feedback on it is important. We want it to be inspirational, but also relatable and very practical. There is plenty of local knowledge that has its place in such a plan. We are planning a series of events at which local people can have their say. 

Look out for details of the next event! 

We would like to become the destination in the Forest of Dean for nature connection: the place for raising our understanding of how nature works in a way that helps our whole region to thrive. 

We’ll be announcing volunteer opportunities very soon.

Of course, our main business continues to be with schools coming on their residentials. Our priority is to keep the children safe and stimulated.

We feel the untapped potential here in the Forest, a place between three rivers: the Severn, the Wye and the Leadon. While it is an ‘edge’ place, sometimes forgotten, against the ancient boundary between England and Wales, it has also always been a ‘working forest’. And a place which from time to time has played a central role in the story of the whole country.

You could add the wider world, too, for the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution was here in the lower Wye Valley. What role might it take now, given we are moving towards a greener economy? The Wilderness, as a Forest-wide learning centre could be where we find this out.