How a Welsh Village Saved Its Forest and Built a Sustainable Future

Published: 23 February 2026 . The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

In the South Wales valleys around Treherbert, a community has transformed its relationship with the surrounding woodland — turning a traumatic environmental wake‑up call into a blueprint for sustainable stewardship and community resilience. After devastating floods hit the village of Pentre in February 2020, local residents concluded that decades of industrial forestry and detached forest management had left the hillsides vulnerable and disconnected from the people who live among them.

The floods, caused by relentless winter rain, exposed how tangled, overgrown monocultures of trees planted during the age of coal mining and managed through intermittent clear‑felling by public bodies failed to absorb water and protect the valley below. Frustrated by decades of decisions made without their input, villagers began pushing for co‑management of the woodlands with Natural Resources Wales (NRW), the government body responsible for Welsh forests.

Inspired by examples of community land ownership in Scotland, activists launched the Skyline project, backed by the local group Welcome to Our Woods, to advocate for a sustainable forest resource plan that would replace destructive clear‑felling with continuous cover forestry — a practice that thins trees selectively to maintain a thriving forest ecosystem while still providing usable timber. Over around 18 months of meetings and field walks involving villagers and NRW officials, an alternative vision for the forest took shape.

The resulting co‑production of the forest management plan marked a historic shift in how the woodland will be looked after. Instead of wholesale clear‑cutting, the plan favours smaller, phased operations that keep parts of the forest standing during logging cycles, protecting habitats and soil, and allowing residents to access and enjoy the landscape year‑round. This approach also opens the door for local enterprises to make better use of timber — from sustainable construction to green skills education — linking environmental care with economic opportunity for the village.

One symbolic outcome of this shift is a community‑built timber roundhouse, constructed from larch felled under the new regime and serving as a public space and demonstration of what local forestry can support. Meanwhile, groups in Treherbert are working with educational partners to offer courses in woodland crafts and nature‑based wellbeing, aiming to equip people with the skills needed for a greener future.

Although the land remains publicly owned and broad economic rights to forestry still lie beyond the village’s control, the collaborative management model pioneered here offers a hopeful example for other post‑industrial communities seeking to reclaim agency over their landscapes while addressing climate risk and creating sustainable local livelihoods.

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