In March 2018, ISWE teamed up with the Bangor Forestry Students Association (BFSA) and Woodland Heritage charity to host an evening symposium in Bangor on the ‘Past, Present and Future of Woodland Management’, featuring guest contributions from Prof. Ian Rotherham (Sheffield Hallam) and Geraint Richards (Head Forester, Duchy of Cornwall). The purpose of this event was to open up discussions on how understandings of the historical processes converging on woodlands and trees can inform contemporary debates about woodland management, land use, forestry, biodiversity and carbon capture.
The event helped build connections and conversations between History and Forestry at Bangor, with a particular focus on opportunities for building on William Linnard’s seminal study of Welsh Woods and Forests: History and Utilization (Cardiff, 1982), based on his 1979 Bangor University PhD thesis.
Trees, woodlands and landscape have provided context for a rich interdisciplinary relationship between ISWE and the Sir William Roberts Centre for Sustainable Land Use, including as part of a NERC ‘Discipline Hopping for Environmental Solutions’ Research Grant.
In 2023, Dr. Shaun Evans used two guest lectures to The Gardens Trust and Welsh Historic Gardens Trust to scope out a research framework centred on ‘Trees, Country Houses and the Landscapes of Wales’. Both lectures used ‘The Glory of Our Estates’, a quote from Thomas Pennant, to signify the centrality of trees and woodlands to Welsh estate landscapes.
