In 2026 Woods for the Trees are hosting a year long celebration of trees, woodlands, woodland history and natural history, through a series of monthly webinars given by Max Adams with his colleagues Staurt Davies and Jonathan Culling. The series kicked off in early February 2026 with a taster session, introducing some of the themes we’ll be looking at during the series…
Max has written about many of these themes in his various books – now you’ll have the opportunity to interact with the Woods for the Trees team as we explore these themes together.
To tease our theme The Wood Age, the subject of one of Max’s books, took a close look at the relationship between William Shakespeare, his plays and the Globe Theatre. The Bard was self-consciously aware of forests as models of human society; but also of the theatrical value of a circular wooden theatre in encouraging the audience to see themselves as part of a grand thought-experiment of the imagination, conjuring his ‘Wooden O’ as a space of magic and wonder. Max also made the link between the Globe and that prehistoric enigma, Seahenge, whose psychodramas may have been every bit as complex as those of Shakespeare’s plays.
In Creating a Woodland Ecology from scratch Max introduced the Natural History theme. In twelve years he has helped transform a derelict sheep pasture into an ecological haven for birds, insects, mammals, amphibians and trees. The lesson? Give nature space and it will come; and it will come sooner than you might think.
Finally, Max introduced participants to the US Pomological, a wonderful collection of watercolours, predominantly by women artists, commissioned by the US Dept of Agriculture to record precious fruit cultivars before they were lost. By itself the art is superb; as a record of the partnership between humans and trees it is even more valuable. We’ll also be looking at the theme of woodland study – how you can learn about the history and ecology of woodlands.
You can view the slides from the taster session here.
We encourage pro-active participation in these webinars, through the Chat feature and during Q and A’s. All funds raised from the modest fee go to support our work.