This page is dedicated to our aim to get long term security for our 31-year-old forest garden in Dartington, Devon, UK. Here you’ll find latest updates and press releases, and also your tributes to the forest garden and what it means to you, and why it is so important.
Go to Messages of Support
The petition set up by students from Sussex University to secure the forest garden for perpetuity now has over 31,000 signatories! Your can find the petition Here
Update – Sat 19th April 2025
Afternoon all
Lots of people are asking what is happening and why it has all gone so quiet.
So the situation is that we are still in discussions with the Dartington Hall Trustees about a solution that gives us long term security for the Forest Garden. This is most likely to be in the form of a long term lease rather than being able to buy the site (which has been ruled out.) Discussions are proceeding slowly, and nothing has been decided or agreed yet.
For the time being then we are continuing the pause on campaigning. We are still faced with our lease running out in 3.5 years time and I’m sure both DHT and ourselves want to come to an agreed solution well before then, so I’d say the vibes were positive.
Thanks for the ongoing support
Martin
PRESS RELEASE – 26 March 2026
Statement from ART on the Forest Garden at Dartington
This afternoon our landlords have released a public statement (https://www.dartington.org/forest-garden-update/) which contain a number of misleading statements which we feel we have to correct.
“We have had constructive and productive discussions with Martin over the past week.”
No, we had one meeting on Weds 19th March when positive noises were made by DHT representatives. Then on Tuesday 25th March we had an email from David Triesman failing to address our need for long term security of the site. We would not have met had that not been for discussion.
“Eviction was not on the agenda and is not the intention.”
We were served notice by one member of DHT staff which was then queried by us, to be confirmed by Nick Harris (COO). Obviously eviction was on the agenda.
“Our objective is simple: to work with Martin to agree a physical solution for making the boundary of the forest garden secure and safe, meeting the needs of a prospective tenant for the larger adjoining site of the former college. Nothing more.”
That may be so, but that wasn’t what our meeting on 19th March concentrated on, which was our need for long term security of the site following an irrevocable breakdown in trust between ART and DHT as a result of the eviction notice.
“He has already gained a legal opinion telling him he has good security of tenure”
DHT have not rescinded their notice to quit. Whether they do so or not is now irrelevant as our lease runs out in just over 3 years in any case – this is not good security of tenure.
“That is a longer term conversation”
No, we agreed in our meeting on 19th March that security of tenure is something that we need answers to speedily. Thus our extreme disappointment that David Triesman’s letter of 25th March failed to offer us anything in the way of long term security options.
From our perspective any agreement to a physical solution – ie fencing – to satisfy the SEN school interested in taking over the ex-Schumacher College buildings is inextricably linked to DHT coming forward with a solution giving us long term security of tenure. We have written to David Triesman making this point and publically call on DHT to see sense and come to an agreement on this.
Wednesday 26 March 2025
Petition: 26,313
Sunday 23 March 2025
SAVE THE FOREST GARDEN
Petition: 25,526
Morning all
Great support for our campaign from Jonathan Porrit on X yesterday!
Rumours continue to circulate but we’ve received no offer yet from the DHT.
It’s important to state that it’s irrelevant whether or not the notice to quit is rescinded now – the long term security of the forest garden is still the issue.
Unfortunately 31 years of trust has been irrevocably shattered by what has happened here and the only way forward we feel is acceptable is for DHT to sell the site to ART so it can be protected in perpetuity.
A few years ago a forest garden was discovered, largely intact, in a Canadian forest which had been abandoned for some 150 years. The fact that it was still there and had not been taken over by forest shows what a resilient and sustainable system it can be. We’d like it if people came by the Dartington Forest Garden in 2175 and the system was still going strong!
In these days of incessant bad news we all need beacons of hope, especially younger people who look around and rightly despair at how the planet is being run. Food forests force long term sustainable thinking and I hope can be some of those beacons.
Please keep sharing the petition (link above) and keep sending in messages of support to SavetheFG@agroforestry.co.uk which we’re posting on this page.
Thanks everyone for the support – keep it up!
Saturday 22 March 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
SAVE THE FOREST GARDEN
Petition: 23,326
Morning all
Today the Dartington Trustees meet and will surely be discussing the fate of our forest garden.
Although we had a good meeting with DHT on Wednesday, the safety of our forest garden is not yet assured as nothing definite has been proposed by DHT.
So we call on the Dartington Trustees to be bold and do the right thing today.
We run public tours through the growing season and have just put on more due to high demand! That’s in addition to groups from schools, businesses, and horticulture/agriculture.
Please keep sharing these posts and link to the petition …. we’re not safe yet!
(pic shows primrose, we use the flower in salads)
Thursday 20 March 2025
SAVE THE FOREST GARDEN
Petition: 21,648
Morning everyone.
Yesterday saw a nice article come out in the Guardian whose journalists took great interest in the plants in the forest garden as well as the issue at hand.
We met representatives of our landlord DHT yesterday. We met in the forest garden, which we introduced them to, then sat in a circle underneath the pine trees and talked. The talks were positive, and will continue next week. We’re hopeful that we can get the long term security we need by buying the site within a short time.
We’re not there yet though, so please keep sharing the petition (link in bio)! We still need as many supporters to sign as numbers matter and we want to maintain momentum. https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-destruction-of-the-world-renowned-dartington-forest-garden
Keep up the good work!
(pic is marsh marigold in the forest garden)
Wednesday 19 March 2026
Petition: 18,163
Morning all.
This fantastic short film made by Thomas Regnault won a National Geographic prize a few years ago.
Today we’re meeting representatives from our landlords DHT and we’re hoping for a positive outcome …
Local and national media are spreading our story so the protests are only going to get louder.
In the forest garden the fiddleheads are popping and the wild garlic and alexanders are starting to look lush. Spring is in the air!
Keep up the good work everyone
Tuesday 18 March 2025
Petition: 13,771 signatures
Monday was another busy day, with more fantastic messages of support (including from the former Director of Kew, Professor Sir Ghillean Prance)
A day dealing with journalists, and some useful support from our local MP Caroline Voaden.
But actually my favourite part of the day was spending the morning in our nursery, grafting pear trees!
Support is building to a head and we are becoming more hopeful that this can be resolved this week.
Lots of you are itching to get crowdfunding. Let’s be patient and when we know we can buy the site we’ll go full on with that.
Keep up the good work everyone!
Mon 17 March 2025
Morning all: the petition is now over 10,000 (to be exact: 11,113 as I write this) – INCREDIBLE. Thanks to all for sharing especially to new audiences. As a sceptic about social media in general, its use in sharing news like this has been fantastic and eye-opening.
The weekend has been busy to say the least. Amongst other things I showed a group of councillors from the executive committee of our local council (South Hams DC) around the forest garden on a beautiful sunny morning. They certainly seemed very interested and sympathetic.
A number of supporters have suggested contacting the King. That’s not going to work as he is not allowed to get involved in any kind of dispute. But interestingly, Prince Charles (as he then was) was an early personal supporter of the forest garden project and I’ve attached an image of the letter stating he personally wanted to donate towards it. So it is fair to assume he would not be best pleased by events.
Our landlord DHT has a trustees meeting on Friday – wouldn’t it be amazing if we can change their minds by then? It’s going to be an interesting week ahead!
Thanks to all
Sun 16 March 2025
Morning to all our wonderful supporters!
The petition to save our forest garden has gathered over 7,500 signatures in two days which is AMAZING.
I think our landlords DHT may have been surprised and shocked both by the level of support and by the passion shown, so thank you all again.
Before we went public, we did in fact write to CEO Robert Fedder at DHT a week ago, explaining why the forest garden was such an important resource, and asking them to retract their notice to quit. We also told him that there would be considerable public support and inevitable bad PR for them. Clearly DHT didn’t want a sensible dialogue at that time ….
Our focus now is persuading DHT to sell the forest garden site to us. We know there are supporters out there itching to get crowdfunding so anyone with good experience of this please get in touch – we may need you!
We heard a report that someone shouted abuse at Dartington staff yesterday. Please don’t. DHT front line staff are not responsible for DHT decisions.
We are so touched by all the messages of support, this really means a lot so thanks again everyone.
Some of our supporters have set up a petition at change.org – see www.change.org/p/stop-the-destruction-of-the-world-renowned-dartington-forest-garden Thanks to the Sussex Forest Food Garden Society who are instrumental in running the Forest Food Garden at the University of Sussex.
Press release - 14th March 2025
Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) have given a years notice to end the lease for a groundbreaking 2 acre food forest project which has been under way on the Dartington Estate for 31 years, despite it costing them nothing; whereas it has brought in over 50,000 visitors to the estate, hosted important scientific research on carbon storage, and become what is often described as the best example of a food forest (or forest garden) in the temperate world.
Groundbreaking work by agroforestry pioneer
Martin Crawford, founder and director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, which has leased the land for 31 years, says:
“We’ve put in decades of work to achieve this exemplar of a food forest system. This seems like a complete betrayal of trust by the DHT, who are only looking at money – they have given us no reasons but think they can get more money by flattening and building there or using it for something else instead of the rent we pay.”
A food forest or forest garden is a complex agroforestry system using trees, shrubs and perennial plants to mimic an ecosystem but with lots of crop plants. Think fruit and nut trees underplanted by fruiting shrubs and vegetables. They are very sustainable systems to grow food and store carbon at the same time. The food forest at Dartington has inspired the creation of thousands of such systems throughout the world, and more recently has inspired the Royal Horticultural Society to diversify their plantings at Wisley, and the National Trust to start its first forest garden at Shugborough.
Martin continues:
“Our charity and the DHT have had a long association with the understanding that ours is a long term land-based project which after 31 years still has a long way to go. For example, long term measurements of carbon storage in such systems are vitally important in climate change research.
DHT have had many other benefits too. We’ve brought some 50,000 people to the Estate, many of whom have gone on to use the accommodation or catering facilities. Over the years the DHT have used our name to get kudos for doing ecologically sound projects on the Estate.
“Ecological vandalism”
“Throwing us off is not the same as giving a tenant in a building notice – they can easily move. This food forest is irreplaceable. It is literally priceless. What the DHT are doing is ecological vandalism.
I had thought there was still a thread of ethical behaviour at DHT but was clearly mistaken. DHT are not breaking any laws giving us notice but it is still unethical, amoral behaviour breaking 31 years of trust between our organisations. Their communications have at times been casual, disrespectful and with a feudal tone too, rubbing salt into the wounds – clearly they don’t care what their actions result in. Their calculations may well turn out wrong if an economic boycott takes place.
It’s even more galling, because we obviously need a secure long term tenancy, and we spent 4 years negotiating this with DHT and had a verbal agreement to go ahead with the last CEO Alan Bolden. Then with regime change the DHT reneged on that agreement and refused to give us a long term deal.
A lot of people have visited this food forest and know how valuable it is. Please protest this decision by writing to the DHT (see below) and tell them what this space means to you and what it’s loss to the wider world means; and why they should give us long-term security.
To the Dartington Trust I say: please reconsider your actions. As well as retracting this decision, we need a long term secure lease or to buy our site. This protest will continue until we get that. This kind of behaviour will lose you a lot local support. Do you really think you can survive without it?”
Dartington Trust Contacts to write to:
Robert Fedder (CEO): robert.fedder@dartington.org
The Dartington Trustees: trust@dartington.org (these are listed on the Charity Commission website)
Nick Harris (COO): nick.harris@dartington.org
We’ve created a Save the Dartington Forest Garden page about this where updates will be posted and your messages of support too if you want. Send messages of support to be posted to SavetheFG@agroforestry.co.uk
Economic boycott of Dartington Hall Trust
Some local ART supporters are doubtful that DHT will pay any attention to these kinds of protests, and argue that since DHT only understands the value of money, economic actions need to take place to persuade them to change their minds – in effect an economic boycott. They want people to ask themselves: Do you really want to give your money to such an unethical organisation? If not then target DHT and not the many wonderful business tenants on the Estate:
- Don’t go and stay there.
- Don’t buy their food at the White Hart. (But the Green Table and Montreal Bagels are run by tenants)
- Don’t use or rent their facilities.
- Don’t use the DHT Cider Press shops
- Watch films at Totnes cinema rather than the Barn at Dartington Hall
- If you’re a funder, think twice about funding DHT
- If you’re a tenant on the Estate – maybe look elsewhere when your lease is up. Otherwise watch your back.
- If you’re a prospective tenant – look elsewhere!
Messages of support
To add your message here please email it to SavetheFG@agroforestry.co.uk (we reserve the right to edit for defamatory or abusive language)
“This betrayal of trust by such a renowned establishment as the Dartington Hall Trust is devastating. The two highly successful Symposiums run by the Agroforestry Research Trust over the last 4 years demonstrated both the international interest and concern over food production and nutrition by young entrepreneurs and seasoned food forest growers. But the jewel in the crown, recognised by all concerned, is the Dartington site of 31 years and what can be learned from such an established habitat as it responds to changes in the climate. Such a resource and the practical wisdom that it generates and which is passed on to course attendees is very special and I urge trustees to see beyond the trees and let this living experiment continue in its present form.” Dr John Parry MBE, Hon.Sen.Lecturer in Education, University of Sussex
“To destroy the Dartington Forest Garden would be a tragedy. Educational and inspiring, it is a rare example of a truly sustainable, holistic approach to growing food and fibre.” Professor Dave Goulson, University of Sussex
I am horrified that Dartington Hall is even thinking of destroying the agroforestry forest at Dartington. This is a landmark project of excellence and of vital importance to sustainable living. It has influenced and encouraged many others to get involved in sustainable use of forests. Dartington forest must be kept intact. The wonderful work of thirty years must not be destroyed.
Professor Sir Ghillean Prance D Phil., FRS, VMH
Former Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
President The International Tree Foundation
Martin has worked tirelessly to make the Dartington Forest Garden the incredible educational resource that it is today. It is world-renowned, pioneering, and stocks edible plants that not only are unavailable elsewhere but that will serve to bolster UK food supplies as and when our food security status further declines. I would strongly urge the Trust to listen to feedback and reconsider.
Julia Wright, Associate Professor, Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University. Ex-External Examiner at Schumacher College.
“To eradicate the Agroforestry Research Trust’s extraordinary forest garden, which has single-handedly inspired thousands of such gardens around the world, would be an act of cultural vandalism on a par with bulldozing the Lost Gardens of Heligan. In order to prop up its inept organisation, Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) has sold off buildings, land and artworks, has closed down much of what made its reputation in the first place, but to mess with this gem of agroecological ingenuity is absolutely a step too far. This single garden, which recently celebrated its 30th birthday, has arguably inspired more positive action around the world than anything DHT itself has done in those 30 years. This insane decision must be reversed immediately”. Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement.
“A unique pioneering forest garden which is a jewel in the DHT crown is being thrown away with little thought given to its global importance, reputation and scientific significance! Does DHT understand the priceless nature of it and its value to the world at large? It’s a betrayal of their own objectives to run a centre of ‘innovative sustainability’., a betrayal of their history under the Elmhirst’s founding vision for DHT to be ‘a place that could change the world’ and where ‘ground-breaking experiments in land use, farming and education took place’. And lastly a betrayal of their own tagline in their annual report ‘To be a creative catalyst for more just and sustainable ways of living’!
To withdraw from their relationship with the Dartington Forest Garden would be a serious own goal! we cannot let that happen for both their sakes! Please let the Forest Garden continue to inspire the world!” – Minni Jain, Director, The Flow Partnership UK
I am astonished and horrified by this decision. The Dartington Trust is behaving like Donald Trump, gleefully destroying what it does not understand. It is trashing decades of pioneering work, and seems to have no conception of the value that will be lost. It gains nothing from this decision, while all of us lose. This is mindless vandalism.
George Monbiot
It is no exaggeration to say that my life changed the day I first visited Martin’s forest garden. That spark lit a fire that inspired me on a life of growing, writing and more – without that spark, I have no idea what my life would have looked like, but it is perfectly possible that my life in inspiring others to grow and cook would not have happened. It is a place where ideas and well as plants germinate. I am one of very many who owe Martin’s vision and dedication a great deal. The forest garden is unique, an exemplar, a place of hope in a difficult world, and the idea that ART and this incredible place should be separated is a national scandal that will be enthusiastically resisted.
Mark Diacono Author, chef, grower
The forest garden at Dartington is of global importance in terms the future of sustainable agriculture and is a key learning landscape for:
- Food security as part of environmental restoration ie feeding people without costing the planet
- Profitable and nature friendly carbon sequestration as a mitigation approach to devastating global climate change.
- Health improvement from special sensory landscapes and nutrition linked to species rich mixtures
- New opportunities linked to sustainable rural livelihoods based on a re-interpretation of “woodiness”
The older the sites the more valuable they become and these sites represent some of the oldest agroforestry landscapes in the UK.
Professor Steve Newman
This forest garden has inspired many people worldwide. It is an exceptional place, showing how beautiful, nature-rich and productive a more mature project can be. For research it is extremely important to have this forest garden continuing to grow, for many decades to come. My deepest wish now is the landlords being able to reconsider their step. Reaching a solution can still benefit all parties involved.
Wouter van Eck, founder of Foundation Food Forestry Netherlands
The Forest Garden has for many years epitomised the values that Dartington Hall Trust held. It was an experiment in rural living to further the Elmhirst aim to make the estate truly relevant. Every time I walk past this garden, I feel connected to a deeper integrity underpinning Dartington.
There is a stark comparison between the uplifting presence of the Forest Garden over 31 years and the current process that seeks to close it down, for reasons of accounting.
DHT needs the forest garden now more than ever if the estate is not to become totally irrelevant.
Philip Franses
“To Dartington Trust
I am horrified that you are intending to give up the Forest Garden, this is terribly sad, after all the work which has gone into it, and the nourishment and interest for so many people, plus the ecological benefits.
What will you do with it, I hate to think.”
Lindsay Clifton
“I am very sorry to hear of this development at Dartington. I watched the first species of food plants being established there 31 years ago and have admired the project ever since. Martin’s work is invaluable and unusual. DHT must surely realise that the forest garden must be secured.
Very good wishes,”
Sue
“Why? Why? What on earth is there to gain from evicting the inspiring and unique Agroforestry Research from its 2 acre site? It’s yet another example of the Trust ( I use that term ironically) having no understanding of the vision and groundbreaking legacy that once was Dartington. From the letting go of the Art College through to the recent betrayal of Schumacher College, the trust has destroyed all that gave Dartington meaning and purpose. We are left with a shell promoting Wedding Fayres and Gym Memberships.”
Sincerely
Laurel Ellis MA, BA Hons Diploma in Sustainable Horticulture (Schumacher College)
Tending to the Earth and her forests is vital at this time.
For 31 years this project has been a positive step forward.
Please reconsider, respect the trees choose a constructive response not a destructive one.
M Smillie
Please listen to those who care and know, this would be a tragedy, I couldn’t highlight it any better than those commentented above. Years of development, education and growth, let it continue to grow. The regret would be epic … listen, please ❤️ “
Kind regards, Karen Anderson
“What horrible news that the forest garden is threatened! A few years ago I had the pleasure of attending a week end course. It was an eye-opener and an awakening! So much research and highly important knowledge being produced here for our common good! Many good thoughts from Norway 💚”
Hilde
“I am writing to DHT to please beg you to reconsider your decision to evict the Forest Garden. You are in a privileged position to continue showcasing possibly the best example of agroforestry in Europe and beyond. 31 years of responsible land stewardship and development to create a rich, unique habitat and a beautiful example of sustainable food production is not something that can just be packed up and started again elsewhere. You should be proud of this garden on your land and celebrate and showcase it.”
Zoe Baillie (she/her)
“I am appalled to hear that this wonderful project is being threatened and urge Dartington trust to reconsider its decision to terminate the lease. I have always thought of Dartington as a special place in a world consumed with quick profits at the expense of the environment, the arts, culture etc and this flies in the face of all that. With the current climate crisis, projects like the forest garden are more and more necessary. It is only with long-term commitments that true knowledge is gained and at 31 years old the project is just beginning to yield benefits. PLEASE reconsider renewing the lease on a long term!”
JEB
“I am writing to add my voice to the many, who ask you to reconsider shutting down the agroforestry garden. Please think again
Best wishes, Verity Newman
Dear Martin and ART crew
We are so gutted to hear that DHT even conceived the possibility of giving you notice. Presumably to do with plans for the Old Postern.
This forest garden is a gem of regional agroforestry exploration…a vital library for our future food security. Representing years of thoughtful research, sourcing and planting not to mention the plant growth and consequent ecology that has evolved.
Whilst we understand the need to bring financial stability to the estate it is inconceivable that, without clear communication about their wider vision to tenants and community alike DHT continue to make such radical, damaging decisions which operate contrary to the foundations of the Elmhirsts philosophies and the legal remit of the Trust itself.
We recently purchased a piece of land just up the road with an intention to develop a patch of agroforestry, totally inspired by the ART work and the tangible example of what’s possible that this living forest garden offers.
We will continue to do what we can to support you.
Best wishes
Helen & Jay Helen Jacoby
Dear Dartington Trust Team,
I am so sad this morning to read that the Agroforestry Research Trust has been given notice to vacate the Dartingtn site.
This edible forest garden is so precious, virtually nothing comes close to it in the UK – it is an exemplar site. The knowledge, expertise and beautiful edible and useful plants pouring out of that site, inspiring and supporting people globally for the last 30 years, is priceless.
The interconnected biodiversity on the site is unique and irreplaceable. Creating harmony between food, people and nature is a rare skill.
Please recognise what will be lost to humankind and nature if the Agroforestry Research Trust is not permitted to continue. Please consider what is the right thing to do in light of climate change and biodiversity loss for the future of people and wildlife.
I look forward to hearing that you are working closely with the Agroforestry Research Trust towards a better future.
Yours faithfully, Kirsten Brown
“I am truly appalled by the news that Dartington have given the ART notice to quit after 31 years. As a member of various community initiatives in urban Poole, I have relied extensively on the supply of expertise, knowledge and, indeed, trees and shrubs from Martin Crawford and the Agroforestry Research Trust. We have planted dozens of trees over the years in our urban community orchards and allotments.
It would be a crime to destroy the home of Forest Gardening in Britain.
Best wishes, Harriet Stewart-Jones
One of if not the best example of a temperate food forest in the world.
Worth more than words could say. I’ve learnt an amazing amount from that land and to destroy it would be a tragedy.
Thanks, Howard
A vital resource in a fragile world. This is devastating and the impacts unfathomable.
Kate
Dear Mr Fedder and Mr Harris
The Charity Commission Website for ‘The Dartington Hall Trust’ states:
‘Dartington is a place of learning and experiment. We work locally, nationally and internationally to achive change in three crucial areas: the arts, the promotion of a fairer society and the future of our planet. Working with pioneering thinkers, teachers, artists and social entrepreneurs. Dartington helps people to address some of the significant issues of our time’
To wake up to the news that the wonderful work of the Agroforestry Research Trust and the beautiful, World-renowned, 2 acre, 31 year old Dartington Forest Garden is under clear threat to be destroyed is heart-breaking. Let alone the threat to the intrinsic ecological value of the site itself, this sends a clear message to your existing patrons that you really do NOT care about the future of our planet.
I have been a regular visitor to Dartington, having stayed at the Hall numerous times. I have eaten with friends on many occasions at the White Hart, shopped and eaten at the Cider Press and we have been long term supporters of the Trust, over decades. One of my friends even left a legacy to the Trust in her Will. This is how much we thought of and valued Dartington and the work of the DHT. However, your decision to end the Forest Garden lease will change all that.
We have visited the Forest Garden, we have been on one of Martin Crawford’s fascinating and wonderful courses. We have been so inspired by his work, notably the Forest Garden in particular, this led us to make the decision to move home and purchase a small plot of land, where we are now creating a forest garden ourselves, using many of the trees purchased from the Agroforestry Research Trust. We are now beginning to grow our own food forest too, which I never thought possible. Surely you should be supporting the work of the ART, not helping to destroy it?! The Forest Garden exemplifies, so beautifully, all that you set out in your mission statement above.
So, we really cannot understand the reason for this decision to end the lease, apart from the obvious (yes, I see the DHT losses clearly stated on the Charity Commission Website too). But, beware… will you be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs? Think of those who support and value Dartington Hall. What else do they value? Speaking for my family and friends, I can clearly state right now that we will never cross the threshold of Dartington Hall again, and patronise any of the DHT businesses, if this decision comes to pass. There must be better ways to raise funds, avoiding complete alienation of many of your existing (and future) patrons and supporters.
Sincerely,
Anna Ballard
I was horrified to hear that the Forest Garden might be lost. This project is a unique and enduring example of a new and better way of growing food, improving human nutrition and creating a home for wildlife at the same time. It is an inspiration and an irreplaceable educational resource. I urge the Trustees to reconsider their decision and ensure that it continues to thrive into the future.
Dr Elizabeth Sheridan, Consultant Microbiologist, University Hospitals Dorset and Imperial College, London.
To destroy this vitally important modal of Temperate FG would be an environmental crime. DHT need to change their plans and recommit to their previous agreement.
Sally volunteer at Horsenden
Martin Crawford’s Forest Garden has been an inspiration to countless thousands of students and teachers alike. I was fortunate enough to be on a residential course at Schumacher College when I had one of the most profound and life altering epiphanies one evening in this magical garden. The realisation that came to me was responsible for the establishment of Nature and Therapy and the hundreds of people from all over the world who have now trained with us. So it is not merely a small vibrant space on the estate, it is the ripple effect of how many lives have been changed for the better due to its’ presence and care. To close this unique facility feels aligned with the closing of the college, and the destruction of North Woods – short term ‘Trumpian’ thinking and desperate measures that asset strip the environment.
Stefan Batorijs Founder and Director Nature and Therapy.
I am appalled to hear of the latest bombshell coming out of Dartington Hall Trust. The Agroforestry Research Trust is an amazing lifework of dedication to ways in which we can save our planet. It has in part inspired our journey on our farm and we have learnt a lot from Martin Crawford’s work and are now embarking on building a Climate Battery style Greenhouse to produce food for our local community. Examples such as Martin’s need preserving, showcasing and long term stability and surely gives so much more to the DHT than the potential greed of using that land for something more profitable. Use the Kudos it gives you! It’s not like you don’t own enough other land if you want to do developments!
Dartington has been for my lifetime, a central part of what has created the uniqueness of the Totnes area with Schumacher, the Art College etc and slowly this is being eroded… for what purpose. You are only as good as the community that supports you and the environment you exist in, so please overturn this appalling decision and think about the bigger picture!
Kind regards,
Sacha, Jacqueline and family.
The AGRT is the most amazing extraordinary and vitally important organisation, the work it is doing is groundbreaking, The Dartington Trust should be supporting them as much as possible and must renew their lease.
Viktor Wynd
Dear Dartington Trust,
I was shocked and appalled to learn this morning that the Agroforestry Research Trust has been given notice to leave their ground-breaking forest garden. Martin Crawford is a genuine hero in the field of sustainable food production, and he and his collaborators have created one of the most inspiring sustainable food projects in the world. I implore you to reconsider and retract this decision, and give the trust a long term secure lease or the option to buy the site.
I set up a more modest ecological food production project in Suffolk many years ago. Martin’s steadfast knowledge and determination on his established Forest Garden was an outstanding example of how to build a long term project despite all the challenges – he was, and he remains, a personal hero of mine. His example helped me to keep going when the going got tough, which it regularly did. But he, and his collaborators, need the site to continue this essential work. Please reconsider, the world will thank you for it.
All the best,
Joanne Mudhar Founder and former manager of The Oak Tree Farm (www.the-oak-tree.co.uk)
In a world where human activity so often compromises our connection with the living world, we desperately – desperately – need pioneering examples of how to live gently, deeply, meaningfully, in a way that honours the integrity of the ecosystems upon which human life depends. Martin Crawford and The Agroforestry Research Trust are a shining example of how to do this with deep commitment and unrelenting reverence. It is absolutely unthinkable for it to be destroyed. We all, collectively, would be profoundly impoverished by its loss – our imagination depleted, our vision shrunk, and the aspirations of Dartington Hall diminished. It must not be lost.
With warmest wishes
Stu McLellan
It is heartbreaking to hear that a unique pioneering forest garden is being abandoned. With all the environmental destruction currently going on in the world. It’s more important than ever to protect such an important oasis. No one who cares about the natural world can let this plan go ahead. Please do not let the Forest Garden die.
Kind regards, Hazel Sharrad
I find the decision by the Dartington Hall Trust to end the lease for Martin Crawford’s two acre agroforestry project absolutely stupefying. I could almost understand the inability of trustees Chris Maw and Peter Goldsbrough to grasp the pivotal importance of Martin’s work over thirty plus years, but fail to see how Rachel Watson and David Triesman could be complicit in such a decision. As chair, Lord Triesman’s statement, “… Dartington is truly unique. It brings together excellent art and design and, increasingly, innovative holistic work in social and environmental sciences and ecology. Its contribution to a just and sustainable future is legendary …” sits at odds with peremptorily ending Dartington’s invaluable assistance for this Forest Garden work which is of proven global significance. The educational impact of this project is itself legendary. Its value would increase with time.
Maybe Robert Fedder, interim CEO, can try to explain the reasoning for what seems a highly irrational and unjustifiable action. It’s time to think again. What a way to approach the centenary. Should not Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst’s intentions be respected?
Jeremy Long
At a time when we need innovation in growing food and how we manage land use, this move seems unbearably shortsighted. To loose 30 years of research with a world pioneering project that is held in such high regard is a travesty. I urge decision makers to rethink this and instead put in protections that safeguard the forest garden for the future.
Andrea Burden
(to the Dartington Hall Trust)
I am not sure what you at the Dartington Trust think you are doing. Perhaps you feel that the survival of the estate with which you are entrusted depends on your making some difficult economic decisions. If so I want to urge you to consider a different path. One that ceases to privilege an idea of wellbeing and survival founded on economics. We are not entrusted with land and river so that we can extract commercial value from it – we are entrusted as stewards to care for the land, for all who live there (not only humans) and for the future. What Martin Crawford is doing is groundmaking. Legally you may have the right to evict him and destroy the forest garden, but why would you want to (other than to extract more financial gain – which can’t really be your deeper purpose, can it?).
I don’t think that any threats I might make around boycotting the estate or encouraging others to do so (I will of course do that) are relevant, for they emerge out of the same extractive, commercial frame that drives your decision making.
Instead I urge you to lift your heads, as we all must do, from the mire short term materialist concerns and see what is needed in the world and your part of our world right now.
Walk in the woods, and imagine them gone – and imagine that you were part of that loss. Or, in changing your decisions, imagine them flourishing a hundred years and that your courage was the movement that make that possible.
If you can’t have that courage who can? Who are you expecting to preserve our natural world?
Ann Knights
Professor of Leadership and Coaching
To the trustees and the directors of Dartington Hall Trust,
We are flabbergasted to read of the plans to finish the lease of the Dartington Forest Garden. I urge you all to take a tour with Martin Crawford and experience its value to the ecological world, and to Dartington Estate as a flagship organisation which promotes sustainability. This unique ground breaking Forest Garden is part of everything Dartington Estate holds high in value.
If this is about money: it would be a false economy too. We would be so disappointed with this decision and with the path the Trust has started to take, that we would not renew our joint annual membership (Henrieke Dimmendaal and Ellen Koenders). We would also intend to minimise attending performances, go the Barn cinema, and make use of the White Hart. Currently we spend at least 200 pounds a year at Dartington Hall.
I expect we are not the only ones thinking along these lines.
Please please, see sense, and do not evict the Agroforestry Trust.
With Regards,
Ellen Koenders and Henrieke Dimmendaal
The agroforestry research trust is an indespensable national asset that has been established for many years. It has evolved into an extraordinary ecological environment and library of resilient perennial crops that will provide knowledge to countless people around the world to adapt to the changing climate and still provide food crops.
I had the privilege of experiencing one of the many workshops that are provided there along with other people who had travelled from Europe to be there. It must be allowed to continue as the work is vital.
Anita Rowe
Dear all (at DHT)
I am absolutely horrified to hear that you plan to evict the Agroforestry Trust forest garden on your estate. This is a site of international importance both scientifically and culturally; indeed, it is a landmark garden in the journey towards a sustainable future for humanity.
I hear that the Agroforestry Research Trust and Martin Crawford had a verbal agreement with Alan Bolden to continue their tenancy and secure a longer term agreement. That you would now renege on this agreement is beyond disappointing.
My family and I regularly visit Dartington Estate in the summer, eat in the cafes and restaurants, park in the car parks, enjoy concerts etc etc. I can tell you for absolute certain that we will never visit again or give custom to any of your related sites or businesses, and I will strongly urge all my friends and contacts to join this boycott. If you cannot be persuaded to rethink this disastrous decision, I am afraid that you will come to regret it enormously in terms of lost business, lost reputation, prestige, cultural capital and goodwill.
I look forwards to hearing that, on the contrary, you wish to have positive reciprocal relationships with your tenants, and that you are committed to being part of a positive future.
Yours,
Kim Ashton
Sending you all our solidarity Martin. We can only imagine what you are going through right now. We will do all we can this end. Shocking, shocking news. What on earth are Dartington Hall thinking! This is bound to ruin Dartington’s reputation as well as destroy such a vital world ecological resource. Who on earth would do something so ecologically reckless – and reckless for DHT own business? It does seem a boycott may help them appreciate what they have done. I certainly won’t be staying there again. Just shocking what they have done.
Diane
Dear Mr Fedder, Mr Harris, and Trustees of the Dartington Hall Trust,
I write to urgently demand that you immediately reverse the deeply irresponsible decision to terminate the lease of the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART) at Dartington.
The ART forest garden is an internationally renowned asset, unique in its contribution to sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, climate resilience, and education. Your decision to terminate ART’s lease will not only irreversibly damage an irreplaceable ecological resource but also cause substantial harm to Dartington’s economic interests.
Positive economic benefits of granting ART a long-term lease:
- ART attracts thousands of visitors each year who directly contribute to the local economy by staying, dining, and spending in and around Dartington. This proven economic benefit would only grow with long-term security of tenure.
- ART’s educational programmes and internationally recognised training courses draw significant investment into the region, bolstering Dartington’s profile and financial sustainability.
- A stable, long-term lease would empower ART to secure additional external funding and support, further benefiting Dartington financially and reputationally.
Conversely, your current decision risks severe negative economic impacts:
- Evicting ART will immediately alienate thousands of passionate supporters and visitors, significantly damaging Dartington’s brand, goodwill, and financial position.
- Such short-sighted decision-making undermines public trust in Dartington’s ability to act responsibly and sustainably, causing long-lasting reputational and financial damage.
- Dartington risks substantial financial liability due to its fiduciary duty under law to manage its charitable assets prudently. Destroying this valuable resource through short-term decision-making may constitute a breach of the trustees’ legal responsibilities.
As trustees, you have a legal fiduciary responsibility to safeguard Dartington’s long-term interests. Reversing this decision and granting ART a secure, long-term lease clearly aligns with both your charitable mission and your financial obligations under charity law.
Be assured: thousands of ART supporters—myself included—will act tirelessly and publicly to ensure this decision is overturned. This includes sustained campaigns, escalating public pressure, extensive media outreach, and direct action if necessary. We will actively spread awareness of the severe implications of this decision and advocate vigorously until ART’s lease is secured long-term.
I strongly urge you to fulfil your fiduciary duties, recognise the immense value ART contributes economically, socially, and environmentally, and immediately reverse your decision to terminate ART’s lease.
I look forward to your prompt response and to seeing Dartington act responsibly by granting ART the security it deserves.
Yours sincerely,
Josef Davies-Coates
The work of Martin Crawford has had an immeasurable impact on my life. 7 years ago, I first stumbled across some YouTube videos by Martin, filmed throughout his forest garden, and I was completely hooked. I partook in his online series, I then rushed down to Devon and visited the garden, and I own almost all of his books. I’ve planted plum yews and strawberry trees, szechuan peppers and medlars, all over the family farm, because he taught me – through his own experience in the ART forest garden – about them. All these years, I have held firm to the dream that one day I will be able to create my own version of the ART’s forest garden. I find the food forest at Dartington to be one of the most unique, educational and mesmeric places I have ever been. It is a one-of-a-kind place in the UK, and even Europe. To lose Martin’s forest garden would be like burning down a library. The amount of knowledge lost, at such a time as this when farming is on its knees, failing and struggling, and in desperate need of inspiration in our adaption to the challenges of climate change, would be a truly devastating blow. I have always thought of Dartington as being at the very epicentre of the sustainable agriculture movement, so it is very sad to see that greed has won the day, and this once venerable bastion of alternativity has been corrupted. Please don’t destroy this forest garden, it has quite literally shaped me into the agroecologist I am today!
William Farr, agroecologist and farmer
I only discovered forest gardens a few weeks ago at a talk by our local garden club, and was shocked to read about the eviction of Dartington, and urge the landlords to reconsider.
Chris Goble
As a gardener educated in Norway, we have, during my education and later as a teacher in gardening, visited the Agroforestry research Trust in Devon several times to learn from the work at the site. It would be a tragedy to end this important work – both for forest gardening but also for us to learn the important work of making a resilient food system, in these troubled times. We need a lot more places like this, not less.
I hope there is a possability to come to an agreement so this jewel of a garden can continue its role to educate and inspire people around the globe.
Best wishes! Yngvil S. Thomassen, Norway
We are so sad to hear about the actions of the Dartington Estate. We had a small permculture project in Devon several years ago. We brought trees from the trust and sign posted our students to it when we ran courses.
We still do today even though we don’t own the land in Devon any more.
This is such a profound mistake. How can they not realise this is the future we all need, and our grandchildren need. Please don’t give up and let us know if there is anything we can do to help.
with great love
Wenderlynn and Iain Bagnall
I want to offer a message of support in protest against the notice served to the DH Forrest garden.
To eradicate the Agroforestry Research Trust’s extraordinary forest garden, which has single-handedly inspired thousands of such gardens around the world, would be an awful mistake.
Such a resource and the practical wisdom that it generates is very special and worth protecting.
I would urge the Dartington Hall decision makers to see the value of this long term project – please let this living experiment that inspires such important optimism to continue to stand as a beacon of what is possible when we work with nature instead of against it.
Best wishes. Fi (landowner and student of the DH agroforestry school)
The forest garden in Dartington serves as a huge inspiration for the green transition around the world. Here in Denmark, for example, the forest garden principles are gaining ground! Both among private garden owners, municipalities(I don’t know if it’s called the same in England, but geographical areas with a political administration), companies and institutions, all based on the knowledge and theory we have gained through your work with the forest garden in Dartington. It would be a disaster if the forest garden were to be cut down.
My colleague and I have designed almost 100 forest gardens in Denmark, after visiting the forest garden in Dartington!
De bedste hilsner/Best regards
Jakob Nyholm Jessen
Dear Sirs (to the DHT)
I was very disturbed to see the fire and hire scenario unfold at the Green Table a few years ago and now you intend shutting down the forest garden after 31 successful years of showing people both here and internationally what can be done to improve food production without decimating the environment.
Shame on you. I trust you will think again. It is NOT all about the profit margins – that is how we as a species have created such a mess of our environment in the first place.
Yours Joanne Lurie
That you are being evicted with a years notice from land you have cared and nurtured for 31 years is an absolute disgrace. I cannot imagine how heartbroken you are. In this day and age where money takes precedence over nature in all aspects of life I worry about the world I’m leaving for my grandchildren. Surely the trustees of DHT have grandchildren they hope will inherit a kind, nurturing, healthy world and not one where grabbing money is the first priority.
Good luck in your fight to remain. If you do I’ll come and visit
Bea, Back to Earth, Northern Ireland
I am shocked and dismayed that your future is in danger. Having facilitated visits from participants on short courses from Schumacher College over past years I know the beauty of the garden, the value of the project, the inspiration it gives and the expert teaching Martin provides.
I wish you all success in your fight to stay on your site.
Caroline Walker
Learning about and visiting the forest garden at Dartington changed my life in a profoundly beneficial way. Like so many thousands of others I was inspired to create a forest garden. Those thousands of forest gardens now support billions of life forms and an enormous web of wildlife, all while producing food with minimal input. They are also places of beauty and sanctuary. The garden is like a rare jewel and it has sent ripples out across the world. In these precarious times we desperately need more forest gardens and this one is an absolute beacon. It’s completely irreplaceable. I can’t believe how short sighted this decision by DHT is. I had mainly stopped visiting Dartington but now I’ll be fully boycotting it, encouraging others to do the same and I will do all I can to support this campaign.
Ruth
To Dartington Trust
I am horrified that you are considering giving up on the Forest Garden, this is a unique asset built up over 30 years of possible global importance. It is not replicable, this is a tool for learning, study and much more.
Please, reconsider.
Best wishes, Steven Wilson Jones
The Dartington Forest Garden is one of the most significant and pioneering agroforestry sites in the temperate world. Its value lies not only in its extraordinary biodiversity and decades of careful establishment, but also in the vital role it plays as an educational and scientific resource. To lose this site would be to destroy a living, working example of what resilient, regenerative land management can look like – something we desperately need in a time of ecological and climate crisis.
Martin Crawford’s work at Dartington has had a profound influence, not only on myself but on thousands of people around the world. For me personally, visiting the site and learning from Martin’s tours has been life-changing, directly inspiring my transition from architecture to working in agroforestry and nature recovery.
I urge DHT to reconsider this decision and to recognise the forest garden’s unique contribution to the estate, to scientific research, and to global education in agroecology and regenerative land use.
Dominic Howe, Founder, Earth Systems Conservation
I hope for the sake of the generations to come that this forest will be saved. So much work has been done and so much can be learned about this unique place and a lot to be harvested in the years to come. It is all so Sad.
Mona Berg Evjen, Norway
‘This forest garden is worth more than any monument, any estate, in the temperate world. A carefully designed, regenerative ecosystem which serves as a home to many species, an irreplaceable source of inspiration, to thousands, likely millions, of students in temperate climates, environmentalists and gardeners around the world. A model representation of exactly what we should be striving for in our landscapes, and our research institutions. This forest garden represents over three decades of tireless work, for which we can choose to be deeply grateful, and for which there is no replacement.
Human generations alive today have the right to learn from these living forest garden ecosystems, and we need to now more than ever, to create the change we must see in our cultures and landscapes. This example is arguably the best we have, certainly in temperate climates. Dartington Trust, please reverse this decision immediately. The proposal that it may be taken away, or destroyed, is by definition a form of ecocide.’
Vanessa
I am almost speechless that the closure and or eradication of this superb garden could ever be contemplated.
The world is going to hell in a hand basket and one of the peerless treasures of our country is not something I would be willing to allow to be sacrificed.
I am a Permaculture Diploma holder from 1990 which I studied at the school on the estate. I made many friends of international standing on that course and have always felt proud to have a tiny foothold in that project. The garden is valued all over the world and is an example that is quoted and visited in the work of promoting sustainable horticulture, farming and forestry.
This decision needs to be reversed and whatever the reasons behind it they need examining carefully. Where are the ethics and principles which put Dartington on the map in the first place? You have lost so much from that original vision – perhaps you no longer remember where you come from.
Tricia, Exmouth, Devon
“This decision is not only ludicrous on moral, economic, environmental, and scientific grounds, but also stands in diametrical contrast to the legacy of Dartington Trust. It reveals this incarnation of the board as seemingly incapable of grasping the essence and responsibility of their appointment to run a trust, that is to preserve this incredible land and its flourishing conservation projects within – a widely respected, international attraction to South Devon, for agroforestry, ecological restoration, and one that cannot just be cancelled and (if desired) later reinstated after decades of meticulous and brilliant work. In a functional organisation with any concern about its remit, legacy and future, such failed leadership would be pressured to step down. In a just and rational society, irrevocable vandalism on nature, biodiversity, agriculture, and climate resilience would be criminal and persecuted in the strongest terms.”
Dr Tarje Nissen-Meyer
As a member, supporter, & alumni of the Dartington Hall Trust, this move to end the Agroforestry Research Trust’s 30-year tenure is intolerable.
It is indisputably the finest, living example of agroforestry in the Northern Hemisphere. Heavily published in the academic literature, it is a critical long-term research site for how our agricultural and forestry products are responding to climate change and demonstrating how they can adapt ahead of the curve.
To many of us working in the international climate sector and as a regional government executive in the United States (who relies on on-going work like this) disturbance of this site would be a crippling lose.
Sincerely,
Peter Wells
County of San Diego, Office of Sustainability & Environmental Justice
IUCN Commission Member CEM, CEC, CEESP
I appeal to Dartington Trust to change their mind about clearing the agroforestry
area on their land.. The food forestry is also a research scheme and needs more time to show the results of it’s function in carbon reduction and as food producer, extremely necessary to societies around the planet as extreme climate change is round the corner.
Yours
Anthea Chater, Buckfastleigh.
To the Trustees of the Dartington Trust, I lived walking distance from Dartington Gardens, and the forest garden for four years. I and my family regularly attended events at Dartington and when my friends from America came to visit I always shared the gifts of beauty and social responsibility that Dartington had to offer, especially the unique example of Martin Crawford’s Forest garden. I am a landscape architect much influenced by my years in Dartington.
I am the president and CEO of Rancho La Puerta, internationally known wellness resort and spa with 4,000 acres and 80 acres of garden under my care. What makes us one of the best known and best loved resorts in the world is our authenticity, our commitment to be exemplary stewards of the land and to enrich our local community, which we have done for 85 years. I know that this is what Dorothy and Leonard Elmhurst intended.
To not value what Martin Crawford has created and to not celebrate the Forest Garden’s contribution and significance is immoral and shortsighted. This action shouts to the world that Dartington has completely lost its soul, it’s authenticity, and it’s historical integrity.
Sincerely, Sarah Brightwood
Dear Mr Fedder, Mr Harris, and the Trustees of the Dartington Hall Trust,
My wife and I moved to Totnes 1.5 years ago. When we were visiting the area prior to moving, spending time on the Dartington Estate and seeing all the wonderful projects going on, with agroforestry being one of them, helped sell the area to us.
In the last 1.5 years, we have spent hours and hours walking in the grounds with our dog and then our newborn baby. We even became DHT members last March. Our membership is up for renewal in just 2 weeks. We do not wish to support the Trust if it is going to crucify such valuable and unique projects as the Agroforestry Research Trust’s forest garden. Maybe losing our £80 membership fee and the money from our purchases at the Cider Press and the other DHT establishments might not seem to matter. But I know that we are not the only ones planning to boycott the estate. Collectively, our actions will add up and counter whatever financial gains you may receive from using the current forest garden land for something more commercially lucrative .
More important than monetary gains and losses, though, is surely the question of morality or should I say immorality, that your decision to end the tenancy raises.
Surely in the face of a climate emergency and potential future food shortages in the UK, it is prudent to allow research into sustainable agricultural practices to continue? A project with 31 years behind it is irreplaceable and the learning it has and will continue to provide to people locally and far and wide is invaluable to us all. Do you have children? Grandchildren? What sort of world will they be growing up and living in 20, 30, 40 years from now? What will agriculture in the UK look like with milder, wetter winters, and hotter, drier summers, and more unpredictable weather patterns? Current agricultural practices need to adapt to avoid food shortages and the work of the forest garden can help this to happen.
Please reconsider your decision to give 1 year’s notice to the Agroforestry research Trust and instead give them security of tenure. The benefits of such a revesersal will be numerous, not least to the DHT’s reputation locally and further afield.
Yours, Lucy Walker-Mitchell
Dear Sirs (to DHT)
I write to ask that you reconsider the decision made by the Dartington Hall Trust to discontinue its relationship and cancel the tenancy of the Agroforestry Research Trust, the forest garden and the extraordinary pioneering work that it represents.
I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit the forest garden in November last year as part of a permaculture course. The tour conducted by Martin Crawford was one of the highlights in our 2 week programme – the foresight he had to begin this project over 30 years ago is inspirational.
It is hard to understand how the Dartington Hall Trust has reached this heart-breaking decision as it appears to fly in the face of the trusts stated charitable objectives:
‘Dartington is a place of learning and experiment. We work locally, nationally and internationally to achieve change in three crucial areas: the arts, the promotion of a fairer society and the future of our planet. Working with pioneering thinkers, teachers, artists and social entrepreneurs. Dartington helps people to address some of the significant issues of our time’
Your decision appears to be without care for “the future of our planet” or of the “pioneering thinkers” that are crucial to the change we all desperately need.
If the garden is lost you will be responsible for destroying a renowned exemplar of food forestry. You will I am sure be aware that food security is of increasing concern nationally and globally. Opportunities to understand how and what to grow differently are scarce and I cannot express how important the existence of this food forest is in extending our collective knowledge .
Supporting Martin’s pioneering work is undoubtedly a right path to follow and I am sure you will receive many letters like mine, urging that you reconsider your decision. I earnestly hope that you will do so.
Sincerely,
Penny Quilter – Trustee Weymouth Climate Hub – Growing Connections Project Lead
Please don’t destroy this beacon of light and learning, which is needed more than ever in our current global and environmental climate.
Helen
Good afternoon, (to DHT)
I have heard the devastating news of your decision to evict the ART from Dartington estate.
You need to reverse or modify your decision. This garden is a critical part of the story that lead to the current popularity of forest gardening in the UK. Perhaps you don’t realise how widely influential it is. Martin’s work inspired me to set up a community garden in Finsbury Park in 2010. I describe myself as an agroforester and reshaped my career pathway because I was introduced to the concept by Martin and his garden. In other words, it literally changed my life. No one else runs a garden as old and respected as the ART garden.
As an established forest garden with a huge diversity of species, it’s an irreplaceable showcase garden and educational resource. In addition, The Orchard Project has built a regulated qualification around Martin’s videos of the garden and large numbers of our students go on to visit his site or attend training with Martin. They want to visit the garden because it contains so many rare plants that aren’t growing anywhere else. Even the plant combinations are completely unique.
I have heard suggestions that the garden could be moved. I can assure you that most of the plants would not survive being transplanted because they have 30 years of intertwined root systems. Although councils can plant mature trees, these come from managed situations where the roots are relatively isolated and containerised. That isn’t the case with this fully realised garden. Your actions would definitely lead to the death of this unique plant collection.
Have you considered requesting an achievable amount of money and selling the site to ART? I don’t know what land prices are like down there but given the ART’s popularity, I believe they could raise a good sum.
Kind regards, Jo Homan
Agroforestry is the pioneering frontier of future farming in an ecologically sound way. To bring this project to an end would be a truly short sighted and misjudged act. Please reconsider.
Best wishes, Flo Garvey
Director, Sarratt Community Garden
Having used Agroforestry research Trust to source seed I can’t believe that they are to be evicted. It is a fantastic resource for those who want to grow resilient edible crops.
I am saddened that Dartington Hall trust would do this, especially with the history of that institution being one of education and alternative thought.
This decision to end the work of Agroforestry research Trust should be reversed.
Kind regards, Philip Richards
I am writing in support of Martin Crawford and his agroforestry project at Monkton Wyld Court. I was astounded to hear that he has been given a years notice to leave all of his outstanding work behind him. Martin is a well known and much respected grower with very specialist knowledge. I have bought trees from him in the past. I know this news has stunned the Permaculture groups.
I do not understand what can have pre-empted this move, but respectfully ask that you reconsider this decision.
If it stands, I would personally boycott ever going to stay at Dartington Hall – or to eat your food at the White Hart / rent or use your facilities. Neither would I use the DHT cider press shops, or watch films at the Barn at Dartington Hall. I would promote as much media coverage to this as is possible.
Heather
Dear people at ART
Such shocking news, I wrote to the King asking that your beautiful forest garden be protected as a beacon of hope.
It feels like everything and anything is for sale right now and only money matters. A madness.
Sending support and emailing your petition link far and wide.
Mel
The loss of the inspirational knowledge for worldwide education and science from the years of experience of growing plants and trees in the forest garden would be devastating and irreplaceable.
Karen.
Dear Robert (Fedder, at DHT)
I’m flummoxed by the press release ART have released about its tenancy. As you’re well aware the site at Dartington is world renowned and holds significant ecological value in its research and pioneering work. It also holds economic value in its role in bringing visitors to Dartington, in the tens of thousands as Martin notes.
This is exactly the kind of project that should be supported and which aligns fully with the founding principles of the Dartington estate. In your role as steward you have the capacity to ensure its long term survival for the benefit of so many. Please make sure this happens.
Yours sincerely
Alex Scott-Tonge
“To Dartington Trust
I think it is a tragedy and a gross injustice that you are intending to give up the Forest Garden, it represents such a vital and irreplaceable element of the ecological landscape. It is inexcusable vandalism – you must re-think.”
Stuart Pickles, Global Coordinator, Climate Coaching Alliance
I lived a number of years in Dartington, near the superb forest garden, and benefitted from both visits and courses there, which enabled me to co-create a number of forest gardens elsewhere. Having previously worked for ICRAF – now ‘World Agroforestry Centre’ – I was highly impressed by Martin Crawford’s meticulous and passionate work on agroforestry for temperate regions. Any plan to end this groundbreaking, highly inspiring project on the ground would be criminal, and it’s hard to understand how the Dartington Trust may have stooped so low at a time when we need this kind of work more than ever.
Annie Leymarie
(to DHT)
I am totally astonished with your decision regarding the Forest Garden
I appreciate the four of you are up against it but fear you’re clearly taking aim at your own feet
Just when you’re most in need of assistance to alienate yourselves from local, national & international potential support appears suicidal
The garden is a national treasure.
Tread very carefully & please reconsider this lunacy
Yours sincerely
Simon Fraser
The Forest Garden must not go, it is so precious, such an important research project.
This decision hurts the souls of all who understand the fragility of life on Earth, it is the food and medicine we need, a blueprint showing us a kinder sustainable way to thrive on Earth.
To those decision makers, leave this treasure be, step away from what you do not understand,
With hope that wisdom will prevail.
Paula Hermes Paignton
I am shocked and saddened to hear that the forest garden in Dartington is under threat. Martin and Sandra Crawford are true pioneers and internationally recognised for their outstanding and meticulous research into agroforestry and their beautiful forest garden is one of the most established in the world. I have sent countless friends, family and students on their tours over the years and I am utterly devastated by this news. If this goes ahead, I will from now on completely boycott Dartington Estate and stop recommending it as a place to visit.
Jeremy Weiss, Proper Edges and Velwell Orchard
Martin has created one of the finest examples of multi-strata agroforestry in the world. To enhance food security and preserve ecosystems within agricultural lands, we should promote food production in multifunctional landscapes. Martin’s forest garden serves as a living demonstration of the potential of smallholder agroforestry. His ongoing work and exceptional teachings have helped others apply these principles and practices on their own land. We need Martin’s forest garden to continue inspiring others now more than ever.
Meghan, Interlace Commons.
This site’s inspiration to thousands is immense and it can’t be moved. It has to be saved!
Katherine parrish
The forest garden is unique, an example of an alternative way of growing our food that we need to inform and guide us now and even more so as our climate continues to change further. What short sightedness from the Dartington Hall Trust to think the world will be better without this inspiring garden. We ALL need this garden.
DHT please reconsider and give the Agroforestry Research Trust a secure lease or allow them to buy the site.
Lisa Gray
To the Dartington Trust
I was incredibly shocked to hear of your intent to evict Martin and the team from the Forest Garden. I can’t begin to imagine how you can justify a decision to put an end to 30+ years of land stewardship and ecosystem support. We are in an unprecedented time when we need to be rethinking our relationship with food growing and consider how we will transformatively adapt to what is ahead and Martin and the team embody the principles of growing with the land. How can you deprive them from continuing to share their knowledge with others and support to the land they grow on. It’s deeply saddening. I would urge you to reconsider. Their work ripples out across the world. We will continue to need them and their forest garden indefinitely.
With love, Jenny (Wildlife Gardener and aspiring Forest Gardener).
The Dartington Forest Garden is one of the food forest/food garden and agroforestry examples that captured my imagination as a young woman, driving me to learn more about horticulture and herbalism, culminating in a lifelong passion for gardening and a desire to create my own food forest.
Many years on I still look to the Dartington Forest Garden for inspiration as my husband and I create our own forest garden. Ive always had visiting the garden in person at the top of my bucket list, should I ever get the opportunity to travel there from Western Australia.
My husband and I were horrified to learn that this dream may become an impossibility due to the Trust revoking the lease on the land.
Please reconsider ending the lease, the Darlington Forest Garden isn’t just “a garden” it is a legacy for the world, a beautiful example of what can be created
It is not only the flora but also the fauna that inhabit the garden that you are able to protect encourage and that will return rewards in unmeasured ways in the years to come for all of humanity.
Kelly Bray
I am sadden to hear the news fro. Dartington Hall Trust.
This seems once again an ill thought out plan . The trust has been reposible for push the orignal arts college off its grounds. Selling the gifted famous herny Moore statue that was situated on the estate.
And seems intent to ruin all long stating agreement set in place. The Dartington Hall trust has continues to fail.its operation on the estate but has also failed to support those who live locally within Totnes
Jason king
Why on earth would the trust want to do something as senseless as this? I am shocked and saddened. The forest garden is important for investigations into sustainable horticulture. The UK is depleted of far too much in the way of earth resources as it is.
P S Connor
I visited the Agroforestry Research Trust and Martin’s food forest in 2014.
I found it one of the most amazing place an Earth showing how humans can become a positive agent on this planet instead of a destructive one, while caring for their needs in harmony with nature. It has heavily inspired the Picasso Food Forest project in Italy and the network of grass roots project that followed it.
I can not believe anyone could think to put an end to this precious, pioneering, long term, inspiring, widely impactig project and beautiful and unique site. Please visit it, understand it and reconsider.
Francesca Riolo, Italy
I am a small farmer north Herts I grow cricket bat willows and a chalk stream bisects my 50 acres which is teaming with wild life.
I should like to be part of crowd funding.
If its money only let’s help them.
Access may be a problem and legal fees .Get a full price .
David Bruce Parker
Dear Dartington Hall Trust,
I am writing to express my deep concern regarding your recent decision to end the lease for the groundbreaking food forest project, which has thrived on the Dartington Estate for the past 31 years. This project has not only enriched the estate but has also become an exemplar for sustainability and ecological responsibility.
The food forest has attracted over 50,000 visitors, contributing significantly to the local economy and promoting an understanding of sustainable agricultural practices. It has served as a living laboratory for scientific research on carbon storage, playing a crucial role in addressing climate change. The pioneering work led by Martin Crawford and the Agroforestry Research Trust has inspired countless initiatives worldwide.
Ending this lease not only disregards the collective efforts and expertise invested in this project but also raises ethical concerns about the motivations behind such a decision. The communication from DHT appears to suggest a focus solely on financial gains, potentially at the expense of the ecological and community values that the food forest represents.
Moreover, the abruptness of this decision feels like a betrayal of trust that has been built over three decades. Many of us in the local and ecological community have come to recognise the food forest as an irreplaceable asset—one that offers us a model for future sustainability. It is disheartening to hear that DHT are prioritising development over the preservation of such an invaluable resource.
I urge you to reconsider your actions and engage in an open dialogue with the Agroforestry Research Trust. Providing a long-term secure lease, or allowing them to purchase the land, would demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and ethical stewardship. Please remember that the ongoing support for the Dartington Estate hinges not only on its financial viability but also on its reputation as a leader in ecological practices.
Thank you for considering the impacts of this decision. I hope you will take the opportunity to reaffirm your commitment to sustainable practices and reconsider the future of the food forest project.
Sincerely, Jenny Thompson Organic Kitchen Gardener
To ART/DHT
If the movement for more climate resilient, agroforestry based edible plantings, and diverse orchards is to continue then having this 31 yr old space with the diversity of plants to learn from is vital. It has inspired many, including us, and needs to continue to be a place for that learning – as it grows, we all learn.
In support,
Resilient Orchards Cornwall
This is so sad to hear. I have been aware of the great work of Darlington for many years but it now seems to have really lost its way. Time for them to think again
Tim
Nooooo, I cannot believe this madness. I realise that the Dartington ‘Trust’ has become all about making money in recent years but this decision is a step too far and makes no sense at all. As a horticulturalist with 30 years’ experience, I was knocked sideways the first time I toured the Forest Garden with Martin. I learnt so much that day & was stimulated to learn more & pass on that knowledge. Do the trustees not understand that this is an internationally important resource, needed even more in our ecologically straightened times. This sounds like a typical example of a bureaucrat in an office somewhere looking at a map and arbitrarily dividing up parcels of land with no concept of the complexity of relationships, both vegetal and human! No one would dream of bulldozing a valuable old building, even though it could, technically, be rebuilt in a year or so. The Forest Garden cannot simply be replanted somewhere else – it is irreplaceable. I and my friends will most definitely be boycotting all things Dartington from now on until they reverse this ill-conceived idea.
Briony Baxter
I am devastated by this news. The Dartington Forest Garden is a priceless asset with an international impact and reputation. Some 15 or so years ago I attended a permaculture course there and was inspired to take everything I learned from Martin and try to apply it to my own venture in Italy (we are on Facebook as Gran Sasso Food Forest). It changed my life. This has been my focus ever since and I have attempted to pass on his teachings to young volunteers who come to help us out from all over the world.
Rather than seizing the institution, the Dartington Hall Trust could far better achieve their charitable aims by getting fully behind Martin and supporting his objectives.
Andy
To whom it may concern
Well done on your campaign to save the Dartington Forest garden. We need to steward our land in the UK to these high standards to protect it for future generations. Thank you for all you are going for people and planet
Warm wishes
Jackie
Dartington food forest proves that this system of creating food for everything that lives really works!
It is a shame to lose the knowledge and value that has been built up in this place over the past 30 years. It is a shame to breach the trust between two parties in this way. It is a shame not to look at the long term, but only at short-term gain.
People from all over the world (I am from France) know this place and recognise its value.
Dartington Hall Trust is not only losing local support with this, the rest of the world is also reading along.
Please reverse this absurd decision or give them an assured long-term lease or let them buy the plot so that Dartington food forest can continue to exist and continue their wonderful work.
Kind Regards, Marjan Vos, Association Les Minades, France
The Dartington Forest Garden and Martin Crawford have been a shining beacon and an exemplar of an alternative food system, one we will need to adopt widely in the future. I strongly believe it is of enormous relevance to the nation’s future thinking. Losing it would be a tragedy and a most perverse outcome. Both the garden and Martin’s knowledge should e viewed as national treasures and resources, certainly not to be tossed aside. I have never met Martin but his work has been a major inspiration to me for many years.
Best regards
Andy Gray
What madness drives the Dartington Estate these days?
I echo Rob Hopkins: this INSANE decision must be reversed immediately.
sincerely
Isobel Barnden
I started my food forest career with doing a master in evaluation on ecosystem services from food forest at Martin Crawford food forest, seven years ago. Now I have a thriving business established 15 hectare of food forest around Sweden, and looking to expand in Europe, all started with the help from Martin Crawford and his food forest. So, it has an international importance! Food forest is also the most cost-efficient way to solve many of todays social, economical and especially ecological problem, we are now in our earth sixth mass-extinction, which are threatening to be the end of our civilization so every successful example is crucial needed, and Martin Crawfords food forest is on of the brightest examples!
Stefan
Please do not destroy the forest garden at Dartington. It is the finest example of a forest garden in Europe. Martin Crawford and the Agroforesty Research Trust are known all over the world. His book “Forest Garden” is a key reference among permaculture practitioners. And it’s all based on the forest garden at Dartington.
On a personal note, I learnt everything I know about nut trees from Martin – half of the trees in our forest garden were grown by Martin – and it pains me deeply to think that the Agroforestry Research Trust and the forest garden might soon disappear. Please reconsider.
Alexis Rowell, France
The decision by Dartington Hall Trust to force the closure of the brilliant ART Dartington Forest Garden is devastating news for agroforestry research and practice. It has been hugely informative in my own journey with land stewardship, regenerative food production, and design. Landowners should be supporting initiatives towards UK food security and food sovereignty, of which forest gardens and food forests offer a significant ecological sustainable model. I do hope your local councillors and MPs are supportive of ART and can lobby DEFRA to intervene in some way. The shutting down of the Forest Garden is the equivalent of destroying thirty years’ worth of datasets and learning on food production. This isn’t just a local issue, but one of national and international food security significance, given the reach and impact of ART.
With support and gratitude,
Dr Jenna C. Ashton, Senior Lecturer in Heritage Studies
Wish you all the best in the fight to save this wonderful and inspiring garden.
Good luck
Best Wishes
Helen Chessum
I wish to add my support and voice to this campaign and request common sense for our environment, it’s research, protection, advocacy and educational resources are saved from this planned action.
These words from Dr John Parry also echo my own sentiments:
“This betrayal of trust by such a renowned establishment as the Dartington Hall Trust is devastating. The two highly successful Symposiums run by the Agroforestry Research Trust over the last 4 years demonstrated both the international interest and concern over food production and nutrition by young entrepreneurs and seasoned food forest growers. But the jewel in the crown, recognised by all concerned, is the Dartington site of 31 years and what can be learned from such an established habitat as it responds to changes in the climate. Such a resource and the practical wisdom that it generates and which is passed on to course attendees is very special and I urge trustees to see beyond the trees and let this living experiment continue in its present form.” Dr John Parry MBE, Hon.Sen.Lecturer in Education, University of Sussex
Yours faithfully, Sarah Woods
To whom it may concern at DartingtonHall Trust.
It is deplorable to hear the news of the notice being given to this space. Now more than ever we as humans, animal and plant life need space to be, space to grow and be natural.
We are set for 2 degrees of warming within the next 20 years. Crops will fail, millions will die. How do you find that ending the notice on a tranquil space for nature to exist is the right thing to do at this time on our planet ? Please, reconsider this decision. We have choices to make in these times.
Be on the right side of history and fight for nature and not for money.
Yours, pleading
Amelia Beaver Cornwall.
The Forest Garden at Dartington inspired me to create my own, write a book about it, and spread the word in the U.S. about this most regenerative way to produce food. 41 years of investment needs to be preserved and maintained. Negating Crawford’s lease is tragically short-sighted.
Dani Baker
Owner Cross Island Farms Creator The Enchanted Edible Forest
Author The Home-Scale Forest Garden: How to Plan, Plant and Tend a Resilient Edible Landscape
For me Martin Crowford and Dartington Foodforest are the great inspections and savers of my life.
I am 74 jears of age, and because of them, have a very active and wonderful life. I am Dutch and moved to France, and after my retreat, I was thinking of moving away because we live on 2 hectares, to big for us, what should we do on it. But I was very sad and down thinking of moving away from the only place I ever felt home. Then Martin Crowfords book, videos and Dartington foodforest came on my path. O my God ! I was so excited and know immediately what to do, so we had a new energy of life, we wanted to stay and we are making a foodforest here in the country of France, where very little people know what it is and the meaning of it.
How can I express my gratefulness, my love, to them my savers, my inspiration of my wonderful life.
Please, please, help them to continue, let this special mother Foodforest of 31 years of age stay with father Martin Crowford for ever and ever!
With love,
Astraea Blom France
I am utterly appalled to hear you are also being pushed off the Dartington land. Another world class eco project erased by the so called “Trust”. Your work is a total inspiration to others and so needed. We came on your course, grow on agroforestry principles, purchase your plants and books and attended Schumacher College. How can the Dartington Trust actively destroy so much, acting purely on economic grounds? Shame on them.
Barbara Marshall
With our small island nation needing to decarbonise, and to increase food security, agroforestry is a logical and necessary practice. Agroforestry research is a crucial tool for educators and land workers alike, especially now that climate change has direct and indirect effect on specific tree and crop species. The established project at Dartington distinguishes itself as a world class beacon of knowledge and hope, and we all deserve the benefits of its outcomes.
Again, I find myself questioning whether Dartington ‘Trust’ can be trusted with a contemporary version of the Elmhirsts’ vision and mission, or to value and evaluate its own assets, or to practice a business model that is any different to the one that has shafted people and lands for centuries past.
Do better, Dartington Trust, do better; please walk in step into our shared future on this planet, and use your power wisely. It isn’t too late to change your minds.
Lucy Lepchani
(To DHT)
I am writing to express my shock that you are terminating the lease allowing ART to maintain a forest garden on your land.
The idea of forest gardening has been transformational for me and since learning about Martin Crawford’s work I have been working to create my own and promote the idea up in Derbyshire. The idea has so much potential to combat our contemporary social and ecological crisis, it is essential that it is nurtured wherever possible. The forest garden on your land surely benefits you? My family and me, as well as friends from our town, have camped at Dartington and eaten in your cafe specifically to be close to the forest garden you host.
We all very much hope you reconsider.
Thank you for your time,
Dr Rebecca Coles
Dear Martin and all at ART,
Twenty years ago I attended a forest gardening course at Dartington, followed by several others and a few days volunteering. The courses, the garden and Martin’s expertise have been a huge source of inspiration for me ever since and led to me pursuing a career as a botanical horticulturist. There is no doubt that the forest garden is a uniquely important project which has a profound influence on those who visit it and must be protected. I hope that the short-sighted decision is reversed and that the garden continues to be a source of inspiration for the future.
Jim Penny
Been boycotting estate for some time now. Will definitely continue. Seems like the best and only way.
Carole
Dear DHT,
It is hard to believe that in your calculations you have managed to deem the ART’s food forest anything other than a net benefit to the wider trust; huge profile and reach, and minimal overheads or operational costs. That you seem to have done so, suggests that you are either seeking to actively move away from the ecological aims of the trust ( hard to imagine, though a logically sound reading of some of your recent moves) or using a vanishingly narrow set of metrics. Even if you claim to need to consider only financial considerations at this moment of apparent fiscal crisis for the Trust, a claim which the original aims of the Trust would obviously dispute, then you appear to be guilty of bad maths in this case, the consequences of which have already been well described by others; ecological vandalism.
Collin harker Cornwall
The decision by DHT to end the lease of the ART and all it stands for is shameful. The Elmhirst’s will be turning in their graves.
Dr Christine Bennetts
Dear Robert and Nick (at DHT)
The potential demolition of the Agroforestry Research Trust’s food forest at Dartington demands immediate attention as a nationally significant issue. A project spanning three decades, Martin Crawford’s pioneering work has yielded a globally recognised exemplar of a food forest system that has been instrumental in the growth of agroforestry within the UK, influencing institutions such as the RHS, the National Trust, the Forestry Commission and many more.
The Dartington food forest fulfils a crucial role in long-term food, BNGs, and carbon storage research, a vital component in informing climate change mitigation strategies. Its loss would constitute an unacceptable impediment to this vital work. Further, the Agroforestry Research Trust has clearly provided substantial benefits to the Dartington Estate through demonstration, supporting its facilities, and critical enhancing its ecological standing.
The timing of this potential demolition is especially concerning, coinciding as it does with the Forestry Commission’s increased recognition of agroforestry’s significance, evidenced by the formation of a dedicated national team. Demonstrator sites like Dartington are indispensable in educating and supporting the sector, whilst showcasing what an established system looks like.
The DHT’s apparent prioritisation of short-term economic gains over the long-term ecological benefits and contribution is frankly, alarming. A resolution that preserves this crucial national asset is an imperative, to which we must all resolve.
At the very least, you must be offering ART/Martin Crawford to buy the land, providing him with first refusal.
Kind Regards,
Dr Vincent Walsh, RegenFarmCo Managing Director
I am so shocked by the news that the Dartington Hall Trust has given notice to quit to Agroforestry. This a groundbreaking demonstration project that has provided a real world example of the principles of agroforestry which are now being adopted or re-adopted around the world in this time of climate emergency. Visiting some 20 years ago, it changed my approach to planning land use on a 3 acre plot. As a member of a permaculture group which sought better, more productive land use, visiting showed us in reality what could be achieved rather than pictures in a book.
Having been a trustee of some charities myself over the years I can say it is the primary duty of trustees to further the aims of the charity. Making money for shareholders is the ultimate responsibility of directors of companies. The difference is stark and clear. I hope the current DHT officers will have a rethink on this one before so many years of hard work and inspiration is lost.
Robin Lowe STROUD
This is preposterous! What are they even planning to do with the space?
Short sighted doesn’t cover it, yet another piece of news which, sadly, reaffirms my ever increasing sense that people are idiots (Martin and others like him who strive to create and inform are excluded from my previous sweeping statement).
We had a tour last year and it’s a fascinating forest system which deserves preserving/managing in perpetuity.
Phil
To Nick Harris and Robert Fedder, Dartington Trust,
We are concerned to hear that the ART Forest Garden based at Dartington is under threat of being dug up.
If the movement for more climate resilient, agroforestry based edible plantings, and diverse orchards is to continue then having this 31 yr old space with the diversity of plants to learn from is vital.
This food forest and the research and knowledge attached to it, and coming from it’s existence, has inspired many, including us, and needs to continue to be a place for that learning – as it grows, we all learn.
In support of retaining this pioneering space.
Michelle and all at Resilient Orchards Cornwall
I am writing this in a tiny off grid cabin in southern France. The cabin is situated in a valley which is abandoned farmland, and which I bought to try an experiment with creating a forest garden which would produce food without being detrimental to the abundant wildlife here. I am surrounded by trees I planted – monkey puzzle trees (for their nuts), apricots, peaches, hazels and walnuts are my main crops, but I have many other trees growing including pomegranates.
Since I am quite old, I am conscious that some of the trees won’t fruit until I’m no longer here to see them – no matter – they will be available for the benefit of others in the future. It’s a long term project!
I am based in Totnes for much of the year, and Martin Crawford and his forest garden was my inspiration to give this a go. I’m not sure what value you might place on this kind of enterprise, but with the changing climate and economic and political uncertainties we need to look at alternative ways of growing our food and preserving nature.
I am saddened to hear that ART may lose their lease on the food forest. I know it has been an inspirational project for many besides me, and its value and the information it provides as an ongoing experiment only increases with time.
Please note this local’s appreciation for Martin and his work, and please try to find a way that he can continue with his projects. His work too is a long term project!
John Pedersen
This garden changed mine and my family’s lives after our first visit in 2007. It spoke to our appreciation of edge spaces and connection: those above ground, below, and in the open space Martin led us to at the heart of the garden – a place for reflection and liminal thinking.
Inspired by everything we saw during our visit to the county, we moved to Devon shortly afterwards and have been able to revisit the garden, as well as buy plants for our own forest garden, many times.
The work of the ART continues to be as pioneering and important as it was 30 years ago and the garden is a treasure.
To the DHT, please reconsider your decision and revisit your founding values. You too have been pioneering – do you really want to exchange that for a business as usual approach? This is too sad!
Bek
This is beyond comprehension, an act of pure vandalism, utterly thoughtless when access to food is less granted, particularly with a changing climate and when species are dying off left, right and centre.
Those who throw paint at art works get castigated, those who destroy the natural world continue to be free to do so.
I have been inspired by Robert Hart and Martin Crawford for decades, surely this would be a stain on the reputation of the Trust in question.
Esther Phillips
I’m not English, but a French-speaking biology teacher at the European School in Munich. But I teach about the benefits of garden forests and how essential it is to preserve them. Long may yours live…
Pierre Meyssignac
My heart is literally breaking at this deeply disturbing decision. The first of our visits to the forest garden in 2007, for one of Martin’s humble & inspiring tours was instrumental in moving our family to Devon.
We, like many, many others sourced plants and trees from The Agroforestry Trust in order to plant our own forest gardens in the places we’ve lived & worked.
The forest garden should be recognised as a national asset, as a vital example of sustainable food production in a very uncertain future, not as a plot to be sold or leased to the highest bidder.
We’ve had the intense privilege of attending many Earth Talks at Schumacher College (also, sadly missed) and other events on the Estate over the last 17 years.
DHT, I hope you cannot have arrived at this decision lightly. I kindly ask that you have heart, and the courage, to reconsider your decision and allow the ART to continue to guide & inspire our collective future, as it has my family.
Jamie
I am horrified the Dartington Hall Trust sees fit to evict this long standing and important part of the forest garden movement.
It is not the first time ignorance of the true nature of forest gardens has come under attack.
Rowena Stone
Martin’s incredible work has been an inspiration for many people all over the world and the Forest Garden is a jewel that has been recognised everywhere. In 2013 I did a permaculture course in Ashland, Oregon with Larry Korn one of the students of Masanobu Fukuoka. I was very lucky to be there and in fact the people on the course mentioned the Forest Garden in Devon as a key reference, in my country of origin! In my opinion i think the Garden should be considered as a world heritage site or of vital scientific interest for future food production and it should be protected at all costs. The decisions by the Dartington Hall Trust need to be quashed by a more manganous authority. Perhaps even the King Charles III Charitable Fund, as I know he has interests in protection of this kind. I am not a lobbyist but I am sure the the right group could literally take the decision away from the DHT and protect this incredible garden for future generations. With best wishes and thank you to Martin Crawford.
David Nassim
Please do not sell on the land that the forest garden is embedded in. Martin has founded and cared for it and it needs to continue being looked after and venerated as the special piece of established land that it is. The forest garden is a national treasure and I sincerely ask you to reconsider ending the lease of the land.
Simone Moore
To Dartington Hall Trust
We hereby urge you to refrain from terminating ART’s lease and thereby preserve ART’s food forest, and to ensure its existence far into the future.
We visited ART’s food forest and Martin Crawford in 2001 and took a course there in 2007. This learning, together with Martin Crawford’s books, based on experiences from the food forest, has been the most important source of knowledge about how we can implement permaculture in a temperate climate in practice, and it has formed the basis for our work ever since. Research into the food forest has also contributed invaluable knowledge about how far it is possible to go with carbon storage in food-producing farming systems.
We have ourselves taught hundreds of people in the cultivation of food forests based on the experiences from the food forest in Dartington, and thousands of people are working to develop this form of cultivation in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and in Denmark a number of small farms are currently starting up that work with commercial food forests.
Best regards
Mira Illeris and Esben Schultz
Authors of the book Permaculture – How we regenerate natural resources and counteract climate change, editors of the Nordic Permaculture Magazine for 13 years, initiators of Skovvirke, a Danish eco-hamlet with 6 collaborating smallholdings based on food forests and initiators of the agricultural policy group in Permaculture Denmark
I visited the forest garden about 10 years ago, and what a joy it was. It made such an impression and influenced me to change my approach to my own garden and ways of gardening. To think that 30 years of dedicated development to create this unique place could be thrown away is just heartbreaking.
Why hasn’t DHT reached out to their supporters, local and wider communities, in the spirit of the Elmhirsts founding vision, to explain the problems they are facing, to seek engagement to develop creative solutions and a better path forward that builds on what has been achieved so far.
Christine Whitehouse
An incomprehensible decision by the Dartington Trust.
The Dartington Trusts’ own website holds up the ART forest garden as a key component of the operations on their estate.
The Dartington Trust website states:
“Agroforestry increases the overall resilience of our estate. It can provide us with fruit, nuts, timber, biomass and animal fodder in the same space as other crops, increasing the overall yield from the land, and fosters biodiversity through the creation of habitats and food sources. It also builds the economic resilience of farms, as they’re able to farm their land vertically as well as horizontally.”
They themselves acknowledge the importance of the ART project:
“Our estate has played host to The Agroforestry Research Trust for some years, and encouraging a wider uptake of agroforestry on the estate became one of our priorities”
Surely it is astonishing to see that, while acknowledging ART’s influence on it’s own operations, and specifically stating that “encouraging a wider uptake of agroforestry on the estate” is “one of our priorities”, it now seeks to end that relationship, particularly as there has been no statement on what the future might hold for the forest garden itself.
This decision must be reversed.
Best wishes.
John Francis Robinson
The world has truly gone mad when sustainable, intelligent designs like a forest garden is asked to make way for plain money.
Surely there are other methods for creating money?
A forest garden is a complex ecosystem, taking yearsfor it to make the natural connections that then accelerate the natural growth that heals and adds to the richness of such a system.
Now is the time to turn to Nature herself for answers – globally! – instead of opting for quick, profitable methods…those same methods have brought the humanity into a state of ecological crisis!
Please do reconsider.
Kind regards,
Nina
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This is shocking and must be stopped. Who is governing Dartington and with what governance system? It seems this isn’t working at all well if this is the kind of decision that can be made.
Victoria Hurth
The Dartington Trust forest garden is an essential educational and environmental treasure which has inspired many people globally, in the crucial explorations into alternative and workable ways to grow our food and nurture biodiversity.
Martin’s work is a devotion to nature and our world. This is essential to continue, to allow the roots of hard work and commitment to blossom and yield.
Lynne Speight – Mother, grandmother and Astrologer
I came across Martin’s forest garden when studying at Schumacher College, after 5 years of environmental qualifications. I was very inspired by the initiative, actually something practical, in action, that started 3 decades ago when very few projects like this were around.
I attended Martin’s course on agroforestry and wrote my dissertation about agriculture and food throughout history using the forest garden amongst others as an example of how food systems could change to be sustainable, diverse and inclusive of people. After Schumacher, I set up a local NGO planting trees locally, culminating with a forest garden on an organic farm, inspired by Martin’s initiative and my further studies into agroforestry. Thousands of people visited this project, volunteered and learnt about diversity in food growing. Before it was set up we were also inspired by a visiting farmer from Uganda and compared a modern organic farm to the way he grows food in Uganda – small scale diverse forest gardening. I also planted many of Martin’s trees with numerous landowners.
None of this would have happened without Martin’s forest garden and it is vital that it stays there for future generations – their inspiration,a groundbreaking example and important education. Martin is the knowledgable and skilled person to do this and I can only pray that Dartington Hall Trust recognise the value that they are potentially throwing away. It is a small piece of land compared to the whole estate and must be preserved, otherwise their own stated values are just words and not to be believed.
Liz Turner
The absence of ecological literacy by DHT is all too prevalent.
May the Trust see sense before they needlessly destroy life/lives.
Sending solidarity with the Agroforestry Research Trust.
Callum
A number if years ago I attended a course at Schumacher College on both creating a forest garden and utilising the produce.
Seeing the forest garden and having it explained by Martin Crawford was immensely inspiring and it was obviously an incredible resource in terms of seeing what is possible to grow food in a more sustainable way, to help future-proof food production with the changing climate and as a practical example for anyone wishing to learn or set up a similar project.
It is incredibly short-sighted to wilfully abandon the garden.
If one looks simply at financial value (which is often the case in these situations) then the potential value of 31 years of growth and skillful nuturing embodied within the garden would be very high. What would be the like for like replacement cost of the forest garden? Obviously it would also take 31 years. I suspect the true replacement value would be extremely high.
So the Estate’s assessment of the value of the garden in both financial terms and as an irreplaceable resource is most likely a large underestimate. This should be challenged. There may also be avenues of funding or use of the garden as a resource to bring in an income stream which could also benefit the Estate that should as a minimum be explored with the good faith collaboration of the Estate.
I hope the Estate will realise that taking this short-term decision is short-sighted and will be detrimental in the longer term. Throwing away a nationally important resource cannot be said to be wise management.
Best Regards
Dr Paul Lowing
The project has been an inspiration to me since coming across permaculture in the mid ‘90’s and setting up the forest garden at Glengall Wharf Garden in Peckham in 2012. A forest takes time to grow, and since inception, Martins work has informed generations of budding forest gardeners, providing solid experience and knowledge to build and adapt to thousands of gardens across the UK. To think it could be destroyed now without justification shows total ignorance and disrespect of how we garden now and in the future. Shortsighted and wasteful of an incredible resource.
Sue Amos
This is such a destructive move. I am devastated and appalled. This lack of understanding by DHT is beyond comprehension.
Dee Tabb ( member Exeter Growers Cooperative)
Destroying Martin’s forest garden at DHT wouldnot only be an ecologycal disaster but would deprive many people to be inspired by this unique place. It would show that money and greed are more important than growing plants and trees who are the base of our own existence!
We take so many things for granted that we forget easily why we can breath and where our food comes from !
Martin’s work and publications and design classes on site in DHT inspired me to create my own NGO to teach young people about the value of having a forest garden in their school or community.
The forest garden at DHT is a unique place in the world that should be cherished !
Maria Agalidis
Dear Mr Fedder, Mr Harris and the Board of Trustees,
I am writing to you because I feel strongly about the decision made by the Dartington Hall Trust to serve notice on Dartington Forest Garden.
Martin Crawford has been a pioneer in forest gardening and Agroforestry over the past 30 years. My wife and I live in West Cornwall and 10 years ago began planting a forest garden on 4 acres of land which was previously sterile, weed-killered pasture. Like thousands of other people in the UK, Europe and beyond, many years ago I was fortunate to attend a weekend training course in forest gardening at the site in Dartington.
Martin Crawford’s scientific approach meticulously experimenting, evaluating and documenting his results at Dartington has informed high quality training. Complemented by instructive and informative books and newsletters, this has provided us with the skills we’ve needed to set up our own project. Seeing the forest garden in its maturity was an inspiration to make our own dream of a forest garden a reality, and a lesson in the long-term results that can be achieved. I believe there are thousands of such projects across the UK that would say the same.
Over the past 20 years I have ordered trees, bushes, plants and seeds from the Agroforestry Trust, raised at the Dartington site, for several different personal and community projects including our own forest garden. Some of these have been unavailable from any other UK supplier.
The Dartington Forest Garden is a beacon of hope in our dark times with the threat of climate change and a backlash against environmentalism across the globe. At a time when food security is a growing priority for us as an island nation, Martin Crawford’s forest garden is an exemplar to show what can be achieved by ordinary people trying to make a difference here in the UK. The Dartington Hall Trust has played a valuable role in enabling this project to develop and thrive. There is still so much to learn from this ever-maturing forest garden, and with Martin Crawford as its steward, a capable expert to disseminate its lessons.
I encourage you to re-consider your decision to destroy this unique and invaluable resource of national and international importance.
Yours sincerely,
Adrian Sellers
Leswidden Forest Garden, St Just, Penzance, Cornwall.
The Agroforestry Research is unique! Please save it!
I’ve built a forest garden around my house in the Southern of Sweden together with roses. It has given us complementary food all the year around. I have bought the main plants from the Agroforestry. This was before Brexit another sad thing that have happened. Because of regulations it’s not possible any more.
Please save this invaluable institution!
Per Nordlund,
Landskrona, Sweden
It is impossible to express the strength of my concern about Dartington’s proposals for the Forest Garden set up by Martin Crawford . This is living research from over 30 years of work and is totally irreplaceable . The forest Garden brings visitors and students from all around the world to Dartington . There is nothing to compare with it in this vital area of agroforestry research . This is SO destructive and shortsighted .
I have lived in Dartington and worked in the parish for over 30 years . I know how much this work is respected and valued in the community and world wide .
Please , please reconsider this terrible decision .
Yours Faithfully ,
A Weiss .
Destroying the Dartington Forest Garden would be a profound loss. As a rare example of a truly sustainable and holistic approach to growing food and fibre, it has served as an educational and inspirational model for decades. Thirty years of pioneering ecological work could be erased, all in the name of profit.
Stephanie Woolvett
What a shame that this unique piece of nature will no longer be continued. A lifes work and so much value for our nature, biodiversity and knowledge must be kept alive.
I hope you will succeed. We are very inspired by your book. If we can do anything to help please let us know.
Kind regards Arno and Bianca from The Netherlands
Dear those at Agroforestry Research Trust,
Thankyou for informing me of the news that the Dartington Forest Garden have been given notice, years notice at that! This is very worrying news especially given the worlds current uncertain political and environmental situation!
I think Robert Fedder, intrim CEO, Nick Harris, COO, and the Dartington Trustees, clearly must be unaware of what an international gem they have on their doorstep! Also the agroforestry work that has/is undertaken there is a subject that is both topical and highly influential / important to future food security to the UK and beyond.
I’m sure they can not be aware that such a project is years in the making, such an integral and unique forest is not built in a day!
I, like many others who attended the weekend tour of the forest garden last summer, stayed and ate at Dartington college so the college clearly benefited financially out of the tour!
I had considered returning, and have told others about the Agroforestry work and research undertaken by Martin Crawford and co.
This shocking news must have come as a huge blow and unbelievable disappointment to Martin and to all those who have put so much effort into it over the years!
I do hope that sense will prevail and that the Dartington Trustees and co will swiftly move on from such a short sited and destructive idea. They clearly must be desperate, so I do wish them all the best at finding other solutions in raising funds.
I would advise them to actively support the project, it would reflect better on them if they do!
All the very best to you too!
Sincerely
Naomi Blunt
Dear Mr Fedder,
We are horrified to learn of Dartington Hall Trust’s plans to terminate the lease on Martin Crawford/ART’s land. The forest garden on this site is an irreplaceable, unique and inspiring place, combining practical wisdom, horticultural expertise, social cohesion and ecological abundance. It has hosted thousands upon thousands of visitors each year from across the world, and spawned many new forest gardens across the country – ours, at Fox’s Field in Wellington, would not exist without it. This decision feels like the Trust is intent on shooting itself in the foot, by selling off one of its most valuable assets: we urge you to come to your senses and reverse this decision immediately.
Signed by:
Anita Roy, Chair
Helen Gillingham, Treasurer
Kate Holloway, Assistant treasurer
Sue Rickard, Secretary
Stewart Hill, Health & Safety Officer
Philip Knowlman, Media
Stephen Gregory, Transport Group
Anita Corbin
Steve Saunders
Nicola Rowse
Elizabeth Aveline
Adrian Rose
Transition Town Wellington
I am just shocked. This cannot be true. Please do save this most beautiful example of a forest garden. I have learned so much because of this garden and the books written by Martin Crawford based on what thrives in a forest garden. How to design it.
Please please:
Save the Dartington Forest Garden
I cannot believe there is a better way of acting like a trust than trusting you to save a forest garden.
Thanks. From a Forest Gardener in Italy who got plants and insights from Martin Crawford and his Forest Garden.
Cordiali saluti,
Annemiek van Moorst
Of Dartington Forest Garden.
It is beautiful and cared for – and that is what we need at this time on our earth! More – not less forest garden.
Kind regards,
Karen Helene
There are few places on Earth with the rare quality of spiritus, a grace impossible to demand yet instantly recognized when encountered. In my lifetime, I have only known a handful of such exceptional places around the globe. Dartington Forest Garden is one of them—combining ecological wisdom, educational value, and hope for sustainable living.
Please, Trustees, reconsider whatever has prompted your decision. Losing Dartington Forest Garden would leave the world a little more mundus sine spiritu.
Zoltan Brys
Junior Research Fellow at Research Centre for Social Ecology and Climate Change, Hungary
Dear Martin,
I’m so sorry about this news. I heard from Satish that Schumacher at The Old Postern is no more and I was afraid the same fate could befall your wonderful forest garden. You have put your life and soul into this project and spread so much knowledge to so many people, it is a tragedy. All I can hope if this goes through is that there is another part of nature that is waiting for you to weave your magic and inspire another generation to undertake forest gardening.
with all hopeful wishes,
James P Graham
Dear Mr Fedder,
I am writing to you in utter despair at the news I heard yesterday about the proposed closure of the Forest Garden at the Dartington estate. As you know, this forest has taken decades to create and is still in its infancy, yet it supports a huge amount of biodiversity, produces food, is a much-needed carbon sink while also being world renowned. This closure cannot be justified. The forest has inspired and continues to inspire countless people around the globe and brings visitors to the estate where they use other amenities as well as visiting the unique forest garden.
At best, your decision is wholly short-sighted; at worst, it is a mean, destructive and reductive decision that can have no positive outcome for anyone, including, I feel sure, the financiers trying to find ways of saving money.
I urge you to reconsider your decision. We are experiencing a poly-crisis; please act in a way that speaks to our very troubled times with compassion and wisdom.
Regards,
Clare Coyne
I have been directly inspired by this amazing and unique project and, for the last 10 years, I have worked as a landscape designer specialising in agroforestry – creating my own food forest and going on to create eco-friendly designs for clients around the world. My life and so many others have been immeasurably improved because this site exists. And many lives will continue to be saved, and improved globally for generations to come. By showing what is possible, this site is a small but immeasurably bright beacon – a guiding light for a better future and solutions for the existential problems we face. The implications of this decision stretch far beyond the local community. The decision must be reversed.
Elizabeth Waddington – EWSP Consultancy.
Hello, my name is Marc Lipska. I am from the United states.
I live in a country dedicated to the exploitation of more resources than any other, by any means necessary. I am compelled via risk to health and life for artificially restricted resources to labor for the accumulation of additional millionaires, billionaires, and perhaps the world’s first trillionaire, with the destruction of our shared biosphere.
The economy I can not escape privatizes profit and subsidizes loss. Legal constructs are defended against, and at the cost of, our health and safety. Efficiency and effectiveness are discarded and suppressed for manipulability and profitability.
I am asking for your help because my country’s officials deny it; they seek to restrain all of our rights as free intelligent beings.
Please consider acting as leaders in the historic effort to protect our families, communities, environment, and freedom, from ecological destruction.
Please establish long-term cooperation with the Agroforestry Research Trust.
Best regards,
Marc Lipska
I am so shocked at the news of the wonderful treasure that is the Forest Garden created by the Agroforestry Research Trust and Martin Crawford. This has inspired and informed my own work in Food Forests and Forest Gardening. I have visited the garden many times in the last 15 years and learnt so much that has been passed on. I am in utter disbelief.
I am certain in my head, heart and gut this is what our human future needs to survive and bring back the diversity of the natural world which includes us, the two leggeds. The value of the research, the many people inspired, the beacon of hope this represents is beyond any money. To damage this incredible resource would be a violation and betrayal of the deepest sort. I am very upset thinking about it.
Please let me know what I can do to support the conservation of this endangered place of significant scientific importnance and learning.
I hope the People that make decisions here will realise how important this place and people are and help become custodians of it.
Jo Barker. Founder of Future Food Forests CIC
I am deeply saddened to hear about the DHT decision regarding the ART site I planted some areas of my forest in Wales from plants and seeds purchased from the pioneer, Martin Crawford. ART had been a real inspiration to me and many thousands of other people, both locally and globally. The Trustees of DHT need to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask themselves what in god’s name they are doing.
Imagine yourselves telling your grandkids that you were responsible for destroying a forest garden that has inspired so many. The loss of this 31 year project is a disgrace to everything that is good in the world. Please think again DHT.
Yours, in hope, Jim Welch.
ART is half of the extraordinary lifetime of Martin Crawford and his community of fellow innovators, who has shown with his genius for science, art and horticulture how we might, with luck, be able to survive on this planet. As a rare bookseller I’d rank his Creating a Forest Garden, and his other works, as the greatest and most transformative on gardening ever written, ideas whose viability and practicality he has demonstrated and continues to do so in this unique garden. Such a garden is a teaching aid to the intricacies of nature’s own genius for flourishing through mutuality and adaptability over eons and it too needs time. He and others like him are just beginning through diligent research and creative horticulture, to prove nature’s evolutionary achievement. This little place, for whom this corner can surely be provided, is an imitation of the beginning of Paradise. It is needed for as long as it takes. Cutting this demonstration off at 31 years is an act of unbelievable vandalism. It is for all our benefit. Charitable acts are by definition acts of love towards our fellow humans, the innumerable plant species on which we depend, and the environments that embrace our possibility. Looking at Dartington Hall Trust’s website, it promotes a cross between a theme park and an arena for an unleashed hospitality sector, not a world-renowned centre for inspired human achievement. The Elmhirsts would be spinning in their grave. The directors have stamped an ignorant boot on the face of Dartington’s own charitable mission. They need to go.
Nicholas Dennys
I have a forest garden in the north east of Scotland. I make incredible teas and inspire others. Without Martin’s influence it would have never been more than a small wooded area. I presume the trust must realise what they might destroy and reconsider.
Rosie Leagas
Good morning
I am writing to add my voice to those raising concerns about terminating the Agroforestry Research Trust’s extraordinary forest garden – please reconsider this decision.
Thanks, Nicky
Scattered across Europe today, there are many hidden pockets of hope, demonstrating the possibility of a symbiotic relationship between humanity and the natural world. Many of those places are directly propagated from the verdant example set by Martin and the small piece of land of which ART has been the custodian for the past 31 years. It is a poetic tragedy that it is the forces of property ownership that will act executioner and elevate the legend of this place to martyrdom. Amongst the desperate cries to battle, I lower my head in mourning gratitude and pray for the trees to have a worthy descent into the soil that remembers.
On behalf of NGO Agroforestry Sweden, Anders Lindén COB
Dear Dartington Estate Trustees,
I am bewildered and shocked to hear that you are going to end the cooperation with Martin Crawford and Agroforestry Research Trust. The forest garden that Mr. Crawford created is of enormous significance, not just locally, but worldwide, providing a paradigm and inspiration for building the ultimate sustainable system of food production in the temperate zones, as well as an object for research on biodiversity, carbon sequestration and other crucial issues. More generally, it shows the viability of the idea that humans can satisfy their basic needs living with a natural-like, forest ecosystem also in temperate zones, thus fulfilling the dream of such great people like Mahatma Gandhi and Robert Hart.
Depriving Mr. Crawford and his team of the ability to work in the forest garden they created would do an enormous harm not just to the growing forest garden movement that currently spreads across the world, but also to science and humanity in general. I hope you will reconsider your plans and change your decision.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Maksymilian Roszyk
Associate Professor at the History of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy Department
Faculty of Philosophy, Catholic University of Lublin
I visited the ART forest garden in 1996 when I surveyed it for my Agroforestry MSc thesis on forest gardens at Bangor University. After that I went on to establish the Bangor Forest Garden in 1998. Martin has been such an amazing champion of Agroforestry in the UK for decades, and people are only now really waking up to the need for regenerative agriculture. As it takes decades to properly establish a tree-based agroforestry system such as a forest garden, it would be the most tragic loss to rip this jewel up. It is an asset that is so much greater than the value of the land on paper. It’s value as a research and educational resource extends well beyond the value of the edible harvest. I’m very surprised that any charity would not see this enormous value of natural, human and social capital as a reason to keep it going. The whole estate has a long history of taking a holistic approach to social, economic and environmental value, so don’t throw this opportunity away through a short sighted financial decision.
Sarah Kemmitt, PhD.
To the DHT board,
So sorry and really sad and worried, to hear that Dartington Hall Trust are giving up a just wonderful work in edible garden, know far outside UK.
Please make a paus and rethink how much can be the profit for DHT and UK when instead of shutting down…opening up for even more knowledge, and for the world, research to save UK as the proud researcher you are!
Love from Sweden
Kristina Palm
Per- Olof Wetterlind
Dear Robert, Nick and Trustees,
I am writing to express my profound concern regarding the recent decision by Dartington Trust to serve notice on the 31-year-old forest garden under the stewardship of the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART). As the former Woodland and Conservation Warden (1999-2006) on the estate, I have always encouraged and supported Dartington as a beacon of ethical land stewardship, sustainable rural regeneration, and community engagement. However, this latest decision appears to stand in stark contrast to those principles and raises serious questions about the Trust’s commitment to its founding ethos.
Dartington Hall has long been synonymous with progressive land management, supporting tenants, and fostering innovation in sustainability. The abandonment of these core values in favour of what seems to be short-term decision-making—disregarding the needs of tenants, the estate’s legacy, and the broader land-based community—sets a troubling precedent. It signals a shift away from the Trust’s charitable ethics and moral duty to preserve and enhance the integrity of its land and those who steward it.
It has been stated that, as a charity, the Trust is duty-bound to maximise the use of its resources—implying that there was no alternative in this matter. However, there have always been numerous avenues to generate income from the estate’s land-base that should and could have been explored before resorting to such drastic action, as shown towards ART’s forest garden tenancy. A holistic and innovative approach to land management, consistent with the Trust’s history, could provide financial sustainability without compromising the ecological and social value of long-established projects such as the forest garden.
Recommendation: Sale to the Agroforestry Research Trust
As an alternative to the eviction of the forest garden, I strongly urge the Trust to consider selling the land to ART. This would not only preserve the integrity of the forest garden but also support the continued growth of a globally respected centre for agroforestry research and education. By taking this step, the Trust would demonstrate a commitment to its historical ethos of sustainability, land-based learning, and progressive ecological stewardship, ensuring that the land remains a valuable resource for research, education, and community benefit.
Sustainable land use is not merely a historical hallmark of Dartington but a responsibility to the future. The legacy of rural regeneration, pioneered by the Trust, was built on principles of long-term stewardship, ecological balance, and community benefit. To undermine this is to erode the very foundation upon which Dartington’s reputation was built.
I urge the Trustees to reconsider this course of action and engage meaningfully with the community, tenants, and stakeholders to find a solution that upholds the Trust’s values. The decision in question does not only impact those directly affected but also diminishes the Trust’s standing as a leader in ethical and sustainable land management.
I remain hopeful that Dartington Trust will reflect on its mission and take the necessary steps to ensure that its decisions align with its heritage of progressive, socially responsible land stewardship.
Thank you for your time in reading this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Dave
Dave Barker
Founder / Director WILDLORE CIC
The Dartington Forest Garden was the inspiration behind our forest garden in Norwich. The Agroforestry Research Trust course which I attended in 2014 gave me the tools to develop our garden but it was the vigour, peace and rightness of the Dartington garden which inspired me. Over the past ten years volunteers and visitors, including children from the local school, have gained insight from our garden in their turn. Listening to contributors at the two international symposia organised by ART and reading the agroforestry literature it is striking how many people cite the Dartington Forest Garden as the inspiration behind their food gardens. It is the reservoir from which so much experience and knowledge cascades and it is crucially important that the work here should continue.
Tish Kerkham, Marlpit Community Garden, Norwich.
To the people responsible at Dartington Hall Trust.
Hi,
It was with great despair and sadness that we received the information that you intend to destroy the Dartington Forest Garden Project.
It is not possible to move a well-established 31-year-old forest garden. Your decision to evict ART from the site means that you are actively choosing to destroy this internationally unique forest garden.
This life’s work is the inspiration for thousands of projects worldwide. One of the temperate world’s finest models of ecosystem-based food forests, and an important research site.
The forest garden in question is simply priceless!
We ask you to reconsider and allow the forest garden to remain and be further developed, for its own value, and for the benefit of future generations.
If one is not familiar with or work with forest ecology or forest gardens, it can be difficult to determine how unique this forest garden is, and how unique The Agroforestry Research Trust and Martin Crawford’s work with the forest garden is.
The fact that there is a 30-year-old well-designed forest garden, to research and learn from is incredibly valuable.
But, it does not end there. In another 30 years, the project will be 60 years old, allowing researchers and forest gardeners to understand even more about how this type of food-producing biodiverse ecosystem develops over time, and that is valuable to say the least.
Not least in light of climate change and biodiversity loss, two existential issues, which are partly linked to human food production, this resilient, carbon storing and biodiverse demonstration site is priceless!
Having long-term demonstration and research areas of the quality that this forest garden exhibits is simply unique and the forest garden should be protected.
Greetings from Sweden/Viktor and Elin Säfve, ecosystem managers, Åfallet Forest Garden, Sweden=
Dear DHT Trustees,
Please reverse your decision to end the AFT tenure at the Forest Garden on their plot at Dartington Hall.
Quoting your Charity statement:
“Activities – how the charity spends its money
Dartington is a place of learning and experiment. We work locally, nationally and internationally to achive change in three crucial areas: the arts, the promotion of a fairer society and the future of our planet. Working with pioneering thinkers, teachers, artists and social entrepreneurs. Dartington helps people to address some of the significant issues of our time.”
According to this you should be cherishing the Forest garden as a global model for land use which offers solutions for the climate crisis.
So why are you even considering ending this project?
If you need to make more money then encourage more people to visit it! Big it up in your brochure. Educate and inspire people as to why it is if interest! As a Eco-inspiration Facilitator I would be happy to assist with this.
You need to “help people to address some of the significant issues of our time,” as you are meant to be. Stop breaking the terms of the Trust’s mandate! Otherwise the money you make through or for the charity is done so under false pretenses and could threaten your positions as trustees.
Come on!
I am a member of Dartington Trust and, if things carry on as they are, I will not only demand a refund for my membership fee due to betrayal of responsibility by the Trustees, I will join the campaign for a financial boycott of Dartington.
Yours sincerely,
Laura Salmon, The Story-Garden Eco-Inspiration Project
FAO DHT Trustees and CEO
I am utterly appalled to hear of the decision to end ART’S tenancy on the forest garden site, which is an inspiration to an immeasurable number of people across the world, while providing priceless scientific research.
Whilst I find your decision abhorrent, I do find comfort in the overwhelming response from the many people who are taking action in the form of economic boycotting, organising protests, and petitions.
Your poor defense on social media saying it’s for economic reasons doesn’t make sense. As a charity you must show you are benefiting some part of the public and not a group of private individuals – who exactly will be benefitting from this decision? It can’t be anywhere near the number currently benefiting from the site, no matter what you do with it. I should think the Charity Commission would need to hear about this if you decide to stick with it.
It’s not too late – as well as retracting this decision, I urge you to sell the site to ART at a fair price, taking into account the amount of business they have brought to you over the last 31 years.
I think this is in your interests as well as theirs, and all of ours.
Sarah Fielding, Devon Tree Nursery
Dear ART
It is with great shock and sadness that I read that the Agroforestry Research Trust have been given notice for their site on the DHT estate.
This relatively small piece of land has a seismic global influence and importance. Martin Carwford’s pioneering work at ART should not be underestimated. It is a hopeful vision for world food security and response to the deepening climate crisis.
The ART ‘Forest Garden’ should be understood as an invaluable piece if scientific research and with no garden to match it in the temperate world, should be viewed as irreplaceable.
It would be a unjustified act of ecological vandalism if it were allowed to be destroyed and a huge mistake for the DHT, both financially and reputationally.
My respect and gratitude go out to Martin and ART team for all their hard work. I hope this issue is resolved swiftly, resulting in the ART acquiring the land and the security for this inspiring garden to thrive.
All the best
Alex Hunter
Unbelievable that the Dartington Hall Trust would do something so idiotic as to undermine the well-established forest garden on the Dartington Estate. This forest garden is a shining example of what can be done with agroforestry, and it is a comparatively rare example of such longstanding survival. My own development has been strongly influenced by the inspiration of the Dartington forest garden and the Agroforestry Trust. As a contributor to the excellent Symposiums run by the Agroforestry Research Trust in recent years I have been able to share my practical experience with a wide range of people that value sustainability and the environment. These are aims the DHT espouses and it is hard to understand their weak reasoning that they have no choices with regard to this land. The behaviour of the DHT is highly disrespectful and deserves the angry response it is receiving from the public. I will certainly support the boycott of the DHT.
Anne Stobart
Medicinal Forest Garden Trust
The Agroforestry Research Trust is a wonderful, inspirational organization that has had a wide-reaching influence on how people understand the growing environment, and its relevance has only grown over the last thirty years as the debate about our stewardship of the countryside and how we grow our food has developed. Their courses have been of great benefit to us both as individuals and as an architectural practice, and have informed our government supported research on growing food as an integral part of the built environment. We had always understood that ART’s presence had enhanced the status of the Dartington House Trust, as well as generating revenue for it, and we are astonished at the suggestion that their lease would be terminated. It simply makes no sense at all and we would ask the DHT to reconsider, for the benefit of all of us who have historically supported both trusts.
Charles Dunnett
Hello everyone,
I was shocked to hear about the notice to quit.
The 31-year-old food forest/forest garden in Dartington is inspiring people world wide – inclusively myself. This forest garden has made history and it’s loss would be a tragedy.
In my opinion, food forests are the best answer to food shortages, insect mortality, climate change and the loss of ecosystems. They are a refuge for flora and fauna. Their destruction is a disaster.
To Dartington Hall Trust:
To preserve or restore a modicum of reputation (a permanent reputational damage will probably no longer be avoidable) quick action is required now:
Best option seems for me to sale the property with the 31-year-old food forest/forest garden on it to the ART for a symbolic pound.
In this way, you can argue to protect this unofficial world cultural heritage from further (money related) destructive temptations.
Andreas Maier, Food forest project in the Bavarian Alps, Germany
I think the importance of the site and work carried out there has been significantly underestimated, the vital study of agricultural sustainability has to be of high priority in the current times we live in. Destroying the forest will be seen by the majority of people to be a wanton criminal act, the site is recognised internationally, and it must be preserved for future generations.
Stephen
We are shocked and appalled that this incredible site is under threat. It is an internally renowned site of agroforestry, inspiring hundreds of thousands of people globally to create sustainable agricultural solutions. In this time of climate crisis, Dartington Trust are acting as environmental terrorists, striking a massive blow to the movement.
Our charity has gained so much from all the work carried out there; our agroforestry course owes a great deal to the inspirational work carried out in this garden and we have based much of our work on Martin’s principles. This work is impacting positively on so many people, many who tell us that visiting the site or coming on the agroforestry training has literally changed their lives. We beseech the Trust to reconsider this decision.
Do let us know if you need more or if we can help in any other way
Kath
Katherine Rosen, CEO, The Orchard Project
Dear trustees
My whole organisation and network of over 600 community orchards are shocked and appalled that you are considering closing this site. It is of internationally importance and is leading the movement of hundreds of thousands of people to create more sustainable solutions for our planet at a time when ecological crisis has never been more terrifying.
We have worked with Martin for many years, not just as one of the few suppliers of forest garden plants, but running courses in agroforestry based on his experience and work. I am not sure if you are aware of the impact of the site, but it is having a positive impact on thousands of people who are then inspired and have the confidence to start up their own forest gardens, a movement across the world of people carrying out positive change for the planet and their communities.
It feels unimaginable to us that you would propose moving the trees and plants, as much as you wouldn’t be able to relocate a precious forest.
Please reconsider options, we would be happy to look at this with you as a fellow charity. The closure of this site, simply must not happen
Yours
Katherine Rosen
CEO The Orchard Project
It is with sadness and anger that I read about the Trust’s decision to not renew the lease on Martin Crawford’s two acre agroforestry project. It is mind-boggling that any supposedly respectable organisation could consider pulling the rug out from under a 31-year agroforestry experiment that has international support for its leadership on climate change mitigation. Quite apart from the scientific vandalism that such an act represents, it will surely irreparably tarnish the Trust’s reputation.
I read on the Trust’s website that “We need environments that encourage our whole being to flourish, in connection with nature and each other.” You said it. Act accordingly and pull back from this madness!
Rob
To whom it may concern.
I am appalled by the news of Dartington Trustees’ blatant lack of consideration of the ecological value of 31 years of steady and sensitive work. It is impossible to believe that there are no alternative 2 acres on the estate which could be used to raise funds. Dorothy and Leonard are surely turning their graves – and not for the first time.
PLEASE RECONSIDER THIS AWFUL DECISION.
Rob Summers
Dear All (at DHT)
I have read the news that DHT have given ART notice to quit the land where the Forest Garden grows. I have also read Lord Triesman’s open letter of last Jun 28 (2024). He is clearly proud of his and his team’s success in turning around the financial situation and setting the stage for a bright future.
To quote from Lord Triesman’s letter
‘We are blessed with many tools at our disposal to restore and enhance the reputation of the Dartington Estate as a destination for visitors to pursue a huge range of interests: .(amonst which he names…courses, sustainability, …..)- it’s all here now and there’ll be more of everything. The team is busy developing new concepts and initiatives, in many cases partnering with best-in-class specialist operators to accelerate ideas and host or curate compelling new offerings.”
I am therefore extremely puzzled by DHT’s refusal to extend a long term lease on the Forest Garden. It is a fantastically innovative approach to sustainability, both in terms of food production & carbon capture.
Furthermore it is a source of knowledge, and learning as well as a continuing inspiration. Yes it is 31 years old but that does not make it out if date, in fact it is becoming more and more relevant to solving many of today’s problems, ecological land use, climate change, regenerative agriculture, nature conservation and more.
To quote again from Lord Triesman’s letter.
‘Of course, our continued progress depends to a large extent on people.
We need them to visit, enjoy, stay and spend. We need to hire the best people to deliver the experience that makes visitors return.
ART and the Forest garden under Martin Crawford’s leadership and stewardship of the land are already a tried and tested way of attracting people to Dartington. What better way to show case the aims of the Trust?
As a charity you are duty bound to act in a way to achieve your aims which include sustainable / ecological land use and to balance this with best use of financial resources. Any decision has to weigh up these duties and is a subjective value judgment made by the trustees. A decision to terminate the lease in March 2026 appears to flatly contradict those aims.
In his letter Lord Triesman makes the point that:
‘We need to engage with people locally to earn and maintain support for what we do.
Strong relationships clearly matter and those are enriched by good communication.’
Why then has DHT acted to undermine the trust that was formerly inherent in it’s relationship with ART? This has clearly achieved the opposite of Lord Triesman’s stated objective.
I do hope that this letter will encourage you as the landlord to reevaluate your position, and extend the offer of a long term lease to ART.
Yours Sincerely
Suzanne Cayless
I write to add my voice to the protest at the proposed closing of this special and inspiring Forest Garden. Once closed and disbanded all the work that has gone into this over 30 years cannot be recovered. Please reconsider this rash step for now and future generations.
Yours
Alice Eastaugh
FAO DHT; CEO/COO/Trustees
AGROFORESTRY RESEARCH TRUST (ART) – 2-acre food forest project on the Dartington Estate
Over 12 years ago, it was a visit to this forest garden that inspired me to pursue my own version on a piece of land near Totnes. I know that many other have been similarly inspired, with this experimental frontrunner acting as a key catalyst for positive land use. The ongoing value of this site is its relative longevity, continuing to reveal new findings and acting as a ‘living’ guide for the growing interest in forest gardening. I had assumed that DHT were proud to have this jewel of a project in your grounds and in sympathy with you founding values. Rather than oversee the destruction or decay of decades old trees, I would suggest you reflect on how the project provides a valuable asset to DHT, the local community and broader interested parties, nationally and internationally.
If you do pursue the goal of ending the lease for the ongoing forest garden use, I for one will sadly not be able to stomach associating myself again with any aspect of DHT, including; no longer attending the cinema, White Hart or any future events.
I hope that common sense prevails and DHT finds a more sustainable way forward with ART that is positive for both organisations.
Nick White, Littlehempston
All of us here at Bedford Fields Community Forest Garden in Leeds were shocked and saddened to hear your news.
We just wanted to reach out to you and offer our support.
In solidarity,
The Bedfords Gnomes
Dear Lord Triesman, Dartington Trustees and Trust Managers,
We are writing to ask that you reconsider your decision to terminate the Agroforestry Research Trust’s lease.
You know that the ART is world-renowned, and you know that it helps all of us to understand that growing food in sustainable, planet-friendly ways is essential if we are to have a future. So why make this short-sighted decision?
Please reconsider, and make a public commitment to the future of the Agroforestry Research Trust.
We look forward to your reply
Mic and Julia Cady
South Brent
I wish to object to the proposed closure of Martin Crawford’s Forest Garden. It is a fantastic example of how to produce maximum yield in the minimum of space, supporting biodiversity and cleaning carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This project must be protected to teach the generations to come after us. It is too short sighted to close it. I urge Dartington Trust to reconsider.
Thank you.
Karen Mocek, Dartington
Last summer I visited the forest garden to learn more about it, since I had then just purchased a piece of land. I was very impressed with the result of 31 years of careful managing this magnificent garden. It registers with me as a patch of incredible biodiverse forest, and not at all as an area where food is produced. Over the years, Martin has experimentally grown and eaten many different edible species and carefully catalogued them in the book “Creating a Forest Garden”. However, a book is not reality and the garden has to remain a real place where Martin can educate interested individuals or groups on how to grow your own garden, and where he can aswer questions. It is truly upsetting to hear the plan of the Dartington trust to terminate the lease of the land that the forest garden is built on. What is next, are they cutting down the 300 year-old sweet chestnut trees that grow nearby? How has the trust become so focused on short-term gains that they are capable of doing that? I really, really hope that the board is going to reconsider, because this is putting England in a bad spotlight. The forest garden is well known beyond England’s borders, and even Brexit has not been able to change that. How is England still the country of the gardens, if Martin Crawford’s forest garden is no longer amongst them?
written by Dr. Julia Johanna Wind, biologist and garden enthusiast
I can’t believe that DHT is ending this lease. Over the years Martin Crawford has given me personal advice over fruit tree planting and the forest garden has been an inspiration to me and countless others over the world. It is one of the finest examples of its kind. Do not let it be lost.
Cathy Kiddle
I’ll never forget my visit to Martin’s wonderful forest garden in September 2006. It was a true turning point in my life. I was determined thereafter to grow my own forest garden and out of that have come years of fascination, learning, enjoyment and excitement with my own forest gardens in two homes as well as two books, and lots of wonderful home grown perennial foods.
Martin and this garden are much loved and incredibly significant, with a global reach and I pledge my support to them continuing into the future.
Anni Kelsey
Dear Robert, Nick and Trustees
I am writing to you today to urge you to reconsider your decision to evict the Agroforestry Research Trust from their 31-year-old forest garden in Dartington, Devon, UK. During my years studying horticulture, permaculture and forestry, the forest garden has been a permanent source of hope and inspiration. It is the single most important educational resource in the UK, and possibly all of the temperate world, because it shows us precisely how we can get out of the unholy mess we’ve created in the past 200 years of industrialised, monoculture farming. It demonstrates clearly the path that we need to take in order to produce food sustainably whilst making space for nature. And, most importantly, it is Martin Crawford’s life’s work. He has put his heart and soul into creating this fantastic resource, giving encouragement, support, knowledge and skills to a new generation of people wanting to change the world for the better. He has put Dartington on the map in many ways – certainly my travels to Dartington have always been to study with ART.
If you allow this land to be sold you will deal a major death blow to the local area, diminishing its reputation. Your legacy will be to destroy a beacon of hope for many people, like me, who want to live in a world where financial greed for the gain of a few and at the expense of the many is not the dominant paradigm. It will also be to destroy a thriving, resilient habitat. Please do the right thing, renew the lease on the land and allow Martin to continue with his wonderful project.
Kind regards
Andrew Walton
Birmingham, UK
“During my years studying horticulture, permaculture and forestry, the forest garden has been a permanent source of hope and inspiration. It is the single most important educational resource in the UK, and possibly all of the temperate world, because it shows us precisely how we can get out of the unholy mess we’ve created in the past 200 years of industrialised, monoculture farming. It demonstrates clearly the path that we need to take in order to produce food sustainably whilst making space for nature. And, most importantly, it is Martin Crawford’s life’s work. He has put his heart and soul into creating this fantastic resource, giving encouragement, support, knowledge and skills to generations of people wanting to change the world for the better. We should fight tooth and nail to protect it from the cultural vandals trying to sell it.”
Kind regards
Andrew Walton – forest gardener and former ART student
Birmingham UK
Dear DHT Trustees,
I wanted to drop you a message as I suspect you may be on the receiving end of a lot of flack at the moment for the issue surrounding Martin Crawford Forest Garden at Dartington. It seems perhaps the situation has become quite heated so I wanted to send you a message of a different tone to help explain why so many people feel so strongly about this. I hope that you might give it some time and consideration.
I understand that you are a commercial enterprise and that it is critical that you generate a healthy revenue. I also see that this might cause you to reassess what functions you have on the estate in terms of their fiscal contribution to your business. However, I also wanted you to consider that not all revenue can be measured in pounds sterling.
You may not be aware, but Martin Crawford has created something truly unique and exceptional with his forest garden. He has the eyes and ears of the world on his little patch at Dartington due to the pioneering work he has dedicated his life to. As you know, our agricultural systems are falling apart at the seams and without the destructive use of chemicals and monocultures on so many of our farms our food security and ecosystems are a real risk.
Martin is demonstrating that small scale regenerative stewardship can be restorative both to our health and the land. The ripple effect that he has had is completely immeasurable-he has inspired so many people to think about ecosystems, gardening and food in a completely different way. To dismantle all he has created at Dartington would represent an enormous backwards step on a global scale. It probably sounds like I’m exaggerating but as part of this community I see on a daily basis how these ideas ripple across the world and cause inspiring pockets of change in all four corners of the globe.
On this note, Martin has very kindly agreed to take me (a teacher) and 10 teenage students around the forest garden in May. Should activities like this be lost we also risk losing the positive changemakers of the future. I would urge you and your board members to visit Martin again with open minds and perhaps even to engage with the broader community to try to understand the significance of the Forest Garden at Dartington. It is truly an exceptional pocket of positivity and forward thinking land management.
I also feel that if the forest garden tenancy is lost, there will be a legacy of regret and embarrassment for Dartington for many decades to come. I hope you reconsider and thanks for taking the time to read this message.
All the best,
Mike
Garden Footprint
To the Trustees of the Dartington Estate, I beg you to reconsider. The work of Martin and the ART is of worldwide importance. The forest garden is a repository of plants of ethnobotanical value, an ecosystem, a research laboratory, a classroom, an awe-inspiring wonder, a masterpiece of ecology and three dimensional poetry, a lesson in how to do the right thing in the face of the industrial food production system and climate emergency. And yet you are choosing to do the wrong thing -to put the existence of the forest garden at risk, or worse. Do not underestimate the value of this forest garden to tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, who by each undertaking change, and being a force for change, can help re-route that food production system and climate emergency towards a better outcome for ecosystems and humanity. Isn’t that what your charter was set up to do?
Jo Duff
Founder/Manager Kahikatea Farm – Permaculture Farm and Nursery, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing in strong support of the protection and preservation of the long-established forest garden within the Dartington Estate. At a time when the fragility of our economic systems is becoming increasingly clear, we must recognize the real and enduring value of landscapes that provide inspiration, education, and sustainable abundance.
I first traveled from the Isle of Wight to visit Martin Crawford’s forest garden, eager to experience a living example of what I instinctively knew was the future. That visit changed my life. From that day forward, I dedicated myself to the study and practice of permaculture, immersing myself in a journey of discovery that has led me to create and live within forest gardens that are as beautiful as they are supportive.
Now, more than ever, we must elevate permaculture design to the position it deserves. Forest gardens like the one at Dartington are not just historical landscapes; they are living blueprints for a future in which resilience, ecological harmony, and local production take precedence over short-term economic priorities. These systems do not just sustain themselves, they sustain people, communities, and the wisdom needed to transition away from our unsustainable trajectory.
Dartington has long been a place of progressive thought and environmental leadership. To lose this forest garden would be to lose something far greater than just trees, it would be to turn our backs on a future that we will, inevitably, have to embrace. Let us not wait until necessity forces our hand. Instead, let us champion the landscapes that are already showing us the way forward.
I urge you to recognize the true value of this space and protect it for generations to come.
Where seasons turn in seamless dance,
not carved by plow or pruned by chance,
but guided by a softer hand,
in tune with earth, in love with land.
And so, through cycles deep and long,
this garden hums its quiet song,
a living dream, a rooted prayer,
Dartington’s gift, a world to share.
Yours sincerely
Gavin Roberts.
PERMACULTURE ISLAND
Dear Agroforestry Trust,
I just scrolled past a post in my social media feed calling on me to “Save the Dartington Forest Garden”.
I assumed, like many of the posts Fakebook now serves up that this must be some kind of Fake News, but just in case I checked out your website and I am horrified that it is real.
The work of the Agroforestry Trust was critically important before the BigBroTocracy took control in January, it is inconceivable that anyone would put it at risk in the current crisis of ecological and climate uncertainty and chaos.
It would be impossible to quantify the positive effect of the trust’s work. The vision, longterm realisation and ongoing research and resourcing has inspired thousands of other projects and is of global significance.
Our 8 acre regenerative project here in Kent has been informed and transformed by your books and website, and even planted with trees from the Trust.
Without the longstanding evidence of the established Agroforestry Trust sites we would’ve made so many more mistakes and struggled to imagine and handle the complexity of regenerative food forestry.
It is unbelievable that your land owners claim social justice and ecology as their guiding principles.
Please let me know if I can be of any help in your campaign and let me know if purchase of your site becomes a possibility and where I might make a donation.
Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to provide hope and vision in an otherwise desolate future.
Good luck on Friday
In solidarity
Tony Wheeler
Dear Martin
I am deeply saddened to hear of the notice to quit the established food forest. It is totally incomprehensible to me that an organisation of the stature of Dartington Hall Trust would be so shortsighteed as to not find a solution to retain and respect the enormous amount of work you have made to establish the Food Forest and your tenure of the site.
I was able to visit and attend workshops you held and without doubt you inspired me to develop and create my own food forest and I have directed many people to explore your visionary work.
I am appalled to hear this news and gladly sign the petion and hope this will help your cause in some way.
I deeply respect the care and attention you have applied to your work and the project.
With warmest wishes I hope Dartington Trust Hall can see past their current position and reverse this decision.
Kind regards
Michelle Stephenson
Dear Dartington trustees
I was dismayed to hear that you intend to end the Agroforestry Research Trust’s lease and hope that you will reconsider. I would like to say something about the value of the Dartington forest garden based on my experience as a forest gardener.
I first became interested in forest gardening around the same time as the start of the relationship between your two charities. Both information and plants from ART were very helpful to me. I adapted what I learned to conditions in the north of Scotland and now have a forest garden in Aberdeen. This recently resulted in the publication of a book about forest gardening in cool temperate conditions, a work that I regard as a direct descendent of Martin Crawford’s work at Dartington.
Although parts of my forest garden are now almost 25 years old I feel that it is still maturing and I am still learning a lot from it about how the system can work in our climate. Like a forest, a forest garden is a long term project and cannot simply be moved from one spot to another. The Dartington forest garden is now the longest-established working forest garden in the UK. As such it gives unique insights into the long term development of agro-ecological systems in our climate.
This gives the garden a value that is widely recognised in the forest gardening community, which made it the natural choice for the two International Forest Garden Symposia held in recent years. Alongside the benefit to the forest gardening community, the Dartington Trust benefits from this value in two ways. Firstly, the Dartington forest garden is a high profile project associated with the Dartington name which brings goodwill, recognition and a contribution to the charitable aims of the Dartington Trust. Secondly, any hospitality business in the area must benefit from the number of visitors to this unique and well publicised spot.
I hope that on reflection you will choose to preserve this value .
Kind regards
Alan Carter
Author, A Food Forest in Your Garden
This is a disgraceful action by the landlords, they don’t seem to have any understanding of how long it takes to create something like this. To Martin and his colleagues – we owe you a great debt for showing us what is possible. Although we live at the other end of the country we have enjoyed the plants we have ordered from you and we wish you all the best
Carole Price
Northumberland
To Robert, Nick & all Trustees of Dartington Trust,
I’m writing to express my concern about the lease ending for Dartington Food Forest and my hope that you will consider a long term lease or sale of the land to ensure it’s continuation as the foremost example of a mature temperate food forest.
My company manages a young 5-acre food forest at the Cowdrey Estate, directly inspired by Martin’s work, which would not exist without the mature example he has created at Dartington.
At a time when other estates are seeing the social and economic value that a project like this can bring, it seems financially (not to mention morally) reckless for the Dartington Trust to simply end this lease. If you hope to develop the site for housing, this project can add value if integrated in the right way; it has a unique cultural value that will only grow in importance with time.
It would be my pleasure to introduce you to some fantastic landscape architects and ecological development consultants that could help your estate realize this value by working with the Agroforestry Research Trust.
There is a win-win solution here that I hope you will seriously consider. I’m sure you are coming to realize the special place this site holds in so many people’s hearts and the huge battle you will face if it’s existence is threatened. Given the political climate we are in, I worry this fight will tap into something bigger that will not benefit anyone, least of all Dartington Trust.
Warmly,
Thomas Ware
Roots to Fruits CIC
Dear Robert/Nick/all,
I contact you to add my name to the long list of people supporting Martin Crawford’s extremely vital and unique research into Agroforestry in a Temperate Climate, at your site at Dartington Hall.
Given the huge influx of messages you must have received, I will try to be brief.
A life long deep ecologist, I’ve studied Permaculture, Sustainable Land Management and Agroforestry, and deeply feel Agroforestry is vital to our future on this finite planet. Our visit in 2015 was deeply inspiring and I have gone on to experiment myself with Agroforestry and have taught many others through that process.
We have also bought many plants from Martin and hope we can continue to do so.
Martin’s research work is essential and to remove him from this 31yr old forest is frankly unfathomable given your remit as a Trustee for the Elmhirsts’ legacy at Dartington.
Please reconsider and come to a reasonable arrangement with Martin, that ensures the long term future of the forest garden on Dartington Hall land. It seems he wishes to buy the land and I hope you will allow him this opportunity.
Kind regards,
Sally Allen
I am writing to express my profound concern regarding the recent decision to evict the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART) from the Dartington Forest Garden, a pioneering project established over three decades ago. This garden stands as a testament to the immense potential of food forests in promoting sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and climate resilience, not only in Europe but worldwide.
The Global Importance of Food Forests
Food forests, or forest gardens, are intricate systems where diverse plant species coexist, mimicking natural ecosystems. They offer numerous benefits:
- Biodiversity Conservation: Forests house 80% of terrestrial biodiversity. By integrating various plant species, food forests create habitats for countless organisms, enhancing ecosystem resilience.
- Food Security and Nutrition: Millions rely on forest-derived foods, which are rich in essential nutrients. These systems provide fruits, nuts, and vegetables, contributing to diverse and nutritious diets.
- Climate Change Mitigation: Trees sequester carbon, playing a pivotal role in combating climate change. Incorporating trees into agricultural landscapes through agroforestry practices enhances carbon storage and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
The Dartington Forest Garden: A site for Innovation and demosntration known worldwide
The Dartington Forest Garden, under the stewardship of ART, has been instrumental in demonstrating the viability of temperate food forests. It serves as a living laboratory, showcasing sustainable practices that harmonize agricultural productivity with environmental stewardship. The garden has not only provided educational opportunities but has also been a source of inspiration for similar initiatives globally.
The Implications of Eviction
Evicting ART from this established forest garden threatens to dismantle decades of research, innovation, and community engagement. Such a move could undermine the progress made in agroforestry practices and send a discouraging message to those advocating for sustainable land-use systems.
A Call to Action
I urge the Dartington Hall Trust to reconsider this decision, taking into account the broader implications for sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation. Preserving the Dartington Forest Garden aligns with global efforts to promote agroforestry, enhance biodiversity, and ensure food security.
Best wishes
Lide Rodriguez, PhD, founder of TEKURA and former student at ART (Spain)
Forest gardens are not gardens like the rest of the outdoor spaces at Dartington Hall. They are a vital showcase of how we might produce food differently, and help advance ideas of how ecology and humanity might co-exist. The ART forest garden is not only the most important example of a mature, temperate forest garden in the Britain, it is an integral part of a world-leading agroforestry centre.
Just as the rest of the world starts to catch up on the need for agroecological approaches to food and farming, the DHT seems to be going in the opposite direction.
As a unique, hugely important living example of agroforesty, the ART forest garden is priceless. As a thriving ecosystem, providing a vast array of habitats, it is untouchable. The idea that such a rich and diverse space might be destroyed for money, or the grand schemes of a landowner, is sickening. It is an untruth that the DHT is bound by charity rules to maximise income from this piece of land. Charity rules require the DHT to consider all value, including charitable values beyond money, and the ART forest garden is swimming in such value.
If Dartington Hall is too short-sighted to value the opportunity that comes with hosting a world-leading agroecology site, then at least sell it to ART.
Neil and Dina Kingsnorth, Patch of the Planet
Seriously?
It’s 2 acres… 2 acres of incredible non-monetary value. It is an exemplar of of ways to feed people in an ecological and regenerative way. Is that not seen as important?
What purpose would the new tenant put on these 2 acres?
The actual monetary vale of the 2 acres might be in the area of £20K – £40K?
And it’s input into the overall Schumacher/Old Postern site? Answer: minimal, unless retained with the current tenant to continue the work.
Martin has several interesting projects on that 2 acres. To my mind one of the most important is the grafting of existing apple trees with stock from warmer climates….god knows that sort of research is so necessary…but perhaps the DT buy their apples from a transnational supermarket?
The Dartington Trust really know how to shoot themselves in the foot…and they continue to do it again and again.
Hopefully…
Steve Deeming
Hello Robert
I read in your bio you are a Bowie fan and it reminded me of the profound effect of watching the genius of Bowie’s art in the Let’s Dance music video in 1983 https://youtu.be/VbD_kBJc_gI?feature=shared
I found then, and still find today, this music video to be Bowie’s powerful cautionary calling for humanity to be “dancing together”, evolving our modern capitalist culture beyond being destructive and to living in harmony with all Life. I understand he was a Buddhist.
The 2 acres, pioneered by ART, of Dartington Food Forest is a unique ecology of global importance in inspiring numerous people to live in greater harmony with Nature. ART and DFF are actually “doing” what so many are talking about and as such is priceless.
I hope you will be remembered in history for the wisdom your decision to grant a long term lease to ART. Of helping to evolve humanity away from the real precipice of environmental destruction and towards a more flourishing living culture.
In Life
Kay
As an octogenarian I have watched dartington grow and do amazing things but am sad to see what is happening to the food forest. Please think again and let in carry on, projects like this are more important than ever in this crazy mixed up world.
Yours hopefully
Ave Brown
Dear Trustees (of DHT)
I was shocked to hear that you are considering not renewing the lease of the forest garden started, developed and run by Martin Crawford.It is an absolutely vital project in these uncertain times and one of the many routes to go down to combat global warming. Martin and his forest have inspired many, many people including me when developing their gardens, smallholdings or farms and it’s not as if he can just move it all lock stock and barrel to a new sight! So please, please reconsider. In hopes
Liz Williams
We learned the basics and best practice of forest gardening from Martin Crawford, his books and course materials. That learning experience was greatly enhanced by our visit to the forest garden of the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART) at Dartington. Since then, we have used the ART Forest Garden planting scheme to inform our own design planning and planting scheme. We have sourced plants from ART and from the Mother Tree. We have begun building an informal network with many who have learned from the ART Forest Garden.
The ART Forest Garden is of immense scientific value, and is an exemplar teaching site for both established and new entrants to agroforestry. It should be permitted to develop under expert care for the benefit of agroforestry knowledge acquired by long-term observation and research.
James Brooks
Please don’t do it!
Kate Rew
Dear Mr Fedder,
I hope that you will be able to support the conservation of this much treasured forest garden.
Personally this place and Martin have inspired and informed my own work in Food Forests and Forest Gardening. I have visited the garden many times in the last 15 years and learnt so much that has been passed on. The Future Food Forests CIC which has ended up focusing on utilising forest gardens in a modern ethnobotanical way would certainly not exist without this project. I have worked in this area with hundreds of people including many young people and communities in and around East Kent.
I am certain in my head, heart and gut this is what our human future needs to survive and bring back the diversity of the natural world which includes us, the human animals. The value of the research, the many people inspired, the beacon of hope this represents is beyond any money.
I do not know why this has happened and I hope with all of my heart that the charity will change its approach and become custodians of this wonderful place, either by issuing a long term secure lease or to sell the land to the Agroforestry Research Trust.
Thank you and best wishes
Jo Barker.
Forest Garden Designer, Maker, Gardener, Forager and Teacher
Founder of Future Food Forests CIC
I have been a customer of Martin Crawford’s organisation and an admirer of his work for years before moving to Norfolk in 2020 and starting a small scale forest garden of my own as an example of local resilience, biodiversity, food sovereignty and sustainability.
Martin’s Forest Garden at Dartington has been in practical terms the only inspiration of temperate forest gardening available in the UK. The decision of the Trustees more than thirty years ago to support this project has had far-reaching consequences far beyond the boundaries of the Trust’s neighbourhood, as can be seen by the very many carefully considered and evidenced messages of support on this site. As such, its ongoing existence is of significant credit to the Trust and to the surrounding community who have supported it.
I urge the current Trustees to carefully consider other approaches, such as sale of the land as it is now, for the benefit of future visitors, communities, and those countless others who will no doubt act on the inspiration they see in the Forest Garden and create other oases of biodiversity elsewhere. In making a decision to Mr Crawford’s benefit, the Trustees will be ensuring the survival of their good name into the future in the eyes of not only the local but also a much wider community.
Andrew Scott, Norfolk, UK
Dear DHT,
I understand you, you’re the owner. You have right to change your mind.
I work with wood, growing wood/trees in countryside for farmers in France.
I’m always astonish to see how people deal with trees. A bit as when they go to Ikea to change the ambiance of their interiors.
But trees are not an object, manufactured in 1 day or 1 week.
Trees are alive. They are planted one day. And grow slowly. After 30 years they are still young. It is the living being that lives the longest, up to 1000 years for some, and 100 to 300 for many of them.
This is nature. This is where we live. This is what you are part of. Life. Nature is human, animals and végétals living on a planet. You’re part of the nature.
One day, you’ll die. if you ever give a chance to this forest, and even offer them a endless contract, then it’s a chance for you to let a footprint after you leave the planet. A living print. For decades and centuries. This forest will never get old, a forest is self regenereting. If you engrave you name on a rock, in decades people will remember your support to this forest.
A support to life. A very little support on the planet scale, but your support. Your endless support, to a forest that will renew year after year. To offer food to anykind of living being (human, animals and végétals) and much more than this.
Isn’t his chance unique ? Will you miss this opportunity ? Can money worth such an opportunity ?
You’re the owner, you’re the one who decides. This unique project destiny relies and you. Think about it. You may not have another opportunity to let such a long terme basis footprint on the planet.
All the best,
Belle journée,
Perrine
My name is Biman Roy. I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the decision to terminate the lease for the Agroforestry Research Trust’s food forest at Dartington. As a professor, environmental advocate, and founder of bon, an initiative dedicated to ecological conservation and sustainable living, I have seen firsthand the transformative impact of regenerative agriculture and food forests. The Dartington food forest is not just a local project—it is a globally recognized model of sustainable land stewardship, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation.
For over three decades, this pioneering ecosystem has provided invaluable research, education, and inspiration to thousands, demonstrating how we can work with nature rather than against it. Removing it for short-term financial gain would not only be an irreversible ecological loss but also a deep betrayal of Dartington’s legacy as a center for forward-thinking environmental solutions.
I urge you to reconsider this decision and instead provide long-term security for this project. The world needs more such initiatives, not fewer, and the loss of this food forest would damage not just Dartington’s reputation but the broader movement for sustainable land management.
I look forward to your response and hope that Dartington will honor its commitment to ecological responsibility.
Best regards,
Biman Roy
Founder, bon
Professor of Computer Science
Hello,
I’m so shocked and devastated to hear that this food forest may be lost, at a time that seems more urgent than ever to protect it and learn from it. I hope the trust will reconsider and recognise it’s incredible importance.
Chloe Hamblen
Landscape Designer at Joe Perkins
Dear Robert,
I am writing to express my horror that the trust is planning to sell the forest garden site run by Martin Crawford at Dartington.
The forest garden is a world renowned project which fully aligns with the trusts stated aim of supporting « Innovative sustainability ».
Please consider the option of allowing Martin to buy the site so the biodiversity can be preserved.
The concept of edible perennial plants grown in a woodland edge is an ancient practice largely lost to humanity. Martin has demonstrated the possibility of this as a way to create food security without destroying biodiversity . It is inspirational and has influenced people across the world.
It takes years to create a forest and minutes to destroy it. Please reconsider.
Kind regards
Lynn Bartlett North Wales
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I was appalled and truly saddened to hear that the beautiful agroforestry garden has been threatened by closure by DHT.
Yet another nail in the coffin of the estate!
My partner and I first visited the garden 14 years ago and were blown away by Martins knowledge and quiet passion – we bought the book on the back of that visit and garden using some of his ideas.
Happy to support in any way. Tell us where to be, who to contact and where to fund.
Thank you all and best of luck,
Allison Sylvester
Good morning
I am saddened and upset that Darrington Hall plan to destroy over 30 years of beautiful work in this garden.
I was born in Totnes and visit this absolutely beautiful place numerous times over 50 years. It’s nature at its best helping wildlife and is natural England. A place for peace and tranquility and wellbeing. Being amongst natural surroundings knowing that most plants are edible makes it even more special.
Please do not destroy it but preserve it forever. Too much of nature, wildlife and woods are being decimated, at this rate there will be no nature or wildlife.
I plead with you as a local and a nature & wildlife lover to leave it be.
Yours sadly
Maria Simcox Devon
The Forest Garden and Martin’s skills,knowledge and experience have made a major impact internationally by providing an example and inspiration to others to develop diverse food resources which will become even more vital as climate change progresses.
The Forest Garden provides plant resources that are impossible or difficult to easily obtain elsewhere and the Forest Garden provides those who visit with inspiration to go away and develop their own diverse food gardens.
The knowledge that visitors can obtain from the Forest Garden, and supply of plants to start and expand their own food resources are immensely important..
The research associated with the Forest Garden, and the publicationsbased on its work, allow others to respond to climate change with diverse food crops.
The Forest Garden is unique and of great value not only to the UK but internationally.
It must be allowed to continue to inspire and facilitate others to develop forest gardens and food crops for a future where bio-diversity will become increasingly important as the climate evolves.
Paule Stephenson
Dear all,
Thank you for this movement to save the forest garden created and maintained for over 30 years by Martin Crawford. As a French academic interested in the concept of forest gardens, I attach a very great importance to this site, which is a leading international reference (one could say unique) for all forest gardens and food forests that are created in temperate environments.
All the best,
Xavier Rochel
PR – Géographie. Responsable LP cartographie, topographie et SIG. Responsable Master GAED.
UR 7304 – LOTERR – Université de Lorraine
This garden is a national treasure and must be allowed to continue its groundbreaking research and educational and inspirational role.
If the Dartington Trust is convinced it must sell the site then it must make it available for ART and its supporters to buy at a fair price to allow the project to continue to flourish.
Any decision by Dartington’s trustees for any other course of action would be a complete affront to Dartington’s history, aims and reputation, and the groundswell of outrage will grow to huge proportions.
We all make mistakes, but then it’s a matter of making good on them. Please recognise your misstep at this early stage and change direction on this.
Antony Dumskyj, organic horticulturist
To destroy the Dartington Forest Garden would be an absolute tragedy. Educational and inspiring, it is a rare example of a truly sustainable, holistic approach in a troubled day and age.
We need places like this to show an example to the next generation. But they don’t just grow overnight. They require much care and expertise. They are valuable, precious and extremely rare.
Please, please, see sense and do not destroy this garden.
Andrew de Selincourt
Hello Martin
I’m horrified to hear that Dartington Hall Trust have given you notice to quit the Forest Garden after over 30 years. I found your training course there demonstrating a mature Forest Garden truly inspirational in starting an agroforestry project here in Herefordshire. I would not have done this without all the educational material based on the development of the Dartington site. The International Symposia you have run further demonstrate how far reaching your influence is.
If there’s a way forward for ART to purchase the site I’d be very happy to donate.
Very best wishes
Jane Minton
Robert, and the board of the Trust
What are you thinking? A charity doesn’t run out of funds overnight. It reaches a point of difficulty due to poor or inadequate decision-making over the several years leading to a point of crisis.
Do what you have to do to stem the flood and shore up the Trust. But please reconsider calling time on the forest garden and the practical and research facility Martin Crawford has provided in service to a national and international community of practice. It’s not like there could be a more urgent need for the solutions Martin has demonstrated. And as many others have pointed out, the ecosystem at the garden cannot simply be conjured elsewhere.
As for the manner in which you have given notice – I leave you to reflect on the impact and ethics of something you have entire control over.
The Trust is not worth having if it is not to fulfil its purpose. The garden is part of the family silver. Please step up to your responsibilities now. Late is better than never.
I wish you well in finding a more constructive and far-sighted way to lead out of the present difficulties.
Rowena Young
Formerly a Director of the Young Foundation
Martin and all at ART, your work is an inspiration to so many. Our visits started over 25 years ago, and directly contributed to our own purchase of land in Sussex which we then planted, partly with material from you. And which we continue to plant, based on agroforestry principles.
The estate must surely appreciate that its need for financial stability can be enhanced by the unique contribution you make. DHT’s attempt to oust you would be of course against the objectives and principles of the Elmhirsts, which are reflected in the constitution of the DHT itself.
Steve and Sylvia
To destroy an amazing example to teach sustainable and beautiful food production and nature enhancement in one of the most nature depleted countries in the world would be heartbreaking. I beseech you to champion this forest garden, it took 31 years to get to this point and destruction would be utterly senseless. Do the right thing and be proud of the wonderful legacy!
Dear trustees of Dartington Hall Trust,
As I understand the DHT is eying huge financial problems. This is mentioned in the communication on behalf of your trust about the abrupt end of the lease of the forest garden of the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART). First of all I hope you can tackle these financial difficulties.
I was able to visit the famous forest garden two times. First time because I participated in an advanced course and second time together with a Dutch journalist for a reportage on forest gardening. Both times I was very happy to also spend some time at your estate, enjoying the fantastic scenery of those mediaeval buildings in a well conserved landscape.
We also did buy snacks and drinks (opposite of the Hall) and some gifts for the folks at home in the Netherlands (at The Cider Press Centre). I cannot judge about the source of the financial problems of DHT. But I do know that the forest garden of ART did not contribute to them!
It is also clear there must have been revenues from the thousands visitors coming to Totnes and Dartington because of that unique forest garden, over the previous years. You probably underestimate this cash flow because of the forest garden from elsewhere to your area. Many people would not have come for a visit without the forest garden being there (which is abroad quite well known and admired a lot).
Can it be a lack of understanding from your side has led to the current, annoying situation? The suggestion that this forest garden simply could be replaced to an alternative location is showing that you are not (yet) aware of the essential principles of this unique system. The development of 31 years of this edible poly-culture of perennial trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants together with soil life (containing many fungi) makes this project worldwide outstanding. I hope you are open to understand this a bit better, maybe it helps by comparing the option to remove this forest garden at Dartington to the (hypothetical!) removing of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to another spot somewhere near London – which of course also would led to a public outcry. The forest garden of ART deserves to grow at this very same spot for many more decades to come, attracting many more admirers to come to Dartington.
It is my deepest wish DTH can rethink the way forwardsome. There must be better options possible, benefitting all parties involved. I wish your charity all the best, thus reaching long-term sustainability -.including a continuation of the forest garden. With such a positive outcome I certainly want to bring a next visit to Dartington.
Best wishes from the Netherlands, kind regards,
Wouter van Eck
Chair Stichting Voedselbosbouw Nederland
Surely such important work that has to be pathing the way for sustainable land use in a temperature climate must be protected for future learning purposes, that include the environment, wildlife, food and medicinal purposes. It would seem nothing less than a tragedy for such a project to end. In terms of the sustainability, the environment, wildlife, food and medicinal sourcing.
Please reconsider saving the environmental treasure that Mr Crawford has created on the Dartington Estate.
Simon Jones.
After visiting your forest garden in 2019, we were inspired to start our own journey. We are sure this forest garden will continue to inspire the creation of thousands if not million more forest garden in the future. This is decades of pioneering work, research, trial and error. We are shocked and sickened by this news. We support you and agroforestry research trust in every step of the way. Many of my friends and family also signed the petition, we hope to keep the ball rolling.
Best of luck!
Yvonne & Charline Normandy, France
Having axed the renowned International Summer School of Music, the Dartington Trust has now turned its attention to the destruction of a major biodiversity project on the estate. While previous administrations had a strategy, but failed financially, the current management is focused on finance but lacks strategy and an understanding of the purpose and essence of Dartington. The forest garden at Dartington is an example of sustainable agroforestry and all that goes with it, from plants upwards through the food chain. What possible purpose can be served by serving notice on work so badly needed in the world of today? Please reconsider.
Dr Malcolm Scoble, DSc, Retired Keeper of Entomology, the Natural History Museum, London, and long time Dartington Member.
My name is Alexandra Theodotou, I am an MA student at San Francisco State University, and I am emailing today to express my support for the preservation of the Dartington Forest Garden in perpetuity.
I am particularly interested in the preservation of this garden for multiple reasons. As a student of Resource Management and Environmental Planning, I study forest gardens and silvopasture as my central focus. They come from an ancient form of agriculture that has been in use for over 4,500 years across multiple continents. These systems are incredibly thoughtful in their construction, and are resistant to disease, pests, and even climate change with minimal effort once established. They create intricate communities that tie together hundreds of plant species, as well as myriad insect and animal species, all while providing food for the humans who have planted them. They only become more beautiful and resilient with time.
In addition to their resilient nature, forest gardens are an incredible resource for local communities. I have read several studies that show their importance across the world not only for communities of flora and fauna, but also for human communities. They greatly improve a sense of place and community cohesion wherever they are planted. This “sense of place” reminds people of local heritage and of what in their area is deserving of time and attention. It transforms a place from somewhere to pass through, into somewhere worth staying. This is in addition to the services that all plants already provide (air quality, noise reduction, biodiversity, psychological benefits, a local cooling effect). On top of all of that, forest gardens provide food. The Dartington Forest Garden is an irreplaceable masterpiece that should be protected. To remove protections from this incredible garden would be an insult to and great loss for foresters, gardeners, botanists, geographers, students, researchers, and future generations interested in mitigating the effects of climate change.
This garden has inspired people across the world, including me, to explore alternative forms of agriculture. It represents a new way to interact with natural systems, not by mindlessly extracting resources, but by learning from systems that have worked for billions of years. I’m asking you to preserve it in tandem with the Agroforestry Research Trust. Don’t let the pursuit of short-term profits remove this creation from existence.
Thank you,
Alexandra Theodotou
‘What a terrible shame to see the landowners using their property rights to threaten the destruction of this hugely valuable project, rather than ensure its long-term protection. These actions may not be unlawful but the decision to end the lease is unethical and desperately short-sighted. Like many others, I urge DHT to reconsider.
Dr Helena Howe, University of Sussex
‘We need more forest gardens in the UK for the sustainable agriculture and ecosystems they provide, as well as opportunities for communities to create them, not less. The decision of Dartington Hall to end the tenancy here and threaten the garden is incredibly short-sighted & harmful, and I hope they change their minds. To see so many supportive messages already here shows the level of care for nature; if you’re reading this and haven’t yet wrote to the Trustees, signed the petition or expressed your support in a message, please do so today. Best of luck to the forest garden community and the Agroforestry Research Trust.
Jay, Botanist & Ecologist
To Robert Fedder, Nick Harros, Neville Evans, and the Dartington Hall Trust Trustees,
I write with continued support to secure longevity of the Agroforestry Research Trust’s Forest Garden at Dartington.
This pioneering forest garden is one of the most mature examples of a forest garden / food forest in the temperate world; it is a space that holds great importance, owing to its long-term development, but also incredible pertience as the changing climate risks marked disruptipn to land and food systems now and into the future.
In recent years we have seen the acknowledgement of, and push towards, more regenerative forms of agricultue across both the farming and food business sectors. Two key, and increasibly popular elements of regenerative agriculture is that of increased biodiversity within farms and the use of trees within farming systems (termed agroforestry).
Much of the work done by Martin and the Agroforestry Research Trust is focused on providing much-needed research on the integration of biodiversity within food systems, and also into the suitability of certain species and other varieties under a changing climate. Over the last 31 years of the Dartington Forest Garden’s development, many of these species and fruiting varieties have shown great promise, where increasingly we can see native Devon and British varieties struggle.
To end the lease of this 31-year-old experiment would be catastrophic. I implore you all to continue your negotiations with Martin, and allow ART to secure the long term future of the Dartington site by purchasing the site.
With best regards,
Michael A. Cooper, PhD
This is not the first time that that the DH Trustees have shown a complete disregard for the principles on which the Trust is based.
This money-pinching proposal is one of the very worst: effectively destroying ground-breaking research and demonstration that is of growing importance.
I think the Trustees should resign and be replaced by some of the many who support this work.
Ian Tribe
Treasurer, The Professional Horticulture Group.
I’ve been inspired by and continue to support the Agro Forestry Research Trust in any way I can. As an eco-artist working with trees, people, wildlife and exploring ways to feed ourselves and care for the land simultaneously the AFRT is an outstanding and unique exemplar in the UK which opens up possibility and positivity in people’s hearts and minds. The practical knowledge held within the people working here as well as the range of trees and plants available for sale is second to none. Hundreds of people visit this site each year and like bees spread this incredible knowledge across the world. It would be an act of ecocide to destroy this beautiful corner of the world.
Anne-Marie Culhane, FLOW orchard, Fruit Routes and Walking Forest
(to DHT)
I am writing to add my voice to the many who deplore your extraordinary decision to terminate the lease of the Agroforestry Research Trust, thereby also putting an end to thirty-one years’ work of national and indeed international importance.
I am hesitant to ascribe your decision to malevolence, but surely it cannot be due to inadvertence. Five minutes with a search engine ought to be enough to establish what Martin Crawford has been doing and why it is of such value. Five seconds’ thought is more than enough to grasp that a forest garden cannot simply be put on the back of a truck and moved elsewhere. This implies either that the Trust will be looking for a tenant able and willing to act as its custodian – something of a tall order, I suggest, and obviously unnecessary given who the sitting tenant is – or else the Trust simply doesn’t care what happens to it.
I took a moment to read the Trust’s governing document, as per the Charity Commissioners (https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/279756/governing-document), and I do not see where it says, as you have apparently claimed that it does, that the Trust has some sort of fiduciary obligation to maximise its financial returns. If that were so, indeed, it would seem to be evidence of gross negligence on your part that the whole area wasn’t tarmaced over years ago and replaced by a housing estate. Clearly that is not the case.
It is far from clear to me what better use oi the property you envisage other than that to which it is already being put. Is the Trust intending to mine rare earth metals, perhaps?
From a purely pragmatic point of view, this is making the Trust look like the Evil Empire, which I am sure was far from your intention. It is not too late to rescind this foolish and wicked decision and, perhaps, learn from it.
I urge you to do so.
Yours sincerely,
Tim Jarman
Dear Sirs/Madams (DHT)
I was horrified to see that you intend to terminate the lease of the forest garden at Dartington. I believe that this would be a gross mistake on your part both for the forest garden itself and for your reputation. Dartington has always been a haven of progressive thinking and a beacon of hope to many in these dark times. It has championed enlightened thinking and encouraged activities that care for the environment.
Congratulations! With this one disastrous decision you have swept that legacy aside and ensured that the Dartington Trust will be remembered as the body that destroyed the world’s best example of a temperate forest garden.
I along with many others attended one of Martin Crawford’s inspirational weekend courses and came away determined to start my own forest garden which I have done. Many of my most precious trees and plants were grown at Dartington.
In the immortal words of John McEnroe “You cannot be serious”
Regards
Nicola Jarman
Hello, my name is Joshua Ferris. I am a horticulturist at Longwood Gardens in the USA. What the agroforestry trust has done is a light of hope in a time when humanities values seem to be changing for the worse. Because of this I was so excited to sign up for a class being offered in August of this year. This unique experience and exposure to something so different that’s not offered in the USA makes it so invaluable and absolutely devastating that it is in threat. I am sending all my support overseas and hopefully in August I will get to experience the forest myself.
The word will continue to be spread on my end, -Josh
Joshua Ferris
Professional Horticulture Student, Longwood Gardens
To Martin: You are truly amazing! You have inspired and encouraged the world and shown that a different way is possible! The messages show that you and your fantastic work are valued and treasured by millions, including ourselves. You are our hero! Thank you for trying to save the planet!
To DHT: Bad management is ruining you as you do not know what’s important in life. You are ruining your good name forever, as Dartington Hall now will be eternally linked with the destruction of a magical place that is treasured by millions. It won’t do you any good to anger and outrage people in such an inconsiderate way. You are distroying what you are trying to save: This country’s heritage! Think again!
Yours,
Hanna
Hi Martin,
I have visited the forest garden twice and been inspired to create my own behind a semi-detached house in Newbury. It is tiny and only three years old, but developing well. I open my garden each year for local people to show what is possible. When I do that I tell them about you and your garden.
I was so shocked to read about what has happened. The lack of understanding that could lead to such a decision is staggering.
My forest garden exists because of you. I trust and believe that this will be resolved.
With love
Mike Coote
We were shocked and dismayed to be told about the decision by DHT, having had an amazing and inspiring visit to the garden as part of our PDC several years ago where we were instantly inspired to put things we saw into practice on our own land.
We hope with all our hearts that this special place with all its merits for teaching and ecology is given a secure future and continues to be a hub of inspiration and learning.
We look forward to a positive decision from DHT so we can bring along our small son in future and inspire the next generation!
Wishing you all the best, with fingers firmly crossed 🤞
Abbie and Alex Cheesman
PDC visitors, 2019. Cornwall
I follow your project online and have learnt a lot from the research you do. It has helped to transform the way I garden my own plot. It is unthinkable that all your work on the DHT plot should be stopped by the need for them to secure finances or however they phrased it. Surely food security and biodynamic knowledge are worth more that?
I wish you all the best of luck in securing the future of this ambitious and internationally important project.
Lucy Spink
Dear DHT,
It would be ecocide to destroy the amazing forest garden at Dartington.
This wonderful resource needs to be protected and nurtured for generations to come. We need this knowledge to survive (and hopefully, one day, thrive again) as a species.
I am doing what I am doing in East Kent (creating a veganic forest farm) in a large part due to Martin, his work and inspiration.
Please do not put profit over the planet and people – it would be an outrage.
Jo Kidd, Farmer
Dear Robert Fedder, Nick Harris and the Dartington Trustees
I have been compelled to write to you in relation to the future tenancy of the Agroforestry Research Trust at Dartington
Estate, as it has been brought to my attention that its future might be at risk.
I am a consultant ecologist, and I write on behalf of myself and colleagues at Digg & Co. Studio. We are a team of
landscape designers and ecologists and as a design studio we are engaged with some of the most significant landscape recovery
and habitat restoration projects in the country. Most notable locally we are advising the Duchy of Cornwall on the sustainable
future of their Dartmoor Estate, under the Dartmoor Farm Cluster Landscape Recovery Project.
I am deeply concerned about the secure future of Dartington Forest Garden. This is the most advanced and mature
temperate food forest in the UK, and significant on a global scale. Furthermore, it is the foundation of a research institution
which is working to answer some of the most profound problems to face our society today including how to achieve sustainable
and regenerative food production.
We are working and living in a time where, as a society, we are beginning to deeply understand the significance of the
damage which has been caused to our land throughout the 20 Century, and we are understanding the imperative to find a new
way. This is happening when both global and UK populations are at their zenith, and may continue to rise, demanding greater
resources from nature than possibly ever before. But, we are also in a time when our combined knowledge, understanding and
innovation has found a path which with the right support, will direct our land-use towards true sustainability.
This is a future where food systems are burgeoning as they are underpinned by restored functional ecosystems, naturally
and without inputs recycling nutrients, syncing carbon and harnessing the infinite potential of the solar energy entering our
planets system every day.
This is regenerative farming. A land-use practice which regenerates land for infinite harvests.
As we innovate and begin to apply regenerative practice to our food systems, there is often a time lag before the true
benefit or impact of such systems is deeply understood. This is simply the consequence of the time required to restore natural
ecosystem functioning. The Dartington Forest Garden is 30 years ahead of this imperative movement, and the world is watching
it, and learning from it. This is not a commodity or a crop with a finite time frame, it is an ecosystem, with an indefinite time
frame, and an essential resource for the movement towards a truly sustainable and plentiful future.
I implore you to do everything in your power to conserve this resource and allow the work of the Agroforestry Research
Trust to continue, with your full support.
If the Dartington Hall Trust would like support with exploring the landscape and ecological value of the Forest Garden
in the context of its surroundings, we would welcome an opportunity to contribute further to this conversation, and we would
love to hear from you.
Yours Sincerely
Louis Pearson
Director of Ecology, Digg & Co. Ltd
In an era where we all need seeds of hope, interrupting the Forest Garden would hurt the world. I beg DHT to seriously consider renewing the lease indefinitely and supporting this incredible effort that is being recreated in all corners of the world.
Please and thank you,
Ovi Hentea
concerned earthling
The Dartington Forest Garden was a personal inspiration to us both as we became involved with establishing both the Ecological Land Co-operative in the UK and The Happy Pig in Ireland.
The idea of destroying it over a decade further into its developing maturity is a heartrending one that can only be seen as aligned with the ecologically-ignorant values of today’s omnicidal industrial economy.
That the Dartington Hall Trust would even consider such an action is a damning indictment of their insight and understanding. This is one of the treasures of England. We can only hope that they see sense and support Martin Crawford and the Agroforestry Research Trust in continuing their invaluable stewardship, which serves as a touchstone and inspiration to so many.
Shaun Chamberlin and Mark Boyle, authors and former Schumacher College teachers
As a tree nursery spezialized on fruit diversity working in Austria we are shocked about informations that the forest garden of the Agroforestry Research Trust could be in danger.
We have benefited so much of the experiences gathered in this unique long term project!
Therefore we urgently call on decision-makers to re-evaluate the criteria of their decisions.
Dr. Michael Suanjak, Mara Müller
Dear DHT,
I would appreciate it if you would forward on a copy of this email to your Trustees.
I am extremely disappointed (and angry) to learn about your decision to not renew the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART)’s tenancy on the Dartington Estate. I used to live in South Devon and was a regular visitor to the Dartington Estate (I even volunteered some time with you). I always felt it was a beacon of progressive land management and community focus.
The ART site has now been established for 31 years and provides a truly exemplary example of agroforestry. It is a site that has hosted thousands of visitors, has inspired people from all over the world (myself included) and, with policy becoming ever more supportive of agroforestry, it has a huge role to play in our transition to a more sustainable food future.
From your own website, I read that: “The Dartington Experiment began in 1925, when Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst bought a crumbling estate and began to explore how a place could change the world – attracting some of the greatest artists, educators and political philosophers of the 20th century in the process. Important British institutions – including the NHS and the Arts Council – emerged, and ground-breaking experiments in land use, farming and education took place.
The Elmhirsts understood that the world and its people are complex. There are many sides to every story and to every human being. We need environments that encourage our whole being to flourish, in connection with nature and each other.” Given the above, I wonder how the Elmhirsts and their descendants would feel about your decision to end the ART’s tenancy?
I am also disappointed to read, just today, that you have refused the ART the option of purchasing the site. In the interest of your own reputation (which has inevitably already taken a massive negative blow), I would suggest that you publicly provide some reasoning around your decision to end the ART’s tenancy and why you are not willing to sell the site to them, therefore allowing the continuation of decades of progressive work?
Finally, but not least, creating and establishing the Forest Garden has taken decades of work and has largely been driven by one man (who I have never had the pleasure of meeting). This project represents his life’s work and legacy – work that has been done selflessly for the good of humanity and the planet. If you won’t listen to reasoned argument, please do take a moment to consider the direct personal impacts that your decision may cause.
Kind regards,
Pete Etheridge BSc MCIEEM MCMA
To whom it may concern,
Please do enable this valuable activity to continue !
Indeed, could I suggest that the area available to them should be increased at least two or three fold !
At no extra cost.
With regards,
John Jenks
Forester NDF, BSc, MSc.
This should be a national heritage site.
Nick
For the attention of:
Rt Hon Lord David Triesman (Chair) and fellow Turstees.
Robert Fedder (CEO)
Nick Harris (COO)
Dear Dartington,
I was heartened to learn that after issuing a seemingly peremptory notice to quit, the Dartington Hall Trust (DHT) had met with Martin Crawford to discuss the future of the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART). Now I learn that this opportunity to restore trust in the Trust seems to have been wasted and the eviction notice is still in place.
We at Farm Under The Radar, (FUTuRe), have been inspired, as have many others, by the ground-breaking work carried out at ART. It is of local, national and global importance and your decision to evict it will destroy an asset of immeasurable significance for questionable gain.
Perhaps the lack of any mention of ART in your strategic review (18/2/25) is an indication that it had already been written out of 31 years of Dartington history and excluded from its planned future. This would be a terrible loss for the DHT too for its objectives and activities chime so well with those at the origin of the DHT. Your website talks of the origins of the Dartington Experiment and refers to “ground-breaking experiments in land use farming and education” that took place. These words could just be about the ART. The website expands further:
Dartington is a place of learning and experiment. We work locally, nationally and internationally to achive change in three crucial areas: the arts, the promotion of a fairer society and the future of our planet. Working with pioneering thinkers, teachers, artists and social entrepreneurs. Dartington helps people to address some of the significant issues of our time. [DHT website]
Food production and land use are key to the two great global emergencies of our time, climate and nature, that affect the future of our planet. The work of the ART is not a decorative frill but essential. It is to be hoped that an organisation like DHT would not only find space on its multi acre site to accommodate ART but would celebrate it for the unique repository for information, learning and inspiration that it is.
The loss of the centre of learning and practice that is the Agroforestry Research Trust is a dreadful way to begin a term as chairman and no way to celebrate the centenary of Dartington Hall.
I do hope you will be able to find a way to act in the spirit of the founders and ask ART to remain on its present site on a permanent basis thereby giving substance to the warm words on your website.
Yours sincerely,
David Hayhow
Farm Under The Radar (FUTuRe)
I am writing to add my voice to the many, who ask you to reconsider shutting down the agroforestry garden. Please think again.
Best wishes, Jonathan Eyre
The ART garden, along with the vigorous ecosystem of educational courses, publications, gatherings and visits, field trials large and small, plant propagation and sales that surround it, was the primary resource for me back in 2001 when i was setting up my own forest garden in Somerset. It was and is a beacon of hope, and vital experience in the realisation of genuinely sustainable food growing. The ‘ART phenomenon’ is a model of scientific/objective rigour combined with inspirational enthusiasm in the pursuit and service of an ideal.
Benedict Critchley