About the Project
The project aims to inspire and engage young people to realise the crucial role trees play in their lives, and to open opportunities, particularly for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, for working with trees as a career path. The project also aims to offer this opportunity particularly to those from communities underrepresented in the forestry industry, as greater diversity is needed in the workforce to create the diverse thinking needed to tackle the environmental challenges we are facing. We hope the camp will be an enriching, fun and transformative experience, as well as educational!
The project is funded for three years by Welsh Government and the Scottish Forestry Trust. This is the second year the camp is run and is available for young people aged 18-21.
“It was hard to know what to expect really, bringing together a group of young people that I’ve not met before. But actually, I’ve been really pleased and pleasantly surprised at just how much they have engaged. It’s been really beautiful just to see them coming alive in nature.”
“It’s nice to get out, especially if you’re in a really busy area. Camping isn’t really that bad. So, I mean at home, I’m used to like a lot of big sounds or constant moving around. When I’m here, everything is really slow and really relaxed, which is something I kind of really needed as well. So that’s something I’ve realised, it’s much slower and calmer here than in London.”
“So when you’re ID’ing different trees, the main thing you need to essentially look at is the leaf shape. This is the lime tree and these are edible as well.”
“Kwesia is now…I’m responsible for her safety. She’s in a really vulnerable position. Then I’m going to stand back and just let her explore the tree using all of her senses apart from her vision.”
“This is actually one leaf. It looks like it is one, two, three, four, five. That’s actually one leaf. So it’s what we call a compound leaf as opposed to an oak, which is what we call a simple leaf that’s just one piece.”
“I really enjoyed pulling back the outside of the tree after cutting it down because it was really interesting to see what was inside the tree”
“When you see a lot of aspen all together, it’s all the same tree. It’s all connected underground as one individual and they just send up all of these suckers.”
“I think my favourite part is probably the managing and creating fires. It’s really great to be, you know, hands on with a facet of the camp, especially as it’s more involved, everyone benefits from it. And then there’s the responsibility aspect, of making sure there is enough wood in the fire so it’s not smoking too much, or that the fire doesn’t go out and people will end up cold. That’s probably my favourite part.”
“So once you’ve done yours, you’re going to go over to either station, that side or that side, but we need 6 on each side.”
“That’s the wood, see the difference? Outer bark, inner bark, wood.”
“Template on, draw around it. And then we’ll use a saw and a knife to cut into this bit.”
“I knew we were going to be camping. But in terms of what I didn’t expect to happen is I’d have so much fun. Only within five days, I managed to build pretty strong relationships with people, which is really nice. Managed to become friends with people really quickly. I really liked hiking yesterday up on the moors. It was really nice and we got to see the view from way high up. I enjoyed sitting around the fire and just, like, communicating with everyone, getting to know people.”
“I’ve really enjoyed seeing them using tools in the woodland, felling a tree and then carving a butter knife from the tree that they felled. They were really responsible and safe with the tools and made beautiful things and then carved their Mum’s name in and put their own names on and Forestry camp 2025. It was just really, yeah, really beautiful to see them really engaging with that.”
“I think…I really like when the young people ask questions because it shows us how they are thinking about things, thinking about the environment, thinking about what they are looking at…they are looking at things, they are really engaging.”
Date and Location
The camp will take place from 29th June - 5th July. Participants will travel on the morning of the 29th June for the camp to start in the afternoon. The camp will finish on the morning of the 5th July and participants will be on a train by lunchtime on this day for an afternoon/evening arrival back to their home station. (More details on travel information in the Travel Plans section below)
The site for the camp is Dynyn Housing Co-operative, Eglwys Fach, Machynlleth, SY20 8TF. You can view the location on Google Maps here. The co-operative has been running entirely off grid for 45 years, using solar and hydro power, and includes 23-acres of beautiful rewilding land, including woodland, heath, a lake, river and waterfall, and a meadow where the camp will be held. The land is surrounded on all sides by extensive tracts of wild land, creating a feeling of true wildness and remoteness, whilst also being just 20 minutes away from the town of Machynlleth (this is where the train station is). Camps, courses, retreats and events have been run here for many years.
Site facilities
The meadow where the camp will be held has a fully fitted outdoor kitchen, a compost toilet, simple camp showers, fire circle and an event shelter. Facilities are basic but ample, and support full immersion in the natural world.
Meet the Team
All team members are fully DBS checked and first-aid trained. The facilitation and pastoral care team is Safeguarding Level 1 trained.
Kwesia X - camp facilitator
Kwesia grew up in Deptford, an inner city area of South-East London where she struggled with mental health and the violence around her. Life was chaotic, harsh, and lacking meaning and purpose. She was given an opportunity to be part of a British Exploring Society’s 3-week expedition to the Amazon Rainforest - a life-changing experience. She experienced the profound beauty of nature and forged deep friendships with strangers. On her return she created ‘City Girl in Nature’, to share her love and passion for the outdoors with people who haven’t had such opportunities. She has since created online series and award winning podcasts around the importance of connecting with nature, and has presented along the likes of Chris Packham.
Kamron Roberts - Pastoral Care
Kamron is an experienced facilitator with a background in conservation and youth engagement through The Conservation Volunteers and London Wildlife Trust. He has supported outdoor education projects, helped deliver practical conservation tasks, and guided young people during community and nature-based activities. Kamron is confident in safeguarding procedures, risk management, and ensuring that activities are accessible and safe for all participants. He has experience working with diverse groups and coordinating practical sessions in outdoor environments. Kamron will be supporting this camp by helping to guide, supervise, and assist young people throughout the week.
Altaea Fradley - Hearth Tender and Chef
Altaea is a Machynlleth based freelance chef, butcher, forager and crafter. She has a background in many aspects of the food industry: veg box schemes, retreats, forest camps, kids camps, festivals, weddings, parties, workshops, fine dining, private, and countless dietary requirements and intolerances. With a keen interest in dietetics, ethical wild game butchery and ecology, she takes great pride in ensuring the food she creates is nutritious, biodiverse, good for the mind, body, soul and the planet.
Useful Information
Camp activities will include learning about trees, forests and woodland management in practical ways, crafting with trees, working in the woods and felling a tree together, games and gentle exercises to connect with each other and with nature, tree identification, fire-lighting and cooking on fire, group hikes, stargazing, foraging, learning about working in forestry, caring for the camp together, fireside fun and social time and much more. There will be free time for rest and relaxation scheduled every day.
We have secured funding to supply participants with outdoor gear so that everyone is equipped with what they need. This could include any of the following: waterproof jackets and trousers, footwear, warm layers, tents and sleeping mats.
Tents will be provided for sleeping in. Participants can choose to sleep in a smaller tent with 1-2 other people of the same gender or
All food will be provided, from dinner on the 29th June to lunch on the 5th July. Snacks and drinks will also be provided throughout the day. We aim to provide healthy, nutritious and tasty food and cater for dietary requirements including allergies, intolerances and Halal.
We take safety and safeguarding very seriously and have a comprehensive safeguarding policy and procedures. The facilitation and pastoral care team are Safeguarding trained to at least Level 1. Disclosures will be taken seriously and correct procedure followed should any issues arise. We have a dedicated Pastoral Care Lead who will be a trusted go-to person for any issues arising, in addition to the camp facilitators. All activities are fully risk assessed and any tool use will be preceded by tool safety talks and be fully supervised.
Costs of return train tickets from participants’ nearest main train station to Machynlleth station will be covered. We will book train tickets for you and send them in advance of travel. If more than one person is travelling from the same station, we will connect them to enable traveling together.
All participants will be picked up from Machynlleth Station to travel to the site together in a minibus. The minibus will return everyone from site to Machynlleth Station on 5th July (packed lunches will be provided).
Together we will be creating a camp culture of connection and care, which means being fully present with each other. Some of the ways in which we can support this is to take the opportunity for a digital detox and reclaim our attention from social media and the digital world. So, we will ask for all phones to be handed in for safekeeping on the first full day of the camp (to allow for contact with home on the arrival day to let them know you've arrived safely etc if you need to). Note that there is very limited phone signal on site. See Emergencies below for what we'll do in an emergency with phone contact. We'll also respect a bedtime curfew so we're all well rested for the daytime activities.
We expect everyone to act respectfully and kindly towards each other, to cooperate and engage with the activities safely. We have a strict no alcohol or drugs policy - anyone found in possession of these will be asked to leave.
We will co-create further agreements together at the start of the camp to make sure everyone's needs are met and everyone feels comfortable and safe.
There will be a film maker on site during the camp, to capture the special moments in as discrete a way as possible. This footage and photos will be used to promote future camps and attract more funding to offer this opportunity to more young people in the future. It is entirely up to the participants if they wish to be filmed or not, and filming will only take place if consent is given.
If there's an emergency at home, the camp site and facilitators can be contacted. If there's an emergency in camp, we will contact the participants’ designated emergency contact.