Ep. 045: Community Land Stewardship with Chris Blake

About this episode

The episode discusses community land stewardship with Chris Blake, focusing on collaboration and trust between local communities and public bodies.

This week on the Wilder Podcast , we sit down with Chris Blake to explore how communities can steward land through collaboration, long-term vision and trust between local people and public bodies. We also share Grange Project updates (bumper apple harvest, the market garden & "cathedral-scale" polytunnel!), two recent courses, and announce Wilder Away Days - our nature-based corporate retreats. Key takeaways: Community land stewardship ≠ one model. Freehold, long leasehold, management agreements and co-production each offer different ways for local values to shape land. Co-production works when power is shared. Start with a blank page, bring evidence-givers (forestry, ecology, education), and let a mixed panel turn evidence into values & principles - not expert-written plans. Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) can beat clear-fell on 100-year horizons: better soils, flood risk, vistas - and local, steady jobs from ongoing thinning rather than boom-and-bust harvesting. Public bodies win too. Communities unlock grants, volunteers and entrepreneurial energy that agencies often lack - delivering outcomes already in policy (biodiversity, access, carbon). Trust is the glue. A…

People in this episode

Host: Grange Project

Guest: Chris Blake

Topics covered

• community land stewardship
• collaboration
• trust
• public bodies
• sustainable forestry
• local values

Keywords

• land stewardship
• community collaboration
• sustainable practices
• forestry
• biodiversity
• public engagement

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Grange Project, Natural Resources Wales, FSC

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