A celebration of 30 years of the Thames Chase Community Forest.

The Thames Chase Community Forest is a remarkable landscape initiative, actively transforming 40 square miles of the landscape in East London and South West Essex since its launch in 1990, guided by the Thames Chase Plan.

During 2020 the Thames Chase Community Forest reached the milestone of 30 years of landscape regeneration, transforming the green environment for the 650,000 population living through and around its boundaries. Due to lockdown and restrictions it has only been possible this year to really celebrate those achievements, with a special evening for partners, colleagues and friends to come together. It was a wonderful evening reflecting on the past, the passion of the people that helped to build and mould the landscape through all those years.

It was also a great opportunity to look forward to the future and how we can continue to build on the great works that have already been achieved with the many partner organisations and such legacy projects including Land Of The Fann.  Community Forest Director Dave Bigden outlined how Thames Chase is working with the network of community forests across England to support national initiatives and how these can benefit Thames Chase, along with education for the next generation and providing an environment that can support health and wellbeing.Plus how important it is to appreciate the access we all have to green space which by working together will expand into the future .

From a landscape peppered with landfill sites, we now have a thriving community forest giving the local community access to a mosaic landscape of green  space, that just over 30 years ago some might not have even believed possible. From the early days the small team, through passion and vision Thames Chase and its partners began with a multi benefit forest plan – many people were not convinced of the longevity of the project but here we are 32 years later.

Ann Bartlett, Thames Chase Trust life President paid tribute to the people who helped during the infancy of the project: “Having consistency to keep the project running for 30 years is integral and the passion and drive of people keeps projects like Thames Case on the move”.