Trees A Crowd – Details, episodes & analysis

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Trees A Crowd

David Oakes

Science

Arts

Science

Frequency: 1 episode/17d. Total Eps: 140

Ever wondered what happens when you fill a cello with bees? Or how robins have successfully colonised the outer-reaches of our universe? Or why the world is destined to be populated purely by female turtles? This podcast celebrates nature and the stories of those who care deeply for it. Join artist, actor and Woodland Trust & Wildlife Trusts ambassador David Oakes, for a series of informal, relaxed conversations with artists, scientists, creatives and environmentalists as they celebrate the beauty of the natural world and how it inspires us as human beings. All episodes available at: https://www.treesacrowd.fm/

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Apple Podcasts

🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
02/08/2025
#69
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
01/08/2025
#40
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
31/07/2025
#25
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
30/07/2025
#35
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
29/07/2025
#25
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
28/07/2025
#27
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
27/07/2025
#53
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
26/07/2025
#30
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
25/07/2025
#23
🇬🇧 Great Britain - nature
24/07/2025
#38

Spotify

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Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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https://www.treesacrowd.fm/56Trees/
71 shares
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/
41 shares
https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/
20 shares

https://open.acast.com/public/patreon/fanSubscribe/4241294
140 shares

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Environment_Research_Council
2 shares

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RSS feed quality

Excellent

Score global : 94%

Publication history

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Dr Hannah Trayford & Rachel Bigsby: The State of the Badger, with the Badger Trust

Season 5 · Episode 11

mardi 13 août 2024 • Duration 48:09

Britain and its rural communities have been obsessed with Badgers for centuries. Sometimes cast as hero, sometimes as villain, tales of their behaviour can be found woven into the fabric of our nation's folk stories. They have since been immortalised in literature by the likes of Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame. Their prominence in rural life continues into our modern Britain, where Badgers find themselves in the crosshairs of an ongoing cull. But are Badgers the villain of this new tale - persecuting farmers trying to make ends meet within our complicated food chain - or are they the unfortunate scapegoat in a politically-motivated act of extreme animal cruelty? David meets up with Dr Hannah Trayford, the Badger Trust Campaigns and Research Manager, and award-winning photographer Rachel Bigsby, the Badger Trust Youth Ambassador, to understand a little more about the realities of the ongoing cull, and the (lack of) science backing it up. Is it justifiable to cull 50% of the national Badger population, when it is 800 times more likely for cattle to spread Bovine Tuberculosis to Badgers, than the other way around? And if that all sounds too dour, then fear not, for the first 20 minutes of this podcast is actually about Orang-utans and the joy of photographing sea birds!

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Matthew Oates: A Paean to the Purple Emperor. One Man’s Passion-filled Past Devoted to Great British Butterflies

Season 5 · Episode 10

mardi 9 juillet 2024 • Duration 52:10

Matthew Oates is a naturalist, nature writer, and poet with a lifelong passion for butterflies. In the short sward of the Cotswolds, Matthew takes David Oakes on a journey through his fluttery past. They discuss the writers who have inspired him, from Tolkien to Wordsworth and W.H. Hudson, and share stories of other notable butterfly enthusiasts, such as Sir Winston Churchill. Matthew explains his belief that true conservation is a blend of science and love. They also delve into the realities of developing a love for nature in the boarding schools of the Swinging Sixties - a time when his generation transitioned "from Molesworth to Jimi Hendrix in just three years," leaving little room for butterflies or a life-defining obsession with the intoxicating Purple Emperor. Their conversation also addresses modern concerns for butterfly conservation, including pathogens and parasites, the risks of unsanctioned releases, and the importance of single-species ecologists - “insects shout loudest and first.” Ultimately, this is a discussion about the metamorphoses of both the past and the future.

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Katie Holten: Hedge Schools, Tree Time and the Language of our Forests

Season 5 · Episode 2

mardi 5 décembre 2023 • Duration 48:48

Katie Holten is a visual artist and environmental activist who splits her time between Ireland and New York. She has exhibited at the Venice biennale and many galleries across the globe, with her work being described as “…an ongoing investigation of the inextricable relationship between man and the natural world in the age of the Anthropocene.” Recently she created the internationally best-selling book, “The Language of Trees”.

Reclining in a mossy moot deep within the Woodland Trust’s Duncliffe Woods, Katie shares with David Oakes how her passion for nature stems from two roots: her mother – a gardener, teacher and floral artist – and her father – a man who led Katie to be enthralled by logic and physics and Feynman. Katie is now an artist who prides herself upon collecting the connected and noticing that from chaos sprouts equilibrium. It is perhaps not unsurprising then that she has devoted her artistic career to creating compendiums of things she feel necessary to share, and devoting her personal life to many of the goals of Extinction Rebellion.

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Alastair Gunn: Roses, wildflowers and tending ‘to the manor’s thorn’

Season 2 · Episode 10

vendredi 17 avril 2020 • Duration 25:49

In the third and final episode of the Castle Howard trilogy, you’re introduced to head of gardens and landscapes, Alastair Gunn. Starting in one of the estate’s rose gardens, we meet a stunning, rare, white china rose, thought to be a devoniensis, planted over 40 years ago. Alastair has been on the team for just over two years, coming from managing the gardens at Hatfield House, but he’s very much committed to bringing life back to the gardens with a mandate to renovate, restore and ‘zhuzh things up’ - a challenge he’s clearly than risen to. Alastair explains the challenges of working in a different parts of the country, with different soil and vastly differing seasons and conditions. From roses to rhubarb and Read Dead Redemption 2, this conversation is full of interesting and funny moments, including an idea to pioneer Japanese Knotweed Gin, or crumble (for the under 18’s). For further information on this and other episodes, visit: http://www.treesacrowd.fm/alastair-gunn/

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Nick Cooke: Beneath the boughs with bluebells and brambles

Season 2 · Episode 9

mercredi 15 avril 2020 • Duration 25:33

In the second episode of the Castle Howard trilogy, meet the head of forestry, Nick Cooke. Nick has been part of the team looking after the estate since 1975, and over the years has had to figure out how to maintain the extensive forests, all-in-all covering over 60 miles of pathways. Arriving in the ‘70s to take up a placement at the castle’s Ray Wood, Nick stood open-mouthed as he faced the estate’s obelisk and knew that he would be here for a long, long time. On a walking tour through bluebells and briars, Nick points out the oakwoods that call the castle home, the rhododendrons remaining from an ornamental garden, and gestures towards the mixed woodlands where wildflowers are thriving. Of the 816 hectares of land, 550 are designated ancient woodland sites - but they are much more than that now, under Nick’s care, the 300-year old site has been transformed into a stunning botanical collection, a producer of timber, a tree nursery and an area rich with biodiversity. This conversation takes so many paths, from hornbeams, to sowing seeds and contraception for squirrels - you won’t be disappointed! For further information on this and other episodes, visit: http://www.treesacrowd.fm/nick-cooke/

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Nick Howard: Heritage, home and honing the Howard’s way

Season 2 · Episode 8

lundi 13 avril 2020 • Duration 31:03

We begin this trilogy of episodes at Castle Howard, with Nick Howard himself. Most recognisable to the public from the television show “Brideshead Revisited”, but for Nick the Castle Howard estate was his childhood home, a place where he felt such a distinct sense of freedom roaming around its gardens - at least until the cowbell was rung to call him back in for lunch. Nick now oversees care for its grounds with a desire to better connect the caretaking practises with the will of nature. As he guides you around each of the estate’s stunning features, from The Temple of the Four Winds, to the Mausoleum and Pyramid, Nick gives an insight into the estate’s history, and how it links back to his ancestors who made the castle a reality. Stay tuned for the story of Ferdinand and Imelda, two extremely territorial swans who’ve taken ownership of a large stretch of water in the grounds, who join the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, Lord William Howard, and many others in calling Caste Howard their home. For further information on this and other episodes, visit: http://www.treesacrowd.fm/nick-howard/

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Luci Ryan: A hidden battle against HS2 to preserve five ancient woodlands

Season 2

mardi 31 mars 2020 • Duration 17:32

David, speaking here as an Ambassador for the Woodland Trust, is joined in conversation by Luci Ryan, an ecologist and Lead Policy Advocate for conservation on behalf of the Woodland Trust. HS2 ltd - the company behind the Government's highspeed rail project - is quietly about to start moving the soil from five ancient woodlands. The move goes against both conservation principles and guidance from Natural England. With this in mind, David talks to Luci about the complex communities found in ancient woodlands, how this project seems to be going ahead despite the ongoing pandemic and associated government advice, and how this is a time to preserve our unique British habitats, not destroy them. For further information on this and other episodes, visit: http://www.treesacrowd.fm/woodland-trust-hs2

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Dr Helen Pheby: Sculpture for sheep, and rhubarb trains; the place ‘Extraordinary’ can happen

Season 2 · Episode 7

lundi 30 mars 2020 • Duration 58:08

Dr Helen Pheby is the head of curatorial programmes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Set in 500 acres of historic parkland, the park has provided a “gallery without walls” for artists such as Elisabeth Frink, Auguste Rodin, Giuseppe Penone, and local legends such as Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Helen has collaborated on projects in Iraqi Kurdistan, South Africa, India, and even Barnsley! Born in the so-called ‘rhubarb triangle’, Helen reminisces over “the rhubarb express”, a train which ran from her village in Yorkshire to London, and muses over how magical it was being able to see the contrast between rural and urban environments. In this insightful conversation, Helen explains how she believes creativity and art is a human right, how the YSP was visited by Henry VIII, and how another Henry, Henry Moore, believed it was the job of artists to show people the natural world and subsequently designed artwork for sheep. She explains how the Sculpture Park aims to be inclusive, free from the barriers of social standing, wealth and a gender imbalance that art is often associated with. Subsequently, the YSP is now home to brain-controlled helicopters, women on horseback steeplechasing through the landscapes of the First World War, and all of this second to the migratory routes of the Great Crested Newt. In her own words: “We are places the extraordinary can happen.” For more information on this podcast, including David's thoughts following this interview, head to: https://www.treesacrowd.fm/dr-helen-pheby/

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Edward Davey: Learning how to feed the planet in response to COVID-19

Season 2

jeudi 26 mars 2020 • Duration 17:21

Edward Davey is the Director of Geographic Deep Dives for the World Resources Institute and the Food and Land Use Coalition. Here, David and Ed speak briefly in direct response to the state of the global COVID-19 pandemic and how we might feed the people of the world moving forward. Ed and David discuss the agricultural concerns both in Britain and abroad, how the environment and economy are interlinked and how now is a time for compassion and careful consideration. This epsiode was released as part of the London Climate Change Festival 2020. For further information on this and other episodes, visit: http://www.treesacrowd.fm/edward-davey/

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Tim Pears: Foraging fables from the hedgerows of the West Country

Season 2 · Episode 6

lundi 16 mars 2020 • Duration 01:00:21

Tim Pears is a multi-award-winning author. His novel ‘In a Land of Plenty’ was made into a 10-part drama series for the BBC, and he’s just published the final book in his ‘West Country Trilogy’. Compared to Balzac and Hardy and inspired by Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx, Tim draws on his experiences of growing up in Devon and around nature to create the depth behind his fictional worlds. His love of nature came from a sort of “benign neglect” as his parents allowed him to explore the outdoors freely, without restraint. Growing up, he’s always appreciated the natural world, from being captivated by the sight of badgers in a sett, to feeling “closest to the divine” picking blackberries in his local park. As the son of a clergyman, he explains his respect for spirituality, and why religion features so prominently in his work. In this episode, he explores his writing and inspiration, including the difficulty of watching his work being acted out on screen and his love of writing about people and the landscapes they inhabit. For more information on this podcast, including David's thoughts following this interview, head to: https://www.treesacrowd.fm/tim-pears/

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