Last week the Woodlanders group on Facebook passed the 10,000 members mark – and they sent us this rather garish image to use! Now is a good time to look back and think about the aims of the group.
It started back in February 2018 with the observation that Facebook had become the main forum where people talked about woodlands and forestry, with web boards and mailing lists dying out, and other big platforms like Reddit not getting a look in. But what was really striking was how people with a stake in woodlands and forestry were in “bubbles” and not talking to each other. Often, not even aware of each other.
As today, people clustered around Facebook Groups and Pages dedicated to their area of interest but there wasn’t a crossover group aimed at everyone involved in woodlands in Britain, and so I decided to try to create one.
Making a group on Facebook is easy, but getting people to join and then talk to each other is the hard part. The name of the group is crucial in attracting new members and giving people an idea of what the group is about. I chose “Woodlanders” as a nod to Thomas Hardy’s novel “The Woodlanders”, about a Victorian village community surrounded by forests. As a group name it has the word “woodland”, and refers to the people who have joined, and it’s a word that we could use as an identity, without the associations with particular types of work that words like “woodsman” or “forester” have. The formula seemed to work from the start, and 300 people joined in the first 24 hours.
Realistically, the long term growth of groups and pages is driven by Facebook’s various algorithms, and how they respond to what is being posted. Over the years we’ve had busy and quiet periods, but this year things have really taken off. Thousands of new members and typically 3000 members accessing the group each day. Topics about Big Forestry and small woodlands, coppicing, firewood, Forest Schools, woodland planning permission, and the economics of forestry.
All of this growth is happening because of the members. And so I want to thank everyone who has contributed over the years: all the posts, replies, likes and even views feed Facebook’s algorithm and tell it to show the posts to other members and remind them about the group. And everyone who has shared the group or invited friends to join, or liked or shared posts by the Woodlanders page, has also helped new members find the group. So thank you!