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A Worldwide Movement

On returning from Kenya to England in 1923, St Barbe Baker founded the first UK branch of The Men of the Trees.

From little acorns, mighty oaks grow. Prince Charles is now Patron of the society and TREES, the journal it first published in 1936, is now read in 48 countries.

But most of MOTT's activities take place in its branches. There are now 35 spread over five countries, and many more sub-branches. Members are drawn from every vocation, including some of the most senior representatives of the environmental science professions. New branches are formed every year and many other societies of similar interests have been spawned in the course of MOTT's work.

In 1925, MOTT was instrumental in establishing the Mahogany Forests of Nigeria on a sustained yield basis, yielding L300,000 revenue each year for all time.

Strongly supported by Field Marshall Viscount Allenby, MOTT re-established the Feast of the Trees in Palestine in 1929, bringing together all the heads of religion in the Middle East under a common purpose and creating 42 nurseries.

Tours by MOTT members in the late 1920s, and their ability to attract substantial donations both in America and abroad, lent much support to the campaign to Save the Redwoods in California; the resulting Grove of Understanding and national parks remain meccas for the world's tree-lovers.

From 1938 the Men of the Trees has held summer schools in England for up to 150 delegates. It also opened a forestry training centre at Puncknowle in Dorset. MOTT has continued this educational role to the present day, worldwide; for example, it hosted some 240 delegates from both Australia and New Zealand at the Invercargill NZ Farm Forestry Conference in 1986.

During the Second World War, the Million Shilling Planting Fund was established to aid the re-establishment of forests felled for military purposes. The movement gained strength and, at the General Meeting in 1947, launched the Earth Charter. Translated into most languages, this provided world leadership to earthwide regeneration. Throughout Europe, members of MOTT were at the forefront of post-war reafforestation. In Austria, they also trained thirty students each year from the University of Sahara reafforestation programmes.

MOTT has supported the establishment of shelter belt programmes to arrest erosion and land desiccation in the United States, Russia, China and India, where, over a decade, they helped to increase food production by one hundred per cent.

In New Zealand, MOTT has supported plantings at Kaingaroa and planned New Zealand Perpetual Forests that plant over 10,000 hectares of new forest each year.

In 1982 MOTT and the United Nations Assocaition launched The Year of the Tree. St Barbe Baker was Senior Patron. Australia's National Tree Programme and our growing public awareness of the importance of trees in the early 1980s grew from this initiative.

By actions such as these, The Men of the Trees have become a driving and influential force worldwide. Both children and adults are encouraged to collect seed, to propagate trees and to go out and plant potentially economic and indigenous species as an example for their communities. MOTT is dedicated to showing conservationists everywhere how to develop a world that is ecologically sound.