Branching Out Animation Launched at Royal Welsh Show
A new RFS animation shows the toll public anger takes on foresters doing essential tree work.
A new animation produced by the Royal Forestry Society with funding from the Forestry Commission sheds light on the experience of tree workers when the public respond negatively to essential forestry work.
Watch the new animation here: Mental Health & Wellbeing in Forestry
In the 2025 Breaking Points Survey carried out by the RFS and the Mental Health & Wellbeing in Forestry Group, a recurring theme among foresters and arborists was the impact of verbal abuse in response to their work.
The video aims to show why felling trees is necessary for managing habitats, keeping public spaces safe and producing sustainable materials, and why an angry response to local forestry workers doesn’t help them or the trees they manage.
From first impressions, it may seem counter-intuitive to cut down trees, but when trees suffer with disease, pose a risk to the public, or when productive forests are ready to be harvested, the best way forward is often to fell trees to make space for a well-managed, mixed species woodland that supports local people, wildlife and the economy.
These management aims are depicted in the animation, but the protagonist, a forestry worker, is met with anger and disappointment from his community.
The community’s outrage comes from a good place of wanting to protect nature and local woodlands. Communities taking an interest in their green spaces should be welcomed but the animations proposes that the public approach foresters with curiosity rather than anger when they see forestry operations nearby. In most cases, the work is doing the very thing people care about: protecting the woodland for the future.
In 2024, a rise in deaths and reports of severe pressure within the sector prompted forestry professionals to come together, forming the Mental Health & Wellbeing in Forestry Group to advocate for change, identify stressors and provide practical support tools.
This animation is a sequel to a video released in 2024 which depicts a forestry worker quietly crumbling under the mounting pressures of his work as a contractor. From failing machinery to unrealistic demands from clients and financial pressures, the issues depicted in the story reflected the daily realities of the sector captured in the Breaking Points Survey.
