Claire Whittle is now very well known in the regenerative agriculture sphere - she has a significant presence on social media and talks both vocally and passionately about natural systems and managing animals as naturally as possible - indeed this comes across as soon as you get into conversation. Claire trained as a vet and worked until recently in standard veterinary roles but became aware of the limitations of drug based therapies through her study of dung beetles. These small animals are so important to soil health and the cycling of nutrients yet are often missing on farms due to over medication and our now standard use of drugs and other chemicals on farms. Claire now practices as the "Regen Vet" advising on more natural approaches to pasture and animal management.

In summer 2025 Tree Amble was invited to the Finnish Island of Aland to meet with a group of people trying to safeguard and restore the traditional wood pastures on the island through regenerative practices. The project, run by Patricia Wiklund and her colleagues, is aimed at bringing farmers together to learn and discuss regen techniques and to look at ways of re-evaluating their traditional pastures in a modern way. They still have extremely biodiverse pastures scattered around more intensive farms. Whilst in Aland we met with farmers, project managers, the water company, foresters, chefs and Jenni who is promoting food tourism. We came away with 4 Tree Amble podcasts - this first one is with Patricia, Romy and Jenni.

The fourth of our mini series talking with the team who manage Epping Forest - a 6000 acre ancient woodland which sits cheek by jowl with the City of London. The forest stretches from the core of the city right out to the M25. Now it also has an area called the Borderlands where there is potential to create a new forest extension and its here that we meet and talk with Tanith Cook who heads the conservation team for Epping Forest. We discuss the potential for landscape and nature enhancements in the Border Lands.