JB Gill's Letter

Dear Ace and Chiara,

There’s a saying I love, “A society grows great when old people plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.”

When you’re a bit older and reading this letter, I hope you will love this saying too. It might make you think of the trees at the bottom of our garden now, or the woodland walks we loved during homeschool.

When you’re older, you’ll know that that saying is about doing something today for a better tomorrow.

Acting right now can be hard to do when it often feels like there’s something more pressing. But we’re already seeing the need to act on climate change, so I’m doing my bit now to speak up, to make a difference for now and for the future.

I hope as older kids and as adults, you’ll see the impact because people in power listened. I hope you will look back and see your ‘old man’ (dad!), tried to do his bit: making sure the woodland we love is still there for you as adults; planting new trees for your generation’s children and grandchildren to sit under; reminding the wider world of just how much we rely on nature.

And I hope you’ll pick up the fight as well. My two beautiful children, both such different characters but both full of a similar energy and determination as your parents.

I’m doing my bit to try to make sure the world is a better place for you. I know you’ll do even more to change it.

Love,
Dad

JB GILL
JLS member and now farmer and countryside educator. JB is an ambassador for the Woodland Trust.