Evaluation can be objective yet still make an impact on the evaluators.

We are working on a few landscape scale projects at the moment, including the Long Forest and Elan Links programmes. Given we are not the types of evaluators that just turn up and observe, we like to get our hands dirty and work alongside the volunteers. That has led to planting lots of trees for the Long Forest project and even having a go at hedgelaying (not our strong point!)

This has really made an impression on our director, Alun. Since getting involved in Long Forest, he has bored his family with facts about hedges and joined the Woodland Trust. However, the Broadleaf magazine which comes with membership has gone down well not only with him but with his sons too. The autumn feature on hedgehogs really got everyone interested. So thanks @HeritageLottery for funding these projects. Not only can we report objectively that these projects are delivering success, we can also say they are from first hand experience too.