Helen Leaf

Helen is deeply connected with trees, as an educator, verifier for the Ancient Tree Inventory and writer. She is passionate about ancient trees, and helps bring this knowledge into a more common understanding. It is through the work with trees that she encountered wild bee colonies, at first finding them interesting, then recognising their significance. This has become one of the focuses of her work, monitoring multiple wild colonies in her local forest as an ongoing project.

A time as a conventional beekeeper in the past was useful, but, an understanding of wild, free living bees has changed, expanded and enriched this, and continues to do so. Her journey with bees is one of openness and learning and embraces a holistic, life-centred overview.

'Trees call me to the forest, and to a learning of their lives. Bees call me to understand their lives. In this, my own life is enriched, as is my connection to the earth and commitment to being a voice for things which have no human language. The sense I have is that I'm a kind of double ambassador, linking bee people and tree people.

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