Saturday 14th March 2026
Our third year of the Wood Chop Challenge – open to all volunteers
How it works and when
We hold four volunteer residentials throughout the year at Hazel Hill Wood. This is our Spring residential and a challenge to kick-start the rest of the year!
For those who want to wake up in the wood, ready to go, we’ll gather for an evening meal on Friday 13th March, after our usual Friday volunteer day. Then we’ll get started on Saturday morning and keep going through the weekend to build up as much firewood stock as we can! Exact timings will be published in 2026.
The main activities are, unsurprisingly, chopping and stacking wood. However, for those who would like something a little lighter to do, we have plenty of ways to contribute, including kindling collection and creation, as well as learning how to make sustainable firelighters. If you’re interested in joining, we’d love to hear from you!
For those who wish to stay overnight, we offer rooms and hot, shared meals, on Friday and Saturday night. Accommodation will mostly be shared rooms, as there will be lots of us in the wood. If you’re interested in joining the cooking team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
How the Wood Chop Challenge started (and why)
We started the Wood Chop Challenge to achieve two objectives: to fill a funding gap during a challenging year and to revitalise our regenerative wood harvesting, chopping, splitting and seasoning practices to keep our guests warm.
We discovered that many of our wonderful volunteers absolutely loved chopping wood! Following feedback, we’ve decided not to ask volunteers to raise sponsorship, as they’re already doing so much to support us just by being involved, whether that’s chopping wood, sorting, stacking or the vital task of keeping everybody going with meals, snacks and hot drinks!
However, we hope that this event can continue to sustain itself, as we offer accommodation and meals at no charge in exchange for the amazing work our volunteers do during this high-intensity weekend. If you’re able to help us fund this activity, please get in touch, or consider donating here.
This is one of four weekends we offer for our volunteers throughout the year, and a lovely opportunity for staff and volunteers to gather around a shared aim in the wood. This is the only event where we decided to introduce a challenge element!
Want to volunteer with us? Schedule a chat with the team
Sustainable, regenerative, collaborative
Surely we love trees – why chop them down? We do love trees! We also understand that effective woodland management sometimes involves thinning trees to give all members of the ecosystem a chance to thrive.
Being off-grid and surrounded by numerous trees means our most sustainable way of keeping guests warm and comfortable is to utilise wood-burning stoves and biomass boilers. Actually, it’s beyond sustainable – it’s regenerative.
Gathering round the fire for warmth, community, connection, and sharing food and stories is a profoundly human urge and one of the favourite parts of so many people’s experience here.
At the same time, following a cycle of tree thinning and rotational clearing creates a range of habitats that supports maximum species diversity. That helps the remaining trees to grow healthily with more light and space.
Booking link coming soon!
In the meantime, you can register as a volunteer, get involved and receive updates from Lauren by signing up via email.
Some photos from our 2024 & 2025 Challenges 🙂
