Blog: Land Trust Chief Executive, Euan Hall, writes of pride at charity's response to challenges posed by Covid-19

The last few weeks have been some of the most challenging that the Land Trust has had to endure in our near 16 year existence, as the whole world has had to deal with the enormous challenge posed by Covid-19.

Like so many organisations, we have had to change the way we operate with all of us now working from home, taking a different approach to how we manage our green spaces in order to keep them open, and delivering social value for the communities who live and work close to our sites.

At times like this, I think it’s important to look for silver linings and reasons to stay positive. Over the last few weeks I’ve been immensely proud of the positive impact the Land Trust has played and the huge contribution we have made to people’s emotional and physical wellbeing during this very difficult time for us all.

We’ve had to react to government advice when required in order to ensure that people are able to use our spaces safely and practice the appropriate social distancing guidelines, but with a few exceptions, we’ve managed to keep all our green spaces open for our communities to be able to use to take their daily exercise.

For years we’ve talked about the positive impact of spending time outdoors on people’s emotional and physical well-being. We know it – and the evidence is there to back it up – and I think everyone in society intrinsically knows how good it is for us. But it’s not until there is a risk of it being taken away that we realise just how much we appreciate the great outdoors and the huge part it plays in all of our lives.

Looking back to when the Land Trust was first established in 2004 I never anticipated something like this occurring – who could have done – but it’s exactly the reason the Trust was established. To help our communities in their times of need. We remain absolutely committed to keeping our sites open for people to use for as long as Government and scientific advice enables us to do so.

As we go into the Easter weekend I urge all of you to enjoy your time outdoors, but to do so responsibly and not put yourselves and others at risk. The more vigilantly everyone follows government advice the sooner we can get through this challenge and get back to using our green spaces as they should be, with our friends and our families.