After the news of the death of a Royal Forestry Society (RFS) member, forestry professionals were prompted to come together and advocate for better well-being, identify industry-related stressors, and provide useful tools and interventions to help with the formation of the Wellbeing in Forestry Group in 2024.
According to Samaritans and the Office for National Statistics, men aged 45-54 have been found to have the highest suicide rate, which comes as a significant concern to the forestry sector where a large proportion of the workforce is male and fall into this high risk group, says the RFS.
In 2025, the Wellbeing in Forestry Group, including the RFS and supported by the Forestry Commission, commissioned the Breaking Point survey to identify the key stressors felt by people working across the forestry sector. At the centre stands Nick Adams, who talks publicly about mental health, from his own experiences to others around him. A forestry contractor and policy committee vice-chair at the Forestry Contracting Association, he has spearheaded the campaign with the RFS since experiencing debilitating pressures firsthand.
“From my point of view, where there are financial or health and safety concerns, stress and pressure piles up,” says Adams. Stressors can come from late payments, chasing payments, deadlines and landlord pressures. “I always say, ‘s**t rolls downhill, and we’re at the bottom’,” he explains, as forestry workers, landowners and arboriculture industry professionals often find themselves six feet under. In response, the report and overall campaign looks to find solutions that can help those struggling.
“My own experiences in recent times have hardly been a bed of roses. If talking about it helps highlight the issues, then so be it, I’ll do my best.”
The facts
The report has collected data from 538 professionals last year, including forestry contractors, arborists, manual forestry workers and forest managers. Among arborists, 92% report safety risks as a primary stressor and 56%, the highest of any role group, report emotional or mental health struggles. Overall, 76% were found to cite financial issues as their top stressor, while only 43% have someone they trust to talk to about anxieties.
It also found that 44% reported explicit mental health struggles and 35% reported chronic burnout. The report finds that stress in the sector is often “cyclical and self-reinforcing,” where financial pressure leads to poor safety decisions and chronic burnout. “A lack of spaces to talk and a cultural resistance to vulnerability means problems go unaddressed,” says the RFS.
Adams explains:
“Enough is enough. Someone has to stand up and bring it [mental health] to the forefront. We need it to be highlighted. We need people not to be so scared of it. We need to create solutions for financial pressures. So it's highlighting it, but mostly it's finding a way around it to solve the you know the core of these problems, the core of what's causing this poor mental health.”
A year on
Iwan Lloyd-Williams joins Adams in highlighting these concerns. The pair are often featured in the RFS ‘Gone Foresting’ podcast, a space where forestry professionals can listen along to advice, research and insight, hosted by Elle McAllister.
In the most recent episode, McAllister, Adams and Lloyd-Williams are joined by forestry professional and Say it With Wood co-owner Toby Allen and RFS chief executive Chris Williams to discuss the campaign a year on. The episode sees the guests reflect on what has been done, what they’ve learnt and what is still yet to come.
In light of helping the industry understand and recognise mental health, the RFS has published several accessible graphics that provide easy to digest information that recognises real problems. In September 2025, the campaign published an animation which addresses the importance of thoughtful communication underneath a mountain of pressures - because you never truly know what someone is going through.
The society’s campaign also saw the release of an animation in July which sheds light on the experience of tree workers when the public respond negatively to essential forestry work.
Over the past year, the campaign has exposed and addressed the harsh realities of working within forestry. Arguably one of the most topical conversations across the industry right now, the campaign aspires to grow even bigger to address mental health as a whole, recognise concerns and create solutions to help those close to the edge.
