If you watched BBC1 at 7.35pm on Saturday 4 September you may have seen the Forest’s moment of fame in the National Lottery Award’s Best Lottery Funded Environmental Projectcategory. In a show fronted by shiny-jacketed Torchwood star John Barrowman, in which the Forest’s representative twelve staff, volunteers and trustees were glimpsed only briefly, decked out in their finest bib and tucker, we failed to romp away with the top prize.

A disappointment certainly; but the winning entry, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust were always going to provide strong competition. It was a big effort to spread the word in two rounds of voting through the summer of 2010. In the process we have received strong support and words of encouragement from organisations large and small, partners, politicians, sponsors and most of all from members of the public who like what the Forest is all about and are happy to help. It’s been a rewarding if time-consuming process.

We don’t know how many votes we received in the final round but are proud to have got that far and hope you were pleased to see a Bedfordshire finalist on Saturday night telly. It’s not often we get a minute on prime time BBC TV and that’s good enough for the time being.

We’re going to win next time!