In 1997, after four years of negotiation with the Highways Agency, a licence to use the land as a public amenity was granted to Tarvin Parish Council. A sub-committee was appointed by the parish council to create the woodland amenity at no cost to the council. The sub-committee planted the first commemorative trees on 11th November 1997 to honour those who lost their lives in World Wars I and II from within the village. Since then, many families, individuals, and organisations in the village have planted several hundred more commemorative oak and other native hardwood trees.

Working with guidance from the Forestry Commission, the now-closed National Wildflower Centre at Knowsley, and the now-closed Cheshire Landscape Trust, the Tarvin Community Woodland Trust has managed—and will continue to manage—a long-term environmental scheme to further develop the area into a natural open woodland consisting solely of native flora and fauna. All work is done on a voluntary basis. The core group, with the assistance of over forty others, including the local youth club and the Trust for Conservation Volunteers (TCV), has developed, managed, and maintained the area. This vision was that of the late Jim Grogan, who foresaw that the strip of land could have been developed for housing. Jim also had a long-term vision that one day the woodland might stretch from the A54/A51 roundabout to Austin’s Hill at the southerly extreme of the village.

In June 2009, Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council (the highway authority and the then-current landowner) and the Trust signed a 125-year lease for a peppercorn rent. Over 100 members of the community were present to celebrate when the 125-year lease was formally presented to the Trust on Saturday, 12th September by Councillor Neil Ritchie, Environment Portfolio Holder and Deputy Lord Mayor of Chester. He also unveiled one of the recently installed finger posts, now that the footpath is a statutory right of way. Present from other organisations were several people who had enabled and assisted the project over the previous twelve years. Cllr Ritchie also presented a contribution towards a long-term project—the removal of non-native trees and their replacement with native species.

In 2015, Taylor Wimpey proposed building a housing estate adjacent to the by-pass between Broomheath Lane and Austin’s Hill. The Trust worked successfully with Taylor Wimpey, local planners, and landowners to achieve a project that met everyone’s requirements: a housing development that benefits from a woodland strip along the by-pass, linking to the existing woodland.

In 2016, the Trust became a not-for-profit “company limited by guarantee” and took ownership, for a nominal sum, of both the freeholds from Cheshire West and Chester Borough Council and Taylor Wimpey. The enlarged woodland now belongs to the community, and the articles of the company, a registered charity, are written to make any land sale subject to 100% agreement by the membership.

The woodland is now a very well-used public amenity with a central footpath running through open woodland, meadow, and wildflower areas. This is an amenity created and used by the community, with full access for people with disabilities.