A tree planting initiative activating children’s imagination and sense of stewardship is seeking supporters

It’s a muggy summer’s afternoon on a farm in rural Sussex and thirty children and several adults have gathered in a newly-mown circle round a central hearth, surrounded by rings of young trees.  When prompted, little offerings are made, the children are encouraged to come forward with silent or vocalised wishes for the forest they hope these young trees to be a part of.  There’s an air of excitement around the circle – these children have been here before.

What distinguishes this group from any other engaged in tree planting is that they are being co-ordinated and led by the Children’s Forest project – an initiative that has much more to it than simply putting the trees in the ground.  The project takes the children on a four-step journey of experiencing actual living woods, imagining how a future forest may look, articulating this with artwork, plays or poetry and letting this inform their wishes as they do the actual planting.

The act of imagining in particular is crucial for the project’s ethos – in this time of climate anxiety, children are encouraged to picture a healthy, abundant natural world and work towards it practically, in the knowledge that a strong mental image of an outcome helps to make its realisation all the stronger and more likely to transpire.  This approach also allows for creative imagination to activate future generational thinking.

Children’s Forest has been running for a few years now and is going from strength to strength, with a grant from an ITV fundraiser competition in particular helping fund the set-up of tree nurseries using seeds gathered locally.  There are now thirteen Children’s Forests throughout the land, from Cumbria to Cornwall, with most centred in the South East and Sussex in particular.

The project was instigated by Forest School teacherAnna Richardson who has spent the last twenty years working with children and as a teacher of bushcraft skills, specialising in the uses of plants for medicine and food, mentored by archaeobotanist Gordon Hillman. As a Forest School teacher she has worked with children of all ages from toddlers to teens, often in Steiner-based settings.  In these sessions there was always a great emphasis on getting to know a place and its trees; their uses for food, shelter, medicine, fire.

But the question kept on coming back to her: how could she and the children give back to the forest that gave them so much?  There was the obvious boon of helping children and participants value and connect with the natural world and thereby be that much more disposed to look after it, but what more could they give in a tangible sense?  After all, she noticed the effect on the land that they used – issues of wear of the vegetative life, compaction of the woodland soil.  Where was the reciprocity?

Coupled with this was the issue of land access.  It was not always easy to find land to run forest school sessions on.  But there were plenty of landowners – why might they not want to have children accompanied by adults on their land?  What was stopping them?

These were the practical considerations from which Children’s Forest was established.  But there was a philosophical element too.  Anna’s studies of ancestral skills informed her that all indigenous peoples carried a sense of belonging to nature and the need to care for it on a daily basis – it was in their interests to look after and to some extent help propagate the plants they relied on.  All this was built into their way of relating to the natural world.  It’s something she believes we consciously need to bring back into our culture today.

As part of this cultural shift, the Children’s Forest wants children to have experience of themselves as guardians and caretakers.  It provides an opportunity for a lived experience of sacred reciprocity – combining the need for not only ecological restoration but also cultural restoration as part of the process. It is quite clear that if we don’t restore our culture to one of nature connection we are going to carry on making the same mistakes – the two have to be worked on in tandem.

One element of cultural restoration the project incorporates is the concept of the Children’s Fire.  When each of these special hearths are inaugurated they are done with a pledge to consider future generations.  The first circle of each Children’s Forest is planted round one of these fires, the children making wishes for future generations as the fire is lit.  It helps to dedicate both the space and the participants’ purpose, adding a much deeper element that helps with the intention to work with the spirit of the place and keep clear the aim to serve the children and the forests yet to be.

As the Children’s Forest began to work with children to plant trees in the ground, a committed team have gathered to bring this project to fruition. This has enabled the vision and breadth of the project to grow with the hearts and skillsets of those involved, including permaculture teachers, nature educators, health care professionals, artists and woodland specialists.

To return to the role of landowners, CF actively seeks their participation in the process, asking of them an honourable pledge that they will protect the planted trees on their land and ensure the next owners agree to do the same should the land be sold.  In return, the forests are cared for by the children and their mentors, with aftercare such as watering, mulching, weeding and removing tree guards.  The children get a place in which they can be taught in and potentially return to in the future with their own children and grandchildren.  The landowners can be involved in the ensuing community which also includes the children’s mentors and parents who can return to the Children’s Forests on a regular basis.

The project is actively looking for landowners to host forests.  Suitable land is generally a minimum of an acre and surveyed to be shown as suitable for the tree planting, which takes place around a central hearth.  This area can be expanded over time.  As a diverse example, Leasowe Farm in Leamington has planted over 3000 trees with several local schools and adult mental health groups.Children’s Forest then brings together a Forest School leader and group of children either from a local school or local community group to help plant the trees.  Forest School leaders can also train with Children’s Forest at Facilitator’s courses.

There is great scope for working with sympathetic landowners and other individuals.  Biodynamic farms are great examples of this with two local Children’s Forestsin Sussex being run on such land: Sacred Earth in Horam and Colin Godman’s Farm in Nutley.  Biodynamic cattle are raised and the training courses are held on the latter.  Most forests are so far on private farms that have heard of the initiative through word of mouth.  There are now many independent projects working under their own volition and in their own way.

Biodynamic farms are the perfect environment for the forests.  As well as the farms’ emphasis on meeting the needs of their wider community in a way that encompasses more than just the provision of food, the intention of working with the spirit of the land and other influences are very much in line with Children’s Forest’s ethos, working as they do with an awareness of weather patterns and blessing the land and trees with offerings and song.  If that sounds abstract, such activities have a profound effect on the children, who come away energised and inspired.

Lulu Guinness of The Heugh in Lannercost put it like this: “I’m really lucky as a landowner to have an opportunity to care, to give something back and also to give to the future. It’s so much more than just planting trees, having this whole educational element where the children are really understanding the importance of tending and maintaining and being in relationship with the woodland is such a wider vision for bringing this land back into balance.”

Biodynamic principles of working with open-pollinated, heirloom and non-GMO seeds are also reflected in CF’s work, with a key element of their activities being the establishment of tree nurseries seeking to use local seeds that are inherently more resilient and suited to their immediate environment. Set up by permaculture teacher and nature mentor Pippa Johns, these nurseries can also be key elements in the involvement in schools – the planting of forests on school land can be problematic in terms of granting access to visiting participants in future years.  Any school can set up a tree nursery and they can be a wonderful focus for the children with the obvious opportunities to learn about the trees augmented by the element of lending practical help and engagement.

The establishment of such nurseries – CF’s ‘Forest from Seed’ funding drive mentioned above was one aspect of this – is an excellent example of the reciprocity at the heart of the project.  Early propagation and care of saplings holds huge potential for how humans can help foster tree life.  Accounting for grazing and pestilence, one oak will often produce very few other mature trees in its lifetime whereas, with the help of nurseries, trees that reach maturity can be expanded at the very least a thousand-fold.

Children’s Forest are looking for people who feel sympathetic to its principles to approach landowners, schools, home-education groups and nature-based educators to establish new forests and their supportive communities.  They are also reaching out to businesses and philanthropists with a passion for the welfare of children and the environment to help make new forests possible.  Also contact from those who can raise the profile of the organisation through media work or approaching high profile individuals and being sought.

Back in Sussex, the children mulch the trees.  It’s kind of a party; people play fiddles, flutes and the kids are in their element, splitting off into little groups to fill wheelbarrows of wet woodchip to place around each tree guard.  They planted this forest a year ago and this is one of many return visits to the site where they build up some sense of connection, some sense of their own instrumentality in the welfare of these saplings.  And they know that in the days after they leave school they can return here.  It fosters a sense of constancy that takes its cue from nature herself; a reminder that, in our care for her, we are living up to how we’re meant to be.

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This article originally appeared in the Autumn 2023 issue of Star and Furrow magazine.