A Week of Tree Kindness

As part of the Urban Tree Festival, Climate Museum UK have been asked to share ideas for Acts of Tree Kindness that people can try out over the coming week (Saturday 16th to Sunday 24th May) and, hopefully, build into daily life beyond the festival.

By ‘tree kindness’ we mean two things: Practical ways of supporting trees to survive and thrive in an urban setting; and ways that we might come to know and appreciate trees as living, sentient beings in their own right. Trees are living beings that provide oxygen, help reduce air pollution, offer food, shade and habitats for other plants and animals.

Here’s a taste of what we will be offering over the coming days…[This is now past, and has been edited to insert links from each day’s activities]

• Saturday 16th May: Creative Noticing
• Sunday 17th May: Words and Stories
• Monday 18th May: Food and Water
• Tuesday 19th May: Making Space for Trees
• Wednesday 20th May: Homes and Habitats
• Thursday 21st May: Growing Food
• Friday 22nd May: Trees as Sentient Beings
• Saturday 23rd May: Celebration
• Sunday 24th May: Planting and Protection

For further inspiration, visit the Beuysterous project set up by our Founding Director Bridget McKenzie:

‘Beuysterous is about sharing artistic actions to do with trees, that will help people and places be resilient (or creatively boisterous) in the face of climate change.’

How Trees Came to Be

Before you move on to look at Saturday’s post on Creative Noticing, we’d like to share this story with you, read by British Storyteller Rebecca Leach McDonald. Beckie will be returning in next Saturday’s post to share another tree-related story with you.

How Trees Came To Be is a Maori creation myth from New Zealand:

Please listen to the story and think of your favourite tree. How are these trees born? Do they grow from seeds or nuts? How old is this species of tree? How did it evolve?

If you’d like to, research your tree and make a picture, or write a story, of it being born. See tomorrow‘s Creative Noticing post for more ideas.

Young members of our Museum team, Seamus Coyne-Bailey and Meg McKenzie have put together a collection of films about trees and forests. Most are free to watch online and are deeply inspiring about ecology, tree planting and the meaning of trees.

Keep in touch with us on social media during the week. Share your #ActsofTreeKindness with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and help us to make the world a kinder place, one act at a time.