by Erica Shorter
Imagine standing in an ancient, thriving forest, feeling damp moss and leaves beneath your feet, the warm dappled sunlight shining through the canopy far above you, you hear bird song and the sound of a stream gently flowing. You see a flash of movement and know that you share this forest with many creatures. You smell wood smoke, and along a path you see the fire within a circle of Oaks. You know that this circle, this forest, was planted long ago by ancestors who loved you, who dreamed this life of health and happiness for you, and planted that dream with these trees in the ground. They tended the forest as it grew, becoming at home once again amongst the trees, receiving their food and medicine and remembering how to share their human gifts as generous members of the family of nature once again.
As we plant Children’s Forests we hold this vision of a bright and healthy future for all, knowing that as humans we have enormous capacity for connection and so much to bring when we live in balanced and respectful relationship with the wider family of nature. We are incredibly supported on our human journey by the trees, they offer deep generosity in so many ways. Trees breathe with us cleaning the air, they create and hold rich healthy soil so that clear waters may flow and that plants may grow, they give us wood for our fires and homes, they provide food and shelter, stability and wisdom. The wisdom and guidance of the trees has been passed to us by our ancestors through the Ogham, an ancient alphabet drawn from the gifts of the trees.
In 2024 Children’s Forest shared a crowdfunder selling Ogham Tree Cards which had been created in a collaboration between Children’s Forest, Yannik Dubois at Forestheart and Oak Tree Press, to raise money to plant and grow trees with children. It feels so right that the ancestral wisdom of the Ogham is supporting a connected and healthy world for the future generations via those of us Children’s Forest; Planting a Brighter Future by Erica Shorter who are taking our turn tending the earth right now.
We send our heartfelt thanks to the OBOD community for your incredible support, and share our delight and gratitude to be alongside an organisation with so many shared values; reverence for trees, ancestors and the myriad gifts of the world around us, seen and unseen. We would love to share a little more about Children’s Forest and some of the planting projects that have been funded directly by the sale of the Ogham cards.
Children’s Forest is an organisation supporting children and their communities to connect with nature and to plant and tend forests for the future generations. Our vision is for a vibrant and healthy future where trees planted now can one day become ancient forests to benefit the children of all species. The trees are planted around a Children’s Fire which is an ancient pledge to place the well being of the future generations at the center of all decisions made around the fire. As we plant trees with the children we also plant connection and care, a sense of the trees as our lifelong companions and our belonging in nature as our birth right. As the forests grow, communities gather regularly to tend the young trees creating thriving habitats, and strengthening connections with the human community and wider
ecosystem.
Born from the Forest School movement, we recognise the huge importance of creativity and connection to the natural world, to know we are part of nature, and to recognise that as humans we have a beneficial role to play in our ecosystems. Right now it is more important than ever to hear positive stories of the future to orientate to and be inspired by. It’s vital for us to be able to take practical action to care for the earth, recognising that we have a rich history of connection, reciprocity and wisdom to draw upon and be supported by as we move forward in meaningful connection with the world around us.
A Children’s Forest is planted in a 4 Step Process:
Step 1 – Connection: we take time to connect with a mature woodland, playing games, foraging, singing, making fire and shelters, and experiencing ourselves as part of nature. Our human instinct to care for and love the world around us is enlivened with this deep sense of belonging.
Step 2 – Imagination: Our human gift of imagination is precious and powerful. Everything that is created is imagined first, and it benefits us all to imagine a healthy bright future. Through storytelling, painting, group poetry, and many other creative mediums we imagine a bright future for those to come. When we remember the ancestors and engage in future generational thinking we re-align ourselves with indigenous ways of tending the earth with foresight and responsibility and
guidance.
Step 3 – Planting: We plant the trees first in a sacred grove around the Children’s Fire with 8 trees marking the 8 directions. Each child writes a wish for the forest on a scroll of birch bark which is placed with the roots of the first tree they plant. When the trees have been planted, we play music and dance, welcoming the trees roots to the earth and celebrating the new forest before singing the Tree Blessing Song.
Step 4 – Tending: The children and wider community meet at least 3 times a year. They tend the trees and create habitat for the creatures who will live in the forest. The growing community share ancestral skills such as fire making or foraging. They sing to the trees, light the Children’s fire, play games and perhaps share a potluck, building intergenerational and interspecies communities.
Supported by the Ogham crowdfunder we have already planted 616 trees in 5 new Children’s Forest Projects with 231 people!
We have begun a Forest From Seed at School project which is an exciting and innovative way for children to engage with Children’s Forest while at school. At Danehill School the young children have begun to gather seeds, plant them, and grow young trees in their tree nursery, ready to be planted in a Children’s Forest.
We planted the first Medicinal Children’s Forest at Wowo Campsite in Sussex, encircled by a Medicine Hedge. These two projects were planted with 6 groups of children and their parents with Sacred Seeds Herbal Home Ed. The trees were chosen for their medicinal properties and planted by families who gather throughout the year to learn to forage and make food and medicine together. As we planted the young trees we gave gratitude for their gifts and the children imagined the future generations harvesting the berries and fruits to make medicines in the years to come. This medicine forest was planted with wild cherry, bird cherry, lime, juniper, sea buckthorn, wild rose, hawthorn, elder, guelder rose, wild apple, pine, rowan, holly, oak and hazel.
A Children’s Forest was planted at Willingstone Farm in Devon with the Stone Age Club Forest School. The land is thought to have been a special place of pilgrimage for thousands of years, due to a magnificent granite rock formation on the land and its attributed sacred meanings. The Willingstone Rock is in the centre of an ancient landscape surrounded in all directions by bronze and iron age hillforts, burial sites and sacred sites including a large stone circle. We took the children
up onto a central promontory where we could see for many miles in every direction, and together we envisioned the new woodland. They planted Oak, Birch, Hawthorn, Hazel, Guelder Rose, Walnut, Small Leaved Lime, Wild Cherry, Elder, Rowan, Sweet Chestnut and Juniper.
Hartfield Field Community Orchard was planted in the spring and is the first Children’s Forest community orchard project. The children from the local primary school were excited to plant fruit trees that they could harvest in the coming years. They planted Pear, Plum, Wild Apple, Damson, Strawberry Tree, Wild Service, Small Leaved Lime amongst many others.
It is an honour and pleasure to plant future forests with children, with the ancestors and future generations in our hearts. We are very grateful for your
support.
With Special thanks to River Jones and Philip Carr-Gomm who run the School of Celebrancy and have supported this work in many hearty ways over the years, including with regular donations.
If you are interested in planting a Children’s Forest on your land or supporting this work please get in touch at connect@childrensforest.earth and visit our website www.childrensforest.earth. The beautiful cards were created by Yannik Dubois at www.forestheart.co.uk
With gratitude and love from Erica Shorter and the Hearthwood Team.
How to connect with us:
Website: https://childrensforest.earth/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childrensforest.earth/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/childrensforests
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@childrensforest
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