Individual Stories from our research team
Our Branching Out research is collecting stories about treescapes of the present and future through citizen panels in our key cities of Cardiff, York and Milton Keynes. We also wanted our research team to tell a treescape story and be creative thinking about the past, present or future, and something real or imaginative.
The stories included very personal perspectives as well as stories told from the standpoint of trees and birds; as well as current and future focused stories envisioning change and transformation.
The themes associated with our stories included:
Connections with and the value of treescapes – Feelings of joy were associated with treescapes, as well as them being places to find solace. One story talking about ‘finding the healing power of nature’s embrace’ in a grove of plane trees near an ancient river. In one story people expressed gratitude for a banyan tree throughout its life as a village and then city grew up around it, it was conserved and had a natural death at the end of a long life.
Decisions and questions – What to do - enjoy a fruit tree with inedible fruit or replace it with another tree, and if so what type of tree? Why did a neighbour want to trim my conifer tree as it encroached on their space, but not the broadleaf tree that replaced it that grew much bigger. We may never know! How can I save a tree I value? So many questions.
Worries and concerns – Tree diseases, the loss of trees and the pollarding or trimming of trees raised concerns for the trees that did not want to catch the disease another tree was showing signs of and struggling to survive. Birds had to move on when trees were pollarded to find another safe place to rest and talk. People started to notice trees more due to loss and change and saw that they were vulnerable.
Generational connections – All the family have a tree story with a grandson saying hi to the tree his grandfather planted at school. The tree was an important part of learning in school about maths, geography and other subjects. The long-standing impact of the loss of the Sycamore Gap tree led in the future to a creative tree burial performance and despite some controversy that arose it led onto the development of tree burials.
Moving from despair to hope – A future flood, the loss of trees for various reasons bring despair. However, a huge tree survives to become a place of refuge and a new city in the sky, people climb up through the branches to a new beginning. The loss of a loved one but the planting of a seed from the tree they saw from hospital provides treasured memories.
Our stories cover contemporary and future concerns about treescapes and highlight why they are valued. The research team valued the opportunity to use the same methods that we are using with our citizens as they tell us about treescapes of the present and future. It led onto the team developing stories as a group – so do catch our next blog.
