LEAF!

Common Ground is working with the Woodland Trust to create LEAF!, a series of seasonal newspapers celebrating the cultural and practical relationship between trees and communities.

Throughout 2016 we will be sharing tree stories, art, poetry, articles, tree maps, and ideas to help get us all talking about and celebrating the trees in our parks, orchards, allotments, woods, copses, spinneys and forests. Our first issue is bursting with stories inspired by the spring instinct to build nests. Birds, bats, bees, people: all make their homes with trees. Branches, sticks, trunks, forks, hollows: these are the raw materials that animals and people use for building places to shelter in and raise their young.

There has never been a more urgent time to reawaken our consciousness and re-articulate the benefits and connections between trees and people. The Charter for Trees, Woods and People is a reminder: by putting trees back into the forefront of our imagination and our daily lives, we are also keeping them in our landscapes. Across the UK, volunteer-led groups called Charter Branches are springing up to connect people with the trees and woods in their communities. These groups will ensure that every person in the UK has the opportunity to help define the new charter, and to stand up for the trees and woods in their lives by becoming a ‘Charter Champion’. This is our chance to become part of history, and to help create a future for the UK in which trees and people are stronger together. Start a Charter Branch in your area.

We would like you to join us by telling us why trees and woods are important to you and your community. Is there a special tree in your neighbourhood? Do you have a cherished woodland that you walk in with your family and friends? Do you have a favourite tree, one that you or children climb and build dens beneath? Or is there an heirloom at home that was cut, carved, whittled, sculpted from wood? We would like receive your stories, maps and artworks so we can add your voice to the Charter for Trees, Woods and People and publish them in forthcoming issues of LEAF! If you would like share your tree stories please get in touch with Common Ground or the Woodland Trust.

If you can help circulate copies of LEAF! in your community, please do get in touch. Digital copies are also available to download below.