1,000-year project to nurture green shoots of forest recovery

A “ONE thousand year project” that aims to restore the forests of Northern England is taking place at Manchester School of Art.

Dr David Haley, Senior Research Fellow at the School, is an ecological artist who explores our relation to the world and our continued survival as a species through artistic means.

Trees of Grace considers ways in which the existing forests, such as the Red Rose Forest and Mersey Forest, could be networked to completely change our notion of “urban” living.

Rather than having token green spaces in cities and towns, Dr Haley argues, we should be thinking about having cities within the forests. He foresees a time when climate change will lead to extreme environments and the breakdown of the civic system, and says that “forest living” could provide a viable way for populations to survive.

Changing entire landscapes

The project is designed to last for 1,000 year as this is the period it takes for a forest to go through two “successions”. It takes 500 years for an entire forest to come to complete maturity.

Dr Haley said: “You can change entire landscapes quite easily – if you think about going in the opposite direction, the most biologically rich area in the North of England was Bellevue but we built Commonwealth Stadium on it.

“Instead we should have considered the biodiversity and even enhanced it.

“MMU’s development at Birley Fields goes some way towards addressing these problems – if every time there was a new development we actively increased the forestation and biodiversity, we could start to meet carbon emissions targets and increase the biodiversity that we currently very much need because of climate change.”

“Working on an environmental timescale”

So how does it feel for Dr Haley to have launched a project that he can only ever hope to see a tiny fraction of before his own death?

Dr Haley said: “When you are dealing with the environment, you have to work on an environmental timescale, not a human one.

“This is about living within our depleted natural resources, so we have to increase those resources now and into the future. We have to change our perspective on time as well as space – that’s something artists do.

“Future generations will have to value ecological growth as the primary driver for economic growth, so it will be in everyone’s interest to promote forests as one way of doing this. Forests naturally promote biodiversity, absorb carbon, generate freshwater, minimise flooding, produce food and building materials. That’s why people will want to carry this project on, long after I’m gone.”

Looking to the future

For the time being, Dr Haley hopes to “encourage planners and architects to actually think long-term and at the level of the forest.”

This includes allowing space for large trees such as oak, sycamore and chestnut, rather than small decorative trees, like silver birch and elder. Dr Haley added that we also need to consider planting species (even non-natives) that will survive climate change conditions as they grow into the future.

Initial funding for the project came from the Environment Agency, and it was commissioned by Gaia Projects.

Dr Haley is also working with community arts projects around Manchester, as well as arts companies and galleries across the city to organise events for now… and the future.