Giant eye planting begins
The Forest Eye Project aims to create the largest living forest feature in England by growing 5,000 alder, beech and maple trees into the shape of a child’s eye. The trees are being planted in Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire, with the help of local young people. The trees will form an eye 300 metres wide that will be visible from the sky in about six years, when they have grown.
The project hopes to focus on the importance of young people’s ideas for creating a healthy, natural environment. It was designed by a company called Sand in Your Eye and has been created by Forestry England, an organisation that protects forests and woodlands.
Josephine Lavelle, director at Forestry England, says, “Having the gaze of a child growing in the heart of this beautiful and ever-changing forest is a powerful symbol of how we need to listen and respond to the needs and vision of future generations.”
The project also aims to highlight the important role that forests play in fighting climate change. As well as providing a home for wildlife, trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and create oxygen that humans need to breathe. When the trees have grown, they will provide a place for lots of wild animals, like bats, birds and small mammals, to live. The Forest Eye will also create a space for people to explore and connect with nature.
Jamie Wardley, artistic director at Sand in Your Eye, has plenty of experience creating pieces of “land art”. These are huge drawings and sculptures made from grass, ice and sand, including a 60-metre portrait of Swedish climate-change campaigner Greta Thunberg on a school field in Yorkshire. He says the trees are his paint. “Our work is about prompting people to think deeply and respond emotionally to some of the biggest issues facing us, including the climate crisis.” Wardley also plans to develop the eye into an even bigger project. “It is our ambition to create the whole face of a young girl at the same scale, measuring 2,000 metres across. Those trees that are planted in the Forest Eye are the very beginning of this,” he says.