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he Forest Eye Project aims to create the largest
living forest feature in England by growing 5,
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 absorbcarbon 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.“Iraqi man balances 18 eggs on back of his
hand, breaking record”Guinnessworldrecords.comGiant eye planting begins
Games festival for Midlands
THE WEEK’S SILLIEST HEADLINE
Snowdrop earns high price
A
new variety of snowdrop has sold for £1,850 at
an auction. The flower, called Golden Tears, was
created by Joe Sharman from Cambridge, England,
who has been growing and breeding snowdrops
for 35 years. There were 55 bids for the single bulb
(which will grow into a flowering plant) before it sold
to an unknown buyer. Sharman, who is also known as
“Mr Snowdrop”, described the Golden Tears variety of
snowdrop as “very beautiful and distinct”.Radio show sent to space
R
adio station Fun Kids, which produces The Week
Junior Show podcast, has set a Guinness World
Record for the first radio programme to be beamed
into deep space. The programme, called Mission
Transmission, featured the voices of children from all
over the UK, plus pop music and messages from space
experts. It was launched into space as a radio signal,
which means it can be heard for millions of years and
could even be listened to in another solar system.Planting of trees
has begun.The Golden
Tears snowdrop.Astronaut Tim Peake helped
beam the show into space.The festival
begins in March.UK news
5 March 2022 • The Week Junior
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Eye Project. The Forest rld.A
six-month-long festival will take place across
Birmingham and the West Midlands, in England,
to tie in with this year’s Commonwealth Games (an
international sporting event). The Birmingham 2022
Festival will feature more than 200 events between
March and September. They include a huge, open-air
theatre show, a mass tap dance and a time-travelling
tram. It begins on 17 March and you can find out
more here tinyurl.com/TWJ-fest