‘Trees for the Future’ family activities share pledges for trees

This autumn, along with the arboretum providing a riot of stunning autumn colour to enjoy, there was also a range of exciting activities on offer for visitors and families to experience, exploring how Westonbirt cares for trees.

Throughout October and November, visitors could explore the ‘Tree Guardians’ family trail. This trail explained how the trees at Westonbirt are cared for, how they are also protected in the wild, how trees cope with climate change and how Westonbirt’s team is working with tree experts around the world to protect and conserve trees.



During October half-term, the Learning Team and volunteers hosted a family event ‘Trees for the Future’, designed for children from 5-years old. This event gave visiting families the chance to find out about some of the world’s disappearing trees, some of which are thriving here at Westonbirt in the tree collection.

Children had hands-on fun making a beech nut hedgehog, or a maple seed dragonfly, joined in with Tree Bingo and had the chance to sow some tree seeds to take home.

During the activities, everyone was invited to make a pledge to protect trees for the future, hanging it on the ‘pledge medal tree’. Additional pledges were also gathered in a book that was part of the Tree Guardians Trail.

Here are some of pledges shared during the week:

Ellen Whitby, Learning Officer, says:

“It was lovely seeing all of the pledges and comments from visitors at our recent half term family event ‘Trees of the Future”, to see so many people share with us how they are going to look after trees and what they like about trees.”