Mersey Forest giving away 1500 trees as part of Liverpool's Lunar New Year celebrations

The Mersey Forest will be giving away 1500 small trees this weekend as part of Liverpool’s Lunar New Year Celebrations.

Members of the Mersey Forest network are going to be at the Bombed Out Church from Friday February 9 to Sunday February 11, encouraging people to help make our region a greener place to be.

They’ve already planted more than 9 million trees across Merseyside and Cheshire over the past 30 years – that’s five for every person living in the area – creating woodlands and community green spaces.

Now they’re giving crowds joining the Lunar celebrations a chance to play their part by planting one in their own gardens.

The Mersey Forest team will hand out 500 sapling trees on each of the three days so people can help to grow the greenery and have a lasting reminder of their weekend enjoying Chinese New Year.

There’ll also be a Tree of Hope where everyone is invited to share their thoughts and views on trees and woodlands in their community and highlight places where they’d like to see more.

And the team will be discussing their Natural Health Service, which uses the environment and its natural resources to improve both mental and physical health by offering activities such as health walks, nature sessions, and horticulture therapy.

It’s all part of a busy Lunar weekend at the Bombed Out Church which sees Focal Studios taking over the space with magical projections telling the story of The Boy and the Pearl.

The beautiful audio-visual art installation, which will play on repeat every 10 minutes between 5.30pm and 9pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, has been inspired by traditional Chinese folklore and created in collaboration with Pagoda arts, the Bombed Out Church and local artists.

Keen to use their work to promote environmental change, Focus Studios teamed up with The Mersey Forest to add an extra daytime element to the celebrations.

Dennis Outten, Director of Focal Studios, explains: “Our collaboration with Mersey Forest came about after reading an article in November last year which said that UK forests face cataclysmic destruction within 50 years.

“I was incredibly saddened and frustrated to read about the range of issues threatening forests in our country. I have two young boys that I love taking on walks in Wirral woodlands when the weather is nice. The thought of them growing up with a desolate natural environment made me want to do something about it.

“I’ve always been interested in finding new ways to engage audiences with environmental issues through creative work with Focal Studios, and since this is the year of the Wood Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac, I wanted to do something tangible to help the environment.

“I remember the amazing Free Tree giveaway that Wirral council and Mersey Forest did in Central Park in Liscard last year, so to tie in with our commission for The Boy and the Pearl’ from Culture Liverpool, I decided to reach out to them and see if they could be a part of it.

“My ambition was to basically put free tree saplings in the hands of as many Liverpool residents as possible, with the information they needed to care for them. Mersey Forest is an amazing organisation that empowers individuals and communities to plant trees and look after the environment.

“When I look around outside, all I see is the human impact on our landscape, with roads, concrete, buildings and wanton destruction of trees and natural habitats. There are obviously positive things happening in the UK to counter this, with Mersey Forest being a prime example of how we can get involved to do our bit.”

The Mersey Forest will be at The Bombed Out Church on Friday from 3pm-5pm, Saturday 12pm-5pm and Sunday 11am-5pm.

Their workshops and the Focus Studios projections are all free to see and get involved in, and throughout the weekend a bar will be open, plus there’ll be hot food and fortune cookies to buy!