Last week we were delighted to be part of the University of Leeds’ research showcase event, Be Curious 2022, in collaboration with our partners at Leeds LEAF.
More than 1200 people attended Be Curious and our stall was a bustling hub of tree and carbon enthusiasm from the moment the doors opened until a little while after they officially closed!
Our stall, pictured before the crowds descended!
Be Curious marked the official launch of the University of Leeds’ campus tree trail. This was developed together with UBoC, following our previous collaboration on the i-Tree Leeds project, when every campus tree was measured and identified so that campus carbon storage could be calculated. With this new trail, the public is invited to explore a selection of exciting campus trees as well as the stories that make them so special. The amount of carbon they store and the rate at which they are able to sequester more carbon are shown for each tree in the online tour.
On the stall itself, we were able to showcase living tree seedlings and, thanks to a kind donation by Jo and Tony Pickering, a selection of tree cross-sections. These trees started wonderful conversations around the ways that trees grow and we were excited to show visitors snapshots of the past, captured in tree rings. By counting the number of tree rings back from the bark, visitors could see how the tree was growing in the year they were born. Wider rings indicated greater growth in that year.
Finally, visitors were encouraged to get involved with our stall by painting pictures of trees. We provided a colour change paint that reacted with sunlight to give the impression of trees growing outdoors (white to green colour change under UV). We hope this helped everyone remember how exciting and magical trees really are, using sunlight to capture carbon!
Thank you to all the organisers and attendees who made Be Curious such a fun event!
