For humans and more-than-human kin, the urban forest is nature close to home – or home itself. Yet, engagement with and access to the urban forest is unequal. Emerging research often focuses on achieving distributive and procedural access, which begs the question: where does this leave our sense of access? How does it feel to belong in an urban forest feel?

What Baltic Square tells us:

I am the stone, I am a forgotten beer can, a moss, a water droplet

I am the wind, the water, the wind, a cloud

I am forget-me-not, a weed, the grass, the little ant

I am the river, the grass, a spider, a moss 

I am the stone, a pigeon’s feather, the bridge, a seagull

I am wind, a heart shape with eyes and legs, an arugula

I am the cloud, a suitcase, a brown trout

I am the sky, the wind

I am the stone, seagull, the wind, water

I am the clouds, a sticker, the wind

I am a seagull, a wheel, a feather

I am wind, a little grass, a moss

I am the wind

I am the stone

Arboriculturists are key players in facilitating contact between humans and trees in urban environments. This second urban forest story from the annual Arboricultural Association Conference in Warwick, England, shows just how different the human and more-than-human stories can be from day to day.

Arboriculturists are key players in facilitating contact between humans and trees in urban environments. This first urban forest story from the annual Arboricultural Association Conference in Warwick, England, shows just how much our human and more-than-human stories are connected.

Listen closely for the stories hanging from branches, hopping through underbrush and rooting beneath your feet. A moment of collaborative forest-based storytelling, where you are invited to share with each other and with the very NightForest itself.

‘We are leaves / we are nature / we are hugging a tree’

The collaborative more-than-human place-based story ‘Remembering Gateshead Riverside Park’ explores the moments, beings and creatures we remember encountering in this urban forest in the North East of England.

“Here, now, feels not good / it's good / GOOD!!!”

The collaborative more-than-human place-based story ‘Humans, the Forest and the River’ explores a moment of urban forest time. With our bodies, personal stories, and collaborative place explorations, we investigate the more-than-human connections in and with Gateshead Riverside Park.

“feels nice / feels familiar / quiet and loud ”

The collaborative more-than-human place-based story ‘Familiar, quiet and loud’ explores a moment of urban forest time. With our bodies, personal stories, and collaborative place explorations, we investigate the more-than-human connections in and with Gateshead Riverside Park.

“I started to feel cold a bit / but not that much / it’s just enough to feel I am here and now ”

The collaborative place-based story ‘Another Moment’ explores a moment of urban forest time. With our bodies, personal stories, and collaborative place explorations, we investigate the more-than-human connections in and with Gateshead Riverside Park.

“the tree feels lucky to survive / and on their road to recovery”

The collaborative place-based story ‘A Moment’ explores a moment of urban forest time. With our bodies, personal stories, and collaborative place explorations, we investigate the more-than-human connections in and with Gateshead Riverside Park.

“I am the beginning, the end / I carry the scars of history ”

The collaborative place-based story ‘Riverside Park, here and now’ explores a moment of urban forest time. With our bodies, personal stories, and collaborative place explorations, we investigate the more-than-human connections in and with Gateshead Riverside Park.

“I am leaves, I like to dance with the wind”

The collaborative place-based story ‘Forest Tongue’ explores modes of interlingual, intercultural and intersectional belonging. With our bodies, personal stories, and collaborative place explorations, we investigate the more-than-human connections in and with Gateshead Riverside Park.

“Here, now, this place feels restored,

transformed

exposed”

This collaborative place-based storybook explores the Urban Forest of Washington D.C., with stories from delegates of the 2^nd World Forum on Urban Forests 2023.

As we explore Gateshead Riverside Park, we use our bodies to notice who and what is here. We investigate how we are connected to this place through a series of prompts. During and after each exercise, we record our responses. These become our stories of this place, here, now.

Seated under a sprawling tree, on a teal metal chair at a teal metal table on a flagstone patio, the water swirling in the glass while the sun pushes through the canopy above - this is where I am when I first meet Pigeon.

We are explorers of the urban forest of Kraków in Poland. With our bodies, we notice who and what is there, and who and what is not. Through prompts, writing, drawing, making, and sharing, we record our responses, telling the stories of this particular urban forest place.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Urban Forest Stories sessions

Why do autumn leaves change colour? As days shorten, and night envelopes us earlier each day, I keep finding patches of bright autumn leaves on my way. Where do these colours come from, I wonder, and what might be their purpose, I ponder.

This morning, I heard rivers streaming up and down. Not north to south, but up, towards the sky, and down, into the earth.

If leaves could talk, what stories would they tell?