WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?

The Forest Did It First Project is an 18-month project (Jan ’24 – June ’25) supported by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund. The project is being delivered through a partnership with the Hare’s Corner Cooperative, Big Telly Theatre Company, Rural Community Network and Wild Awake. There are five strands to the project:

1.Reconnecting Ways Programme: a programme of monthly walks, talks and events reconnecting us to forests, rivers and the land creating a library of species in the area and discovering the art of the Phantom Artist. See the Events page for further details.

2.Youth & Community Design Challenges: a biomimicry design challenge with six local primary schools in the ‘oxygen catchment’ area of the Forest as well as four community groups.

3.Ethos & Governance: What if in the future we used our imaginations to represent the natural world in our decision making and governance structures? What would change? How would it feel? Some of the questions we will be seeking to answer through this project.

4. Community Planning with a Difference: What happens when communities tell their own stories, through the many lenses we see our lives, our place, the forests, waterways and fields, the challenges and opportunities? The Portrait of Place informed by the Doughnut Economics model will begin to map the data, stories and local knowledge with people in the ‘oxygen catchment’ of Garvagh Forest. Parallel to this process will be a small participatory budgeting process bringing the Portrait to life.

5. Creative Performance & Learning: Being in place, being in the state of mind that says, ‘I wonder what might happen if I tried this’ and then not worrying or being afraid of the outcome, is a state of mind that can cope with the unexpected. It can also teach us that we can change the existing rules. Through theatre and film, creative approaches will shape the project’s delivery and how we share our learning.

What is biomimicry?

Biomimicry is learning from and then emulating nature’s forms, processes, and ecosystems to help us develop life-affirming, sustainable and creative designs making optimal use of limited resources.

Spiders webs can teach us about preventing collisions; lotus leaves can tell us something about keeping surfaces clean; forests can help think through the value of diversity and interdependence in our groups and communities; the structure of the kingfisher’s beak helped design a train in Japan that reduced noise and energy use.

Why are we exploring biomimicry?

To test out whether biomimicry might be of value in helping us observe the rest of the natural world differently generating new ideas and thinking about how we might grow life affirming and sustainable relationships and wellbeing for people and the rest of the natural world.

At the end of 18 months we hope that…

• People have experienced joy and wellbeing in reconnecting with the forest, rivers and rough fields.
• The project has contributed to changing how we think about ‘community’ to include not just humans but the plants, trees, and animals and the ecosystem that sustain people.
• New ideas, questions and designs have emerged informed by learning from the the living world around us.

What We’ve Grown and Learned Together

Over 18 months, The Forest Did It First Project invited people of all ages to wonder, create and learn alongside nature. From small ideas to shared discoveries, new ways of seeing and doing began to take root. What grew from that journey now lives on in stories, tools and creative works that continue to connect people and place.

Explore them across our website:

Resources – Practical guides, toolkits and reflections from the project
Media Hub – Blogs, podcasts and videos sharing creative stories and insights
Newsletter – Quarterly updates sharing progress and voices from the project

Together they form a living record of The Forest Did It First Project, a celebration of imagination, connection and what can grow when we learn with the rest of nature.