The Valuing Nature Team took a little bit of nature to the Runway Visitor Park at Manchester Airport for the NERC Into the Blue event to bring the world of environmental research to the public. Together the team at CEH and Countryscape created a small oasis for visitors to experience nature: a place to promote discussion and to share knowledge. Overall about 5250 people attended the event over the 5 days.
The planting showed a diversity of different habitats that you might encounter in everyday environments: woodland trees, garden herbs, ferns, grasses. Visitors could sit back and listen to birdsong, immersing themselves in nature underneath Concorde's engine and consider the value of nature to their health.
We asked visitors to reflect on the question What does nature mean to you? and write their thoughts on leaves for our Values Tree.
Our leaf art competition proved very popular with the public; young and old, and the other exhibitors. There were 142 entries which were uploaded to our Twitter feed @ValuingN during the event. Here are just a few:
The stand provided a platform to promote our current research with volunteers from across the Valuing Nature network & the Valuing Nature Projects discussing the role of greenspace for human health. Our "log notes" detailed studies carried out on the health aspects of nature and proved a good focal point for discussion. While the adults discussed health the children could play Valuing Nature Bingo to engage with nature:
