Tiny Forest Tour – A Hot Start in Houghton Hall Park. ( see address details below.)

Our GoodGym Tiny Forest Tour got underway at Houghton Hall Park near Dunstable, supporting Earthwatch with the first of our community and citizen science days.

And what a day to start ... sweltering heat and an amber heat warning!

Daniel, Gus and I arrived at 2pm to find a rather parched but beautifully maintained park. We met Hannah from Earthwatch, who was leading the session, along with Peter, a local volunteer who had helped plant the Tiny Forest back in February.

We also met Caroline and Ian, who work with the Trust engaging people with this lovely park. Houghton Hall Park occupies the grounds of an old manor house and has a great mixture of open space, mature trees and woodland, ornamental gardens, a vegetable garden, playground and café. The Tiny Forest is another new element being added to this fantastic community space.

Given the heat, we weren’t sure how many people would venture out, but we ended up engaging with lots of lovely young families. We helped introduce them to citizen science – including measuring the young trees and understanding how their growth can be used to estimate carbon capture.

Hopefully we also planted a few seeds for future involvement from local families and schools.

And these young trees need watching. With increasingly hot, dry conditions, collecting information about how they survive and grow is becoming particularly valuable.

If you’re local, why not get involved? Visit the Tiny Forest, scan the QR code on the information board and start contributing observations and measurements. You can also become a Tiny Forest Tree Keeper and help look after it over the coming years.

Even if you’re just passing along the M1, Houghton Hall Park is worth a stop – a great café, beautiful gardens and woodland, and now a Tiny Forest to explore.

A hot but very enjoyable start to our tour – GoodGym supporting Earthwatch.

Address - Park Rd N, Houghton Regis, Dunstable, LU5 5FU, United Kingdom, 51.901650162412494,-0.5107539063409314 Link to TF - https://tinyforest.earthwatch.org.uk/tiny-forest-sites/692-houghton-hall-park-tiny-forest