Organic farm and climate group team up to display woodland mural for farm visitors
Visitors exploring farm trails at Market Drayton’s Fordhall Organic Farm will be able to admire a newly installed mural created by volunteers, a local climate group, and community members who picked up a paintbrush at the recent arts festival.
The mural, painted on wooden panels constructed by members of a youth project at the farm, offers a warning about climate change as the image shifts from a bright woodland scene buzzing with life in 2023 to a bleak picture of lifeless wood in 2050.
Rowan Cookson, chair of Market Drayton Climate Action said: "We felt the beautiful setting of the walks at Fordhall Organic Farm would be an ideal place to remind ourselves of how we love the natural world, and our responsibility to care for it."
"Fordhall brings many people out into the land to enjoy being in the countryside and to find out about many ways of protecting the environment.
"So we were really pleased to work as partners on the mural which has been placed in a wooded area on a trail for visitors to see."
Charlotte Hollins, general manager at Fordhall added: "We’re excited to be hosting this special piece of artwork within our woods.
"We are a community-owned farm and access to our trails is free so anyone can come along and see the art whilst enjoying a walk in nature."
Ms Hollins said the farm works continually to limit its impact on the land.
"Within our climate work, we are planting over 2,500 trees on site this winter as 'living barns' for our livestock, to increase our site biodiversity and to absorb more carbon into our soils.
"We are acutely aware of the impacts we as humans have on the planet, so we work to build the planet’s resilience to climate change.
"Nature needs us and we need nature."
The two local organisations will again join together later this month when Fordhall’s Charlotte Hollins will take part in a sustainable farming panel, organised by Market Drayton Climate Action.
The panel will be hosted along with Ashley Young Farmers, at 7.30 pm on February 27 in the Mencap Building in Market Drayton.
