Letting children show wild side

The Arboretum Trust, Kew at Castle Howard, discovered this last year when it held its first Wild About Wood Festival. It was such a success that a second fund-raising festival has been planned for September 11 and 12.

At the inaugural festival, The Discovery Zone, dedicated to children, welcomed more than 1,300 young people who enjoyed a range of free activities, including pond-dipping, explorienteer-ing and building with oak. One workshop that was particularly popular involved dissecting mammal droppings.

So, next week, The Discovery Zone will be twice as big, with arboretum art, shelter building, mollusc madness and bushcraft added to last year's favourites to offer more than 5,000 workshop and activity places, all designed to introduce children to the marvels and mysteries of the natural world around them.

Dr Katherine Forsey, education and outreach programme manager at The Arboretum Trust, said: "We were thrilled by the enthusiastic response to The Discovery Zone in 2009. Our staff and volunteers worked incredibly hard to make sure all the children had the very best experience and that nobody was left disappointed.

"But we've recently launched our Schools' Initiative, in which we offered free Wild About Wood tickets to North Yorkshire primary schoolchildren, so we expect to welcome even more youngsters this year."

As well as The Discovery Zone the festival offers a huge variety of woodland craft demonstrations, including pole-lathe turning, heavy-horse logging and willow weaving. For the more intrepid visitor, the festival even offers visitors the chance to have a go at archery, climb a tree, or ride in a coracle on the arboretum lake.

Full festival details at www.wildaboutwood.org

YP MAG 4/9/10