If you live in the New Forest and love nature, why not share your thoughts about the landscape?

Green Space Stories will be an online archive creating a snapshot of our connection with nature in 2022, and a powerful source of knowledge for researchers, policy makers, artists and educators.

This unique citizen science project is part of Green Space Dark Skies, one of 10 UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK projects taking place in 2022.

The public are invited to share their anonymous stories about their experiences in nature and the landscape: whether beaches, woodlands or local parks. Stories can be told through writing, photos or recordings at https://greenspacedarkskies.uk/green-space-stories.

John Packman, CEO of the Broads Authority and lead CEO for National Parks UK Communications, said: “Ninety years ago, the Kinder Scout trespass sparked a national conversation about our relationship to landscape in the UK, and our allied rights and responsibilities. The response to the Covid pandemic and lockdown, the causes of and need to address the climate emergency, and the evident requirement to restore the quality of nature and biodiversity, show that this conversation is just as alive and relevant – even vital – in the UK today. Green Space Stories is our attempt to make a space for that conversation in 2022 so that we can listen, learn, change and benefit, based on an open, safe dialogue inspired by our precious, nurturing landscapes.”

The archive of stories is available for anyone to view through a searchable, easy to use dashboard and will form a treasure trove of knowledge about the public’s relationship to nature in 2022. Green Space Stories might be used by artists to inspire songs, poems, artworks, films or books. It might be used by government organisations or local councils to inform and shape policies. It might be used by researchers looking for information about how certain themes emerge in our relationship with the landscape. Educators or community groups might use it to find stories from people of certain ages, or in a specific area of the country. Individuals will be able to search for stories shared by people like them, or who differ from them.

Green Space Stories is just as interested in hearing about daily dog walks, as in hearing stories about bigger adventures in the natural landscape. They will be kept on the National Parks UK website for five years as a resource for everyone.