ONGOING

A THOUSAND YEAR THEATRE

For Year 1, Year 7 and Year 25 forests and how to get to each theatre, visit The Only Animal’s website.

Living Forest Institute (LFI) is delighted to be a partner in the “A Thousand Year Project”, a collaboration between The Only Animal, University of British Columbia (UBC) Botanical Gardens, UBC Forestry Department, and forest stewards and art makers far in the future.

A Thousand Year Project, is a botanical ‘set’ planted from BC’s native forest species that take a millennium to mature.  It is designed to be used for an outdoor theatre show in 1000 years’ time. It is about the Culture of Stewardship, how we orient ourselves now by holding the future with utmost care. It involves collaborators from the kids’ climate movement at the inception, as part of the legacy of the piece, with the intention that every generation of caretakers will envision and shape the space. In a time where native species like cedar, the mother species of our forests, are showing stress from climate change, our work of stewardship is critical. A Thousand Year Project is a fierce belief in the future and a growing reminder for our human community that Human Nature is Nature itself.

LFI values the intention of A Thousand Year Project. For example, we might have a 1 year old cedar tree which is a very small thing indeed. At its full growth in 1000 years, its girth would be the size of 18 people linking arms. So we might have those 18 people stand around it, and another 18 there, and there, then as Douglas Firs, there and there.

At the site of the Clack Creek clear cut, we want to bring our community into this creative act of reimagining and planting the forest. We believe that this investment will lead to the Culture of Stewardship that will embed the values in the community to protect the forests for the foreseeable future.

Through our partnership we will provide on the ground support in our community, creating access paths to the clear cut and physical support like parking, outreach and event coordination. A Thousand Year Project will enable communities to engage in a project that will not only benefit its people, but also support the arduous journey to making a livable planet in this time of climate crises.  May 2020.