Activity 3 - Goodbye old tree

What should be done with the old tree?

Hazel Nutt needs your help in deciding what to do with the Treedwell tree that was chopped down. There are many useful ways we can use trees. Some ideas are listed below. Can you think of any more?

Send Hazel your ideas and photos, and we'll display the best on this page.

Email them to opal@imperial.ac.uk or post to: FREEPOST RSCH-CHYJ-HYYC, OPAL, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ.

Ideas on how to make use of the tree

Create a home for wildlife
Encourage wildlife into your garden or school grounds by building a bat box, bird box or bee hotel, using the wood from the tree. You can also make a wood pile to attract invertebrates and hibernating hedgehogs.

Leave the tree to rot
This may sound like a lazy and wasteful thing to do, but rotting wood is an important habitat for many creatures.

Why not leave some of the tree and see which animals colonise it over time? Look out for woodlice, beetles, millipedes and other invertebrates.

Create works of art
Many artists use the wood from trees to make sculptures, or the leaves to make interesting pictures. Why not have a go at creating a work of art with the leaves and twigs from trees? Take a look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy for inspiration - www.morning-earth.org/artistnaturalists/an_goldsworthy.html.

A gallery of ideas on how to make use of an old tree. What others can you think of?