The way trees play a vital role to help fight climate change will be unravelled in the Forestry Commission Wales marquee at this year’s Royal Welsh Show.
The Commission will introduce Colwyn, a friendly tree who will explain how trees capture carbon dioxide, lock the carbon away and send out oxygen into the atmosphere.
Colwyn’s smiling face appears on posters in the FC Wales marquee which demonstrate how carbon is locked away safely by trees.
Visitors will be able to measure the circumference of some tree trunks and then use the “cool calculator” to show how much carbon each tree stores.
There will also be a one metre square block of timber, and a second one with foam “timber blocks” which children can play with as they learn a serious message about the carbon locking qualities of wood.
Carbon-locking cards to take away reveal that a small five centimetre by five centimetre block of wood locks up the emissions generated by such things as running an “A” rated fridge freezer for three hours.
The idea of the blocks is to show that trees retain carbon in the wooden products they become after they have been cut down, a message which is reinforced by a timber-frame house built in the marquee.
Children can also take the “Carbon Locking Challenge” where they can win a selection of wooden family games by obtaining stamps from the carbon locking activities and presenting a card at the Commission’s carbon bank.
There will be goody bags for visitors to help them remember their visit to the Forestry Commission Wales exhibits and the carbon “pulling power” of trees.
The FC Wales Grants and Regulation team will be situated in the Welsh Assembly Government pavillion to offer advice on applying for grants to plant more trees.
This will be the first year at the showground without the FC Wales pavilion since it was opened by the Queen in 1983. The pavilion, a familiar sight at the entrance to the forestry section, has been dismantled log by log to be rebuilt as a forestry training building in nearby Newbridge-on-Wye.
