Press Release

Kew takes conservation education to new heights with Xstrata Treetop Walkway

With the opening of the Rhizotron (1) and Xstrata Treetop Walkway on 24 May 2008, visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) with a head for heights will be able to climb 18 metres high into the usually inaccessible treetop world of Kew’s arboretum (2). This 200 meter long permanent structure, designed by Marks Barfield, the architects of the London Eye, will not only be a thrilling experience, but also offers a unique opportunity to discover the rich biodiversity of the forest canopy.

Treetops around the world are home to a vast collection of plants and animals and act as the planet’s lungs, yet we know surprisingly little about the forest canopy above our heads. It is hoped the Xstrata Treetop Walkway will change this for visitors to RBG Kew. They will be taught how trees play host to hundreds of species of animals and insects and how their leaves are vital in the fight against climate change.

Once in the canopy of the 50 mature broadleaved trees making up the Capability woodland (3), including sweet chestnuts, limes and deciduous oaks; visitors may spot birds such as tawny owls and woodpeckers, mosses and lichens, insects and bats at dusk. The tallest tree in this woodland is a 25 metre high sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa).

Intrepid tree walkers will pass through an underground exhibit on tree roots and life underground – the Rhizotron – before climbing spiral stairs six-storeys high, or taking a lift to the top of the Xstrata Treetop Walkway platform.

Supported by the Hanson Environment Fund, the Rhizotron – the name is taken from the Greek rhiza, meaning root – will use animatronics and animations to show the development of roots and mycorrhiza (4). It will also explain how roots and soil work as “the engine room” of the forest and will reveal the hidden world of “creepy crawlies” and fungi that thrive underground and on the forest floor.

Tony Kirkham, head of RBG Kew’s arboretum and project manager for the Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway project said, “We want to tell the story of a tree’s role in diversity in this planet and as a key contributor in capturing carbon to help in the fight against climate change. Rates of forest clearing are appallingly high around the world and Kew scientists see the effects of deforestation first-hand on their travels. We are losing trees and forests at an alarming rate. Fewer trees mean more endangered species and poorer quality air. 

“Not many people are aware that threatened tropical rainforests compromise the richest of the world’s ecosystems. And a great deal of that diversity lives up in the tree canopy – an estimated 70-90 per cent of life in the rainforest exists in the trees (5).

“As a trained arborist I have had the privilege of being up in the tree canopy; experiencing trees at height and birds and other wildlife from a completely different perspective. It’s fantastic that we are able to give visitors the same experience and we hope it will make them realise that trees do matter and we need to nurture them.”

Visitors to the Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway will also be able to ‘tune into trees’ and experience designer Alex Metcalf's ‘Tree Listening Installation' until 28 September 2008.

Super-sensitive microphones will be rigged up to two oak trees on route to the Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway. Visitors will be able to listen through headphones, hanging from the lower branches, to the popping sound of water being pulled up from the tree's roots to its leaves. They will also be able to hear the tree rumbling as it moves with the wind. The installation aims to encourage people to appreciate that trees are not static and that there is more to them than meets the eye.

Tree listening can also be used as a scientific tool, providing vital signs if a tree is under stress.

A microsite www.kew.org/trees launches on 24 May to accompany the opening of the Rhizotron and Xstrata Treetop Walkway. Visitors will be able to explore an interactive map of trees in Kew Gardens and a map of trees from around the world. Online quizzes will test people’s knowledge of trees and visitors will be able to upload their photographs of trees in the ‘people’s arboretum’ section of the website. RBG Kew scientists working with trees around the world will blog about their experiences.

The Nash Conservatory is showing Canopy – an exhibition of powerful imagery developed from highly magnified electron micrographs, or high definition photographs of plant structures. The rich diversity of the plant world is revealed at a microscopic level by artist Rob Kesseler using the pollen, seeds and leaves from trees growing in Kew Gardens and its sister site in Sussex, Wakehurst Place. This extraordinary body of work has been developed in collaboration with RBG Kew scientists Madeleine Harley and Wolfgang Stuppy (6).

Ends

SAVE THE DATE: We are hosting a press preview from 9.30am on Thursday 22 May. Please RSVP if you would like to attend by emailing pr@kew.org. Tony Kirkham, head of RBG Kew’s arboretum and architects from Marks Barfield will be on hand to give tours of the Rhizotron and Treetop Walkway. Individual broadcast opportunities are also available.

For further information please contact Bronwyn Friedlander, Catherine Owen or Anna Quenby in the RBG Kew press office on 020 8332 5607 or email pr@kew.org. Images are available at http://www.kew.org/press/images/treetop_walkway.htm please contact the press office for the username and password.

Notes for Editors

(1) A rhizotron is an underground laboratory designed for examining plant root growth; usually including enclosed columns of soil with transparent plastic windows which permit viewing, measuring and photographing.

(2) An arboretum is a living collection of trees, usually found in botanic gardens, planted for scientific study and conservation.

(3) The Capability woodland was planted by Lancelot “Capability” Brown, the landscape gardener, in the 18th century.

(4) Mycorrhiza are formed as a result of the symbiotic association between fungi and the roots of plants. About 80% of all plants grow in a mutual association with fungi, the fungus providing as much benefit for the plant as the plant does for the fungus. For example, fungi assist in the absorption of minerals and water from the soil.

Estimates suggest that over 1.5 million species of fungi exist, but mycology (the study of fungi) is a relatively new science and less than 5% of these have yet been described. Vital work is being done by the Mycology Section at Kew to shed new light on these unknown species. For more information visit http://www.kew.org/scihort/mycolexp.html

(5) Statistics from the Global Canopy programme http://www.globalcanopy.org

(6) Wolfgang Stuppy and Rob Kesseler have collaborated on the book Fruit: Edible, Inedible, Incredible, published by Papadakis in September 2008. For more information visit http://www.papadakis.net/live/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_jph1_info&products_id=110.

The beauty of trees is celebrated in a special category of the Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition to be shown at Kew Gardens from 23 May for the duration of the summer festival.  As well as Trees, visitors will be able to see the very best photographs for Garden Views, My Garden, Plant Portraits, Life in the Garden and also the U16s category, Young Garden Photographer of the Year. Entries are now being called for next year's show. Go to www.igpoty.com for more details.

The Trees That Made Britain, series two returns to television screens on 9 May, BBC Two, 7.30pm. Tony Kirkham, the head of the arboretum at RBG Kew, and his best tree-climber Jon Hammerton, are on a mission to discover if we still value the trees that have shaped the British landscape in the 21st century. Along the way they look at the new uses forests are now being put to, after cheap foreign imports rendered them virtually valueless as timber; discover how the loss of trees might be aggravating the effects of global warming and relearn some of the old skills of the forests. Tony and Jon set out to find solutions to some of the problems that are affecting how we view The Trees That Made Britain, and which could change our landscape – and our lives – irrevocably. And above all the pair will be encouraging everyone in the belief that trees matter, and that if we look after them, they will continue nurturing us for many centuries to come.

For images of The Trees That Made Britain, contact jenny.walford@bbc.co.uk or 029 2032 2373. 

Funding: Xstrata plc is a global, diversified mining group listed on the London and Swiss stock exchanges. They were inspired by the concept of the Treetop Walkway, seeing it as an imaginative and relevant project.
Construction materials supplier Hanson, part of the Heidelberg Cement Group, set up The Hanson Environment Fund in 1997, using landfill tax credits accumulated by the company, to support environmental and community initiatives from not-for-profit organisations. More than £17.5 million was distributed before the fund closed to new applicants in 2006, supporting hundreds of worthwhile projects across the UK. As a lasting legacy, the fund's final £1 million has been awarded to the Rhizotron.
The remainder of the funding comes from Defra, who fund half of the annual costs of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, plus two un-named individuals.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world famous scientific organisation, internationally respected for its outstanding living collection of plants and world-class herbarium as well as its scientific expertise in plant diversity, conservation and sustainable development in the UK and around the world.  Kew Gardens is a major international visitor attraction and its 132 hectares of landscaped gardens attract over one million visitors per year.  Kew, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2009.  There are a wealth of collections held at Kew that offer an opportunity to explore some of the lesser known aspects of RBG Kew’s rich history and heritage and its present day role. Members of the media interested in a behind-the-scenes look at RBG Kew should contact pr@kew.org

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