When an annual music and arts festival held in the middle of an English national forest had to be canceled because of COVID-19, the organizers saw an opportunity to connect people, art, and nature all over the world—not only in Britain.
With normal levels of noise pollution disappearing during the coronavirus pandemic, they decided to create a free audio-library called ‘Sounds of the Forest,’ while inviting anyone who was interested in collaborating to publish some sound clips to help expand it.
Featuring a map of the world, forest-goers can record the sounds of their local woodland and upload it via Soundcloud to appear as a dot on the map where anyone can click and listen to it. Some contributors are knowledgeable enough to add in field notes to help listeners understand what they are hearing.
For instance, in Tamin Negara National Park, Malaysia, one recordist notes the sounds of magpies and robins in the late-morning hours.
A biologist in Madagascar shared the ghostly holler of the lemur species Indri, which is the largest of them all.
A May evening battle between two nightingale songs was captured in Slovakia by yet another contributor.
Born of a Love for Forests
Since social distancing meant, in some cases, governments cutting off access to parks, and in other cases making nature the only viable place to go in order to get out of the house, it was the most logical way to bring the spirit of the Timber Festival into people’s lives.
Appropriately named Sarah Bird, the director of the festival’s partner Wild Rumpus, talked about the impact in an email with Tree Hugger.
“It was after we launched the project that we realized just how mindful the process of recording would be and how it makes you stop and listen to the harmonies of the natural world.”
Wild Rumpus, the “social enterprise” that aims to create public arts and culture events in natural spaces, helps to organize the Timber Festival every year at Feanedock in the English National Forest where musicians, artists, crafters, writers, speakers, and other presenters spend three days creating, sharing, and camping out under the trees.
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“We’re thrilled with how many recordings have been contributed from forests and woodlands all over the world for our digital forest soundmap,” says Bird.
For the entire map, head over to Timber Festival’s website and click Sounds of the Forest where you can listen to forests across the world.
There are currently only a couple dozen audio files uploaded from North America so, if you live there, why not take some time to upload your own woodland wind chimes.
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