Creating a Forest. Together.

Can you hear it?

The crackling fire and the pancake batter sizzling as it hits the small pan. Adults chatting warmly while children play tag among the trees.

Struers Folkeskov (Struer’s Community Forest) is not just a project to boost biodiversity. It is a place where people meet and community comes to life. Notice the possessive ’s’ in the name. It belongs to all of Struer.

Even though the forest is only five years old, there are already places where you can lose yourself a little. Soon, volunteers will remove the fencing that was put up to protect the fragile young trees from hungry deer. With help from some of the town’s schoolchildren, the volunteers are also busy thinning out the fast-growing nurse trees. This allows the small oak trees, which the nurse trees were planted to protect, to finally step into the light. Nothing goes to waste: the nurse trees are transformed into poles for the outdoor kitchen table and a wood shed, ensuring there is always dry firewood for the bonfire.

Making room for nature is hard work, but it helps to start with coffee, rolls, and a good chat across generations, political views, and backgrounds. Everyone shares the same goal: to create a forest where both nature and human communities thrive.