Hannah Willow had little doubt what she wanted. She wanted the glory of being crowned Glasgow’s first champion tree hugger. And she got it.
“I thought it was just a charity event,” Willow said, after her triumph in the inaugural event on Sunday. “When I was told it was a competition my inner child took a somersault; I didn’t realise that until just before it started.
“This was a moment of glory for me. The inner child in me said: ‘I do want to win.’”
Until she turned up at Dams to Darnley country park on the outskirts of the city, the early years teacher rarely thought about being competitive. She specialises in the tranquil arts of yoga and forest-bathing, while writing children’s books about the joy and power of nature – one involves a hedgehog in crisis.
Willow has savoured the rush of victory before, but on a minor scale. Aged seven, she won a painting competition in her native Pembrokeshire and at around the same age progressed with her sister through several singing rounds of the Eisteddfod, the Welsh language cultural festival.
Now, however, Willow is planning a trip to Finland for the world tree-hugging championships, an annual event that takes place 100 miles inside the Arctic Circle at HaliPuu in Lapland. She is already strategising, and with her sister’s help has launched a crowdfunder to meet the travel costs.
“Part of me now feels I need to step up my game for the world championships,” she said. “I will have to bring out my fairy wings and my ukulele and go singing to the trees.”
While Willow did well in the speed-hugging segment, dashing between the moss-cloaked beech and oak trees in a good time, and also in the freestyle section, she won the overall contest with the dedication event, where competitors must show “devotion, passion and loyalty” to a single tree.
Unprepared for the competition, she relied on her childhood love of dance to devise a spontaneous dedication. “Dancing is an expression of connection with me,” she said. “When I struggled with my words growing up, dancing, and also being out in the woods, was very much part of me.”
Her children, 14, 13 and 10, will have to adapt to her new vocation. “They were hugely embarrassed to find out I was tree-hugging champion; it wasn’t exactly the ‘cool mum’ hat they wanted me to have. So I do feel slightly bad for their street cred.”
The event was arranged by Shuna Mercer, a play therapist, and Vicki Dale, both active in the outdoor and forest nursery sector. Mercer’s father, Hugh Fife, was an authority on the Highlands’ native trees, but the event was largely inspired by Hugh Asher, a forest therapist who set up Scotland’s first tree-hugging contest, at Strontian in the west Highlands.
Asher came down to help with the judging. Sunday’s contest was a modest affair: 11 adults and four children competed for the age-group events. The overall children’s prize was won by Dale’s daughter, Lottie, 10, while her twin, Freddie, won the children’s speed-hugging race.
Dale said the woodland chosen for the event felt ideal. The park ranger had been very enthusiastic, and the stand of trees used had an avenue of trees leading down to it, there was the audible sound of a nearby burn and a “beautiful” quality of light.
“It was just beautiful. It felt like it was in the right place,” she said.
Dale has a background in event planning, and said she and Mercer were also inspired by the case for an urban tree festival. “This is the most joyful event I have ever created and the one most aligned with my own values,” she said. “We wanted to show that you didn’t have to be surrounded by woodland to enjoy connecting to nature.”
