Hello! I’m Fern (@fernlovestrees), I’m 18 and from Bristol. I came up by train the first time in June and have been around off and on since! I started off camping when I first came up for a 3 day trip, but have since lived up in the treetops after learning to climb.

I first found out about HS2 through XR, and I was horrified that this ecocide is going ahead and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. So I decided to join the campaign to actually do something about the horrific things I was witnessing from my sofa.Since then, i’ve dropped out from sixth-form to focus on the climate and ecological crisis and have been at camps learning so much more than I ever did in conventional education.

I am here to protect my future, and the trees that help us breathe. HS2 is destroying our futures without any remorse, and we cannot sit at home and let it happen.

I’ve learnt so much while along the line, like how to climb and i’m currently learning how to rig, and have helped in building our new road camp on Rugby Road. I’ve also learnt so much about the generosity of others, we have so much support from locals and others that really don’t want this train to go ahead. The people here are so powerful and so inspiring!

I experience a lot of eco-anxiety thinking about the daunting future we see ahead of us, famine, climate refugees and mass crop loss. HS2 just adds to this, i’ve watched the heartless murder of entire ecosystems from my bed here, and it makes you realise how much we need to wake up.

During my time here, i’ve witnessed a lot of aggression from the NET and HS2 security, along with the police. I was at Denham a few weeks ago where the police stood by whilst HS2 security and the NET held peaceful protestors under the water and were punching and assaulting young women who were just defending a tree. This is what we are up against.

Something that really outraged me about HS2, along with the mass ecocide and the assaults against protestors, is the fact that they have paid off police forces and can purchase injunctions that make civil matters criminal. HS2 are literally paying for laws in a seemingly democratic country, and no one seems to know about it.

But it’s not all down in the dumps, against so much adversity from the other side i’ve learnt so much. I was part of an occupation of the trees in Cubbington, after starting learning to climb just 48 hours earlier. These skills are things that I really cannot express how happy they make me. The freedom of being up in the trees is something I can’t even express in words.

I wholeheartedly say to anyone who can, come up to any camp along the line, we need you and you’ll learn so much, it’ll change your life.

Series by @naturegaard 🌲