Climate Action United Kingdom Project #38892

10000 Children - 10000 Trees - For You

by Andover Trees United

Project Report | Nov 23, 2024
It's planting time again!

By Wendy Davis | Trustee & Project Leader

Bringing trees to gift to the community

The Main Event! It's tree planting time again.
Months of planning and preparation came to fruition this month as we headed back to Bury Hill for a third year. We have completed two of the three weeks set aside for this year's 1000 children to tree plant which, together with last week's community Saturday, will result in a total of 1500 trees being planted.

School Tree Nursery Beds have been re-established in 10 of the 25 schools taking part and, for the first time since the pandemic, children have brought the trees that they have been caring for at school all year as a gift to the community.

Providing opportunities for children to revisit and enjoy the wood that they planted is an important part of this project. Having transformed 12 acres of former farmland into diverse woodland and meadows, your funds now support local children to enjoy their wood and the October school half-term break saw Nature Explorers of all ages enjoy Halloween fun and games.

Forest School goes from strength to strength, with weekly sessions for the home-schooling community and Saturday morning sessions open to all. Being a new wood, we don't yet have trees large enough to support the tarpaulins needed to provide shelter from rain and wind but your generous donations have provided a solution! Last month and just in time as the days shorten and temperatures drop, a specially designed shelter was constructed capable of being put up and taken down quickly and easily. What was a twenty minute job at the start and end of a session has been reduced to just five... with much less kit to carry. Your help has made this possible and the whole team joins me in thanking you.

And it's not just the children who are benefitting from outdoor play! In September we ran two team building days for local carers, who spent the afternoon foraging, cooking and enjoying the fruits of the wood. We plan to build on what was a very successful event and offer this to other groups in the area.

Enjoy the video below and join Annette in the wood as she introduces us to some of edible delights in Harmont Woods.

From everyone at Andover Trees United, THANK YOU for your ongoing support.
Thank you for helping to make all this possible.

Lifting trees from the community tree nursery

Children digging up their trees in school

Time to plant!

Halloween fun for young Nature Explorers

Links:

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Jul 29, 2024
Celebrating Successes, Spring into Summer!

By Wendy Davis | Trustee & Project Leader

Presentation of Kings Award for Voluntary Service

CELEBRATIONS!

"Andover Trees United is an exemplary example of a local charity set up to provide conservation education to the local community. The group is unique within the UK giving children, young people and all generations inclusive, empowering opportunities to be involved hands-on in taking positive, sustainable climate action."

These are words from our Kings Award for Voluntary Service citation, presented by The Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire Nigel Atkinson on April 19th 2024, a wonderful event and testament to everybody's hard work, celebrated in style by 70 volunteers of all ages.

Welcome to our summer report which shares some of the recent conservation successes that you have helped to make possible.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Earth Day saw a team from National Geographic Learning join us to start work on building a fence to protect an area of sensitive calcareous grassland. Midsummer was celebrated with music as we welcomed back eminent folk artist Jackie Oates to lead us in song and Mayfly Morris who entertained with dance. Times past were explored by all ages at our annual 'Between the Barrows' dig, giving our archaeology friends the chance to locate a second section of the Bronze Age ditch that encircles the ancient burial mound in the wood.

YOUNG GREEN CHAMPIONS

The last four months have seen young people from 5 to 25 give their time in many ways to look after the wood, learn about what lives and grows there and take part in exciting nature activities as both participants and leaders. We are delighted to share with you that another long-held ambition was realised this week as Nature and Community Officer Jo led her first official Forest School session.

LOOKING AFTER NATURE

Mondays, Second Saturdays and Business Help-Out days saw many volunteers turn out to help look after the wood's trees, hedges and wildflowers - clearing and mulching the base of young hedgerows, grass cutting and most recently training to recognise and mark trees that have failed and will need replacing in a few months time when winter returns.

OUT & ABOUT

As well as regular work and activity days in the wood, the team has been out and about sharing our work with members of the local community. Last week's Carnival saw the charity's Land Rover adorned with giant-sized bees, butterflies and other colourful invertebrates, while wildflower turf lined the roof rack and provided shelter for a huge skylark. A visual highlight of the parade. the Land Rover was accompanied by ATU Volunteers and members of Andover Ladies Circle, dressed as bees and butterflies to symbolise some of the important insects that can be found in the chalk grasslands of Harmony Woods.

Thank you for being there for us, for supporting our work and making all this possible.

National Geographic Learning join us for Earth Day

Big Help Out 2024 - Never too young to lend a hand

Milestone Event! 1st official Forest School day

Citizen Science for All - What lives in the wood?

Checking on the young trees

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Mar 28, 2024
End-of-Winter Update

By Wendy Davis | Trustee & Project Leader

School Tree Nursery Beds Are Re-instated

Hello and welcome to our end-of-winter update,.where you can read about some of the many things that your support has helped to make possible.

School Tree Nursery Beds
Prior to the pandemic, most of the schools we work with were maintaining their tree nursery beds, built with our help in 2011. To increase a sense of ownership of the trees that the children plant, we have encouraged schools to plant and look after trees, provided by the charity, before digging them up and gifting them to the community in November, when 1000 children come together for three weeks of mass tree planting.

The pandemic made it impossible for us to continue this tradition but, thanks in part to your donations via GlobalGiving, we are delighted to have been able to support renewed planting in ten of the nursery beds.

Regular Conservation Days

Mondays and Saturdays
Opportunities to look after the community wood that the children planted are available every Monday and once a month on the second Saturday.

Over the past three months, volunteers of all ages planted an avenue of Lime trees along 300 metres of one of the main grass rides. The avenue of trees will in time shape the ride to prevent it from becoming a wind tunnel as well as narrowing it in places to allow for easier wildlife crossing. The Dragon Garden, begun last summer, has been enhanced by the addition of several hundred metres of native hedgerow and the walkways sown with grass and wildflower seed.

Business Workplace Volunteering
We also welcome workplace volunteers from businesses in the local area and further afield.

The DIO (Defence Infrastructure Organisation, part of the MOD) came to Harmony Woods for a volunteering day on the 7th February. They helped to clear, tidy and mulch the bottom hedgerow planted in winter 2022-23. They managed to completely clear the hedgerow of unwanted vegetation and then mulch half of it.

Here’s what Paul had to say: “Thank you for looking after us yesterday. We had a great time helping to tidy up and mulch the recently planted hedgerows. Being able to provide you with a little bit of assistance to support your vital conservation work is great for us in Defence as we look to help out in our local communities. Moreover, raising awareness of the challenges we all face is so important and the enthusiasm shown by your team is definitely aiding that.”

Thank you, Laura and welcome, Katie, our 2024 Ecology Intern
As the winter ends, we bid farewell to our 2023 Ecology Intern, Laura, and thank her for all her hard work. You can read the results of her internship in the link to her Nature in Harmony 2023 Report. below. At the same time we are pleased to welcome our 2024 Intern, Katie. There is a link to Laura's interview with Katie below.

Keeping children connected to nature - even in winter
Continuing the series of popular - with children, parents and grandparents alike - Nature Explorer Activities, Nature and Community Officer Jo, supported by Issy, Matt and Natalia led children on winter walks and 'Bear Hunts' during the February school half-term break. You can follow their exploits via the link below.

We hope you have enjoyed finding out about what your generous donations have helped to achieve over the colder and wetter winter months and look forward to sharing stories of spring awakenings and warmer days when next we report.

Finishing Grass and Wildflower Sowing

Planting a Hedge for the Dragon Garden

'We Went on a Bear Hunt!'

DIO volunteers clear & mulch one of the hedgerows

Young volunteer plants a Lime tree

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