Climate Action United Kingdom Project #38892

10000 Children - 10000 Trees - For You

by Andover Trees United

Project Report | Mar 24, 2025
Winter Into Spring 2025

By Wendy Davis | Trustee

A Tree for Jane

Hello again, dear supporters.

I wasn't sure we would have much 'new' to report as we always think winter is relatively quiet after the children's tree planting in November - but how wrong could I have been!

In December...

Helped by regular volunteers, young people and families, we completed planting the perimeter hedge alongside the Dragon Garden and planted a very special Beech tree to mark the wonderful Dr Jane Goodall's 90th birthday year. We were honoured to be joined at this important tree planting by UK Schools' and Education Outreach Officer for JGI Roots&Shoots, Jasmina Georgovska. After planting the Tree for Jane and completing the essential end-of-year tasks so that we could put the wood to bed for the holidays, we marked the end of another year and thanked our volunteers with festive celebrations.

In January...

We began the task of cutting back overhanging branches to widen pathways and improve access. We also began the annual beating up programme and completed checking on the disease-resistant Elms that the children planted in late 2019, replacing the stakes and guards with taller versions to accommodate the trees' growth over the past 5 years.

In February and March...

A late winter planting of Dog Roses, Crab Apple, Elm and Elder trees was undertaken by regular volunteers, business workplace teams and young people training as Plant-for-the-Planet Ambassadors (see link below for the News Report on this). Over the school break, we welcomed storyteller Amanda Kane-Smith, supported by our brilliant Youth Team Leaders Matt and Natalia, to take children and young people on a journey from Winter into Spring through stories, crafts and games (more photos and information in link below).

Teams of art students from Andover College joined us at our regular Monday work sessions to take on seasonal conservation tasks as well as spending time in reflection, sketching, collecting and taking photographs in preparation for creating work for an exhibition as part of their A-Level course work.

Other work undertaken by the team as part of the ongoing care of the wood included:

repairing the deer fence
trimming the hazel hedge around the community meeting space and
clearing the pond of most of the bulrushes (they spread and grow very quickly)

All of these actions ensure the health of the wood as a home for increasing numbers of species of flora and fauna - a perfect space for children and young people to learn about the natural world and the positive impacts of their tree planting. To better appreciate the improving biodiversity, we hope you will read the 2024 Nature in Harmony report, written by our outgoing intern Katie, based on the date she patiently and painstakingly collected April to September last year - link below

The move from winter into spring is perfectly summed up in the team's most recent achievements, transplanting all the surplus tree whips from the wood to our tree and wildflower nursery to await next winter's tree planting and bringing all the potted-up wildflowers, raised from seed last year, from the nursery to be planted in the new raised bed in the wood. Perfect!

This year's funding focus...

As always, we thank you for your generous support, without which much of the above could not have happened. You have helped to fund the purchase of tools, equipment, trees and flowers; you have helped to provide inspirational nature activities for young people, helping to keep them connected to 'their' wood.

This year, our work will focus on:

providing nature activities for children and young people outside of school time
providing the means for schools to come to the wood for educational experiences during school hours
first-stage planning for a conference that will share our work with others

Your continued support is truly valued and, should you be considering making a donation in the near future, please remember that all donations up to $50 wil lbe matched by GlobalGiving @50% for 4 days THIS WEEK, 25th-28th March.

Cutting back branches to widen the path

Work team from Gestra plant Crab Apple trees

Repairing the deer fence

Youth team plants first of the new Elm trees

Amanda joins the youth leaders for storytelling

Magical winter story crowns

Plant-for-the-Planet Ambassadors plant Elm & Elder

College students complete the winter beating up

Brian tackles pond clearing despite the icy water

Planting up the new raised bed - spring is coming

Links:

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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

Links:

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