By Wendy Davis | Trustee & Project Leader
With weekly and monthly volunteering sessions having resumed, although still with Covid security measures in place, routine, seasonal work in Harmony Woods is once again being carried out by a committed team of volunteers of all ages. Trees have been checked, wildflowers sown and the more invasive plants such as ragwort thinned out.
Your donations do not only help us to bring children to the wood to plant their trees every winter; this summer, for the first time, we have been able to welcome groups of school children and college students to the wood to experience what their collective efforts have made possible. You have also helped us to set up a graduate internship programme. This report shares with you some of these first summer visits and the achievements of our ecologist intern, Alex. You will read about the exploits of the youth team and an update of what is now living in Harmony Woods.
Harmony In Nature: Exchange update
In June, the Andover Trees United Youth Team had a camping trip in Harmony Woods, where they undertook a bat survey and they also set-up a moth trap. Previously they had carried out various day-time based activities - tree identification, wildflower and bird surveys and setting camera traps - however, the team were really interested to see what sort of wildlife they would find at night!
The results were very exciting; we identified several species of moth, which are new to our records, including the very cool buff-tip moth. And we can also now say for certain that there are bats present in Harmony Woods!
The data collected goes towards ATU's on-going wildlife monitoring database and will be shared with national databases, too.
Gombe 60 & Appleshaw St Peter’s C of E Primary School: the importance of community-based conservation
20th July marked 61 years since Jane Goodall travelled from England to what is now Tanzania and ventured into the little-known world of wild chimpanzees. Dr Goodall went on to make ground-breaking discoveries that changed our scientific understanding of primates and their close relationship to human-beings.
Dr Goodall also realised that the chimpanzees and their habitat needed protecting and it became clear that collaboration with local communities was key to this protection. Her work redefined traditional conservation with an approach that recognised the central role people play in the well-being of animals and habitat. This empowering approach to conservation is now carried out in communities across the world.
Andover Trees United has been working in partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots & Shoots programme for many years, helping to foster a new generation of conservationists through the empowerment of young people to lead on local action. As part of the (delayed) Gombe 60 celebrations and in collaboration with Andover Trees United, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots programme sponsored local Andover schools to take part in conservation activities at Harmony Woods.
Year 1 & 2 pupils from Appleshaw St Peter’s C of E Primary School have been the first to engage with the Gombe 60 celebration programme when they visited Harmony Woods in June. The children spent time with interning ecologist, Alex Marshall where they were introduced to basic field study techniques and learnt how to identify trees, wildflowers, birds and insects. The same group returned to the woods again in July to carry out further studies and revisit their trees planted in previous years. Appleshaw Primary class teacher, Mrs Preece said “the site looked stunning with all the wildflowers and the children were really engaged. They especially loved being real scientists gathering data using the quadrats.”
Project ecologist, Alex Marshall said “summer is the best time of year for the children to discover living species in Harmony Woods. The wildflower meadow is in full bloom, the insects are buzzing, the Skylarks are singing and the children get a completely different experience to the tree planting season during the winter which can be pretty cold and wet.”
Here's what some of the children had to say about their visit, which you as a GlobalGiving donor to our project have helped make possible:
On July 10th, the Nature in Harmony Exchange Project group plus two students from the local secondary school gave a presentation and guided walk in Harmony Woods as part of their John Muir Discovery award and Junior Foresters Award. Their presentations outlined the sorts of things they have been learning over the past year, including findings from their mini-project work. They then guided a group of visitors around the site, explaining the different types of habitats that are present there, the kinds of plants and animals that live there, and how they have been working to improve or create new habitats, too.
The morning was followed by refreshments and an award ceremony. It was a lovely few hours and we all feel very proud of what they have achieved over the past year, their hard work, respect, and commitment to the environment and their community.
Wildflowers and Butterflies
As July ends and the Sainfoin and Ox-eye Daisies go to seed, the Harmony Woods wildflower meadow has turned to a beautiful mixture of yellows and purples with Lady’s Bedstraw, Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Knapweed and Scabious. A favourite wildflower at the moment is the Scabious. This year we have seen three species of Scabious, two more than identified last year: Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis), Small Scabious (Scabiosa columbaria) and Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis)
Our regular Sparsholt College work experience student has taken over the data collection from our Butterfly Conservation transect. It is a great way for him to complete his course homework, improving his butterfly ID skills. He has recorded lots of different species including the Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Large White, Marbled White and Small Skipper.
Bug Hunt!
July 17th saw an Invertebrate Search event, part of our ecologist-led ongoing citizen science opportunities with the Nature in Harmony project. Volunteers of all ages came to Harmony Woods to help collect more data on the invertebrates living in the woods. 97% of all animal species on earth are invertebrates so, as you can imagine, we didn’t have to look very hard before finding any!
We had set 6 pitfall traps in the woods the night before - providing us with many large ground beetles and black spiders to identify. We saw lots of butterflies and species of hoverflies, huge dragonflies and tiny blue damselflies, centipedes, millipedes, worms, and snails. And it seems that Harmony Woods is a hotspot for woodlice and earwigs!
When next we report to you, we will be in the throes of preparing for the 10th tree plant and getting ready to receive the 10,000th young person to Harmony Woods. It is your generous donations that will be making this possible and for this we say a massive and heartfelt THANK YOU!
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