10000 Children - 10000 Trees - For You

Hello, everyone and welcome to our summer update. 

In this report, as well as sharing with you the work of our wonderful team as they continue to look after the wood, we are focussing on two of the young people who work with us - Hebe, our 2025 Ecology Intern and Youth Outreach Officer and Natalia, a member of our Youth Team and a true volunteer champion.

Hebe is an Ecology and Wildlife Conservation graduate with an interest in plants, environmental education, and practical conservation work. She is also passionate about horticulture and community gardens. Hebe joined the team in February and her original position - managing the annual data collection and reporting on the health of the wood - was extended in April to cover youth outreach and schools liason, essential to the charity's work to keep young people connected to the wood.

This is what Hebe had to say about her internship.

"I am excited to be the intern for 2025 at Andover Trees United. I’m looking forward to leading citizen science sessions, as I enjoy sharing nature with others. I am excited about gaining more experience in environmental education. In particular, I look forward to expanding my plant identification skills and developing my surveying skills. I am also looking forward to completing research and getting involved in practical conservation "

Natalia has been part of the Andover Trees Youth Team since 2021, regularly donating many volunteer hours to help run youth activities and support the intern. In April, we celebrated Earth Day—a reminder of our planet’s beauty and our shared duty to protect it. Fittingly, it was also the day Natalia began her work experience with ATU, during which she undertook a biodiversity survey of the pond, research that will help to guide future habitat management efforts.

Here’s what Natalia had to say about her journey with ATU. 

''I have been with ATU for nearly four years, having joined through the Nature in Harmony Exchange Project. Being at ATU has given me so many opportunities to work in a field of Youth Leading, giving kids an education while also having fun with crafts and I love seeing them grow through nature interaction. Volunteering with the Youth Academies and with the Intern has taught me so much knowledge that I am so grateful for and I cannot wait for my opportunities to work with likeminded people in the future.'' 

Both of these amazing young people have been central to the success of many of the charity's activities over the past four months, including:

Nature Explorers, school holiday activities in the wood devised and led by youth leaders Hebe, Natalia and Matt, managed and coordinated by volunteers Jolanta, Doreen and Wendy and local storyteller Amanda Kane-Smith. (Link below)

Sow Grow Plant, an annual project involving the general public and several hundred school children in sowing, pricking out and potting up wildflowers. 

Green Week, the UK’s biggest celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature, which this year brought together in the wood primary and secondary students from two local schools - Knights Enham Juniors and Harrow Way Community School.

Nature Nurture, a programme of nurturing nature activities in the wood for Andover Young Carers led by artist Liz Hammond, assisted by Hebe. (Link below)

Between the Barrows 2025, our annual community archaeological dig led by archaeologists Chris, Dom and Alex from Southampton University, which this year saw 50 adults and 100 children take part in an excavation to successfully uncover a Bronze Age ditch. (Link below)

And of course the regular work to care for the wood, carried out by our valued volunteer team, continued as usual. New signs have been installed, grass paths cut, trees and wildflowers nurtured, weekly nature surveys carried out and the annual beating up programme begun. 

In addition to this, a new woodland management office has been completed to provide a base for current and future interns and for Abbey, the charity's community engagement officer.

We finish this report by thanking you most sincerely for your support, which goes a long way to ensuring that we can continue to offer conservation and leisure activities for children and young people in the wood and provide opportunites for older youth in the form of internships and work experience.

Thank you.

Links:

• May Half-Term Holiday 'Nature Explorers'
• Nature Nurture for Andover Young Carers
• The Dig: Between the Barrows 2025