The Trees In Harmony
From November 18th - 29th, Andover Trees United hosted their 8th annual Tree Planting Fortnight. Where members of the local community and pupils from 22 surrounding schools participated in the planting of 500 new British native trees in Harmony Woods. This number is expected to increase to 1000 when combined with the additional tree planting that will happen in the early months of 2020 as part of community workdays, a Plant-For-The-Planet academy, and the continuation of the beating up programme (replacing trees that were unsuccessful in the previous 3 years.
British native trees can be defined as trees which colonised the land after the last ice age, over 10,000 years ago, and before the UK was disconnected from mainland Europe.
Trees that have been brought to the UK by humans are classed as non-native.
A great variety of British native tree species acquired from the Woodland Trust and TCV’s ‘I Dig Trees’ were planted this year, these include:
Field maple
Rowan
Oak
Alder
Aspen
Silver birch
Downy birch
Hawthorn
Hazel
Crab apple
Dogwood
Goat willow
Grey willow
Holly
Wild cherry
Bird cherry
Hornbeam
Beech
The 23rd of November marked the halfway point of Tree Planting Fortnight, and also the start of National Tree Week, where organisations across the whole of the UK plant trees to enhance the British landscape, help protect biodiversity and combat climate change.
By ensuring that the trees we plant are native British species we can also help to preserve the UK's natural environment and restore British biodiversity. Yet, to make the challenge harder, UK trees are threatened by many diseases such as the current Ash Dieback and Dutch Elm disease which, 40 years ago, eradicated Elm trees from the British Landscape. However, thanks to a grant from The Tree Council, we were able to acquire 25 Dutch-elm-disease resistant Elm trees, one for each of our partner schools. Meaning that the local children are not only creating a community woodland, but they are reintroducing a much-loved tree back into the landscape.
Just like with the eradication of the Elm, Ash Dieback disease is currently wiping out our Ash trees. There are currently no Ash trees in Harmony Woods because of this. To highlight this, to introduce children to the tree and to link with Andover’s a cultural connection to the tree, we have teamed up with artist James Aldridge and Chapel Arts Studios, with funding from the Arts Council England, to deliver an art and outdoor learning project called Ash Tree Stream.
Ash Tree Stream will provide an opportunity for children to meet and learn about the work of a professional artist, many of them for the first time. I will support the children to develop new artistic skills through documenting their experiences of Ash Trees and their place in their local heritage (Andover is thought to get its name from ‘‘on dubr’ meaning Ash Tree Stream).
The year-long project will enable children and staff to use visual arts processes to learn about Ash trees and Ash dieback disease, outside of the classroom, and within the context of local cultural heritage and climate change. - James Aldridge
-Read more about the Ash Tree Stream project here.
Furthermore, in our Meet The Trees project, as part of 6 Trees and 6 Flowers, we have taken local school groups to visit an Ash tree on the Englefield Estate, who have very generously donated the tree along with a felling team. The visit to the Ash allowed students to learn about the tree, about sustainable forestry, about the impacts of losing the tree and it allowed them to connect with tree itself. Next year, the students will get the opportunity to watch the same Ash tree being felled and will follow the Ash’s journey as the wood meets it’s end users.
Are you an end-user of wood? (do you sell logs or charcoal, do you make things with wood, do you create artwork with wood, do you smoke food with wood, etc) We are currently actively seeking a range of different types of wood users to join our Ash tree project.
You will be supplied with a portion of the felled Ash tree for free, and in return, we ask that our school groups will be able to follow your work to help them learn about the many ways that trees can be used, we would like you to become a part of the project.
If you’re interested in getting involved, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! Email us at: volunteers@andovertrees.org.uk
