Meet The Trees. Autumn visit to the Ash tree

Thanks to the appointment of our project leader, Becky - a position made possible by a grant from the Ernest Cook Trust - Andover Trees United have been delivering activities with local schools for the ‘Meet The Trees’ project.

Previous visits in the Spring and Summer have taken place at the Trinley Estate (see video). Here, children learned about sustainable farming, woodland ecology and tree identification. Many thanks to the Trinley Estate for providing an ideal setting and helping to inspire young minds to engage with nature.

This autumn, Becky has been taking the school groups to a new woodland on the Englefield estate to visit an Ash tree that is due to be felled. The trip aims to introduce the children to the Ash as a living organism, teaching about how it grows and interacts with other organisms, as well as learning about sustainable forestry and methods of data collection.

The felling of the Ash and the impacts that this will have is a particularly important topic due to the fact that many Ash trees have been or will be lost from the British landscape due to the spread of Ash Dieback disease. Meaning that once the Ash is felled, it cannot be replaced with another tree of the same species. The project allows children to form an emotional connection with the tree and enables them to consider the many services that trees provide to both humans and ecosystems. As well as the positives and negatives of felling the tree, how the tree can be used as a resource after it is felled, and how woodlands can be sustainably managed.

School groups will visit the tree again early next year to watch the felling of the Ash.

A big thank you goes to the Englefield estate, especially Richard and his team of foresters, for allowing us to use their woodland and for donating their Ash tree and providing a felling team next year.

It’s Important to make sure we support sustainable resources, including wood. To do so, look for the FSC logo on any wood-related products before you buy. The FSC logo allows businesses and consumers to identify, purchase and use wood, paper and other forest products made with materials from well-managed forests and/or recycled sources.

Written by Alex Marshall.