Nature in Harmony Exchange Project 2022-2023
Our youth team - the Nature in Harmony Exchange Project - meet on the second Saturday of each month in Harmony Woods for activities related to ecology, conservation, and woodland management. As part of the exchange project with the Corcovado Foundation in Costa Rica, each month a member of the team writes an email to their Central American counterparts outlining what they have done in each session.
Saturday 9th September - written by Matt, Natalia, and Sophie
At our Nature in Harmony Exchange Project session this month we held our AGM, Annual General Meeting, which is required of all charities across the country. We started the day by welcoming members of the public to Harmony Woods. This is where members of the youth group demonstrated their knowledge of the developing woodland and all its features. Participants took it in turns to talk about the different features of the woods and the history behind it all, this meant leading the public around the woods in a relaxed and casual fashion before going down to a local hall for the formal business of the AGM. Once this was done members of the youth group took turns to talk about their own projects they had created; we had everything from replica birdhouses and bat boxes to tree identification. The day was then brought to a close with awards, many thanks and a buffet-style lunch.
Here is what some of our participants said about the day:
Being able to introduce myself as one of the co-leaders of the Youth Group at the AGM felt amazing! Along with this, introducing the public to some of the projects around the woods with the youth group gave me such a warm feeling! It’s amazing to see how many people can get involved in conservation. - Natalia , New Youth Group Co-leader
My day at the AGM was very nice! The walk, even though it was hot, it was nice to show people around and the work we have done. The meeting went well with the presentation, and the youth project went smoothly which I was very happy about :) - Sophie, 1st year participant
Saturday 12th August - written by Kitty
Today at the woods we planned our AGM walk for when we do a guided walk to the public. After doing that we practiced identifying trees, and then we talked about our mini projects and how they are going.
This was the Exchange Project’s final session of the 2022-2023 year. The 2023-2024 year will start in September, when the group will be leading a guided walk around Harmony Woods for members of the public, and giving presentations about their work this year and their personal mini-projects, at our 2023 AGM on Saturday 9th September.
After the session the group stayed to take part in ATU’s monthly Saturday community workday, where the task was sculpting and shaping mounds of earth to create the Dragon Garden, a serpent-shaped landscaped garden on the edge of the woods.
Photos below, by Alex Marshall and Terri Forbes: (L-R) Yew tree, Hazel tree, Dragon Garden creation
Saturday 8th July 2023
The team took part in a bioblitz event, where the aim is to find and record as many species as possible within a certain amount of time. Despite the wind and heavy rain, they had great fun and helped to find a total of 73 species of plants and animals.
The next NIHEP session is on 12th August.
Saturday 10th June 2023
This was a discussion session where the group sat down to talk about the youth programme - what they like, what could improve, structure and content, and when the next trip to Costa Rica should be. This was to help us review the programme before recruiting for a new cohort to start in September. At the end of the session they had a visit from another young person to talk about fundraising for volunteering trips abroad, to help give them ideas for when they’ll be raising money to go to Costa Rica.
Saturday 13th May 2023 - written by Natalia
During this month’s Exchange Project session we started with our Engaging Senses before heading over to the Conservation Corner to survey and then plan what we want to do with it in the future. This involved us spreading out in a line with about a metre between us, walking three steps and then identifying the plants we saw around us in a quadrat-sized space. We then discussed what we want to do with the Conservation Corner from next month, deciding to plant flowers that attract a variety of different butterfly species and bees as well.
Each cohort in their first year has to create a habitat area - the Pinch Point was made in 2021, then Conservation Corner in 2022. In their second year each cohort has to decide a plan for how their created habitat is to be managed and maintained.
Saturday 8th April 2023 - written by Matt
Due to this being the Easter break we were low on numbers, including Laura and Sarah there was only 6 but this was nice to have a smaller group.
We started the session by doing a sound map to help us engage our senses, recording sounds we could hear around us. We spent ten minutes doing this and then shared our sketches with each other and explained our ideas as well as discussing what we heard. Then we played ‘Meet A Tree’, taking it in turns to be blindfolded and led to a tree, where we use our hands to get to know it before being led back and figuring out which tree it was.
Once we had done this we went down to Conservation Corner, which was our youth team project from last year, to discuss how we were going to maintain it and take it forward. Among the ideas discussed we decided we will do some new surveying of different areas in preparation for planting more wildflowers later in the year.
Lastly we moved round to the Pinch Point we created as our 2021 project, to check up on it and see what maintenance and improvements we need to put in place going forward.
After the session, 2 of us volunteered to stay on and help Laura and Sarah replace three trees that had unfortunately died, completing this with water and mulch.
The Sound Map and Meet A Tree are activities the group learned at a recent Outdoor Learning Training weekend at Harmony Woods, led by Chris Holland Nature Connection (https://www.wholeland.org.uk/). The sound map involves sitting quietly in an outdoor space for at least 10 minutes and using pen and paper to make a map of the sounds all around you. An ‘X’ in the middle of the paper marks the sit spot, and you make different marks such as dots and dashes (or just words, if that’s easier!) to represent the sounds. It’s a great way to slow down and tune into your surroundings.
The group enjoyed learning a wide range of outdoor activities designed to increase connection to and understanding of the natural world. They'll be using the training to help lead sessions during our school holiday programmes. The weekend was made possible thanks to the support and generous sponsorship of Stannah, and we are extremely grateful for their ongoing commitment to our work.
Saturday 11th March 2023 - written by Conall
At this month's session we started by engaging our senses. We sat still and listened to the world around us.
We then planted two Scots Pine trees which joined the one we planted last year. There’s now one for each cohort.
The first year members took part in a litter pick to make sure Harmony Woods is kept as beautiful as it should be. The older members had a planning session ready for their camping weekend at the end of March.
Saturday 11th February 2023 - written by Kara
In the February Exchange Project session we did winter tree identification. We went around Harmony Woods in small groups and looked at the twigs and buds to try and ID the trees we have there, then designed our own winter tree ID sheets.
Saturday 14th January 2023 - written by Matt
We began our January session, the first of the new year in the classic British weather of rain and high winds well almost. Our first task to be getting on with was to lay a path out of wood chippings and bark to stop the spread of mud. The weather was great until Jess decided to comment on that and we all had to take shelter from the rain.
Next we spoke about different habitats such as log piles and then we formed into pairs and groups to build our own log piles to provide the wildlife around with a habitat to call home. We made the log piles in dark and damp places from a mixture of twigs, bark, leaves and grass and anything else we find around the area.
Later in the session when some of us had finished our habitats we went to collect and move some mulch from the site entrance to the hedgerow that was going to be maintained that afternoon, during the volunteer workday session which some of the youth group stay on for. Unfortunately for everyone involved despite years of experience up at the woods I decided to lead everyone on a wild goose chase by taking the longest possible route, luckily we realised the trip back was much quicker.
Saturday 10th December 2022 - written by Erin
Last session was beautiful, everything was covered in white and it looked like a winter wonderland. We had to survey the eastern side of the site to see what types of trees were growing there, and talked about what risks were around and what we could do to avoid or fix these risks.
Saturday 12th November 2022 - written by Natalia
At the session we had at Harmony Woods we started by engaging our senses within our Hazel Circle before heading up to the Pinch Point to monitor and weed it. We started by checking whether the trees planted either side of the pinch point were dead or alive and if they were dead, we marked them with red tape to notify us they need to be replaced. After this we were then tasked with weeding around the trees to help them maximise the amount of nutrients and sunlight they were getting. A couple of the members of the cohort also decided in the wheelbarrow where we were gathering all the weeds and thistles to make a pirate ship to entertain themselves before taking it back to the cabin to be bagged up and disposed of properly.