What We DO
Connecting to Nature… Growing Community
Andover Trees United is a volunteer-led group and registered charity working in partnership with schools, local authorities, businesses, specialist environmental organisations, artists and other creative practitioners to promote conservation, improve biodiversity, promote responsible access to natural wild spaces and improve understanding about the climate and nature crises and how we can all help.
"The wood is a lovely place to spend a morning or afternoon listening to the skylarks song, watch the swifts dive bomb the pond for insects or catch up with friends over a cuppa by the wood burning stove. In the last year I’ve learned to coppice hazel, identify potential Bronze Age artefacts, name at least 3 tree and 4 bird species, what a traditional British hedge is made up of and that we have volunteers who make great cakes.”
~Adrian (Volunteer)
Education
By working closely with 25 schools in Andover and surrounding villages, from 2012 - 2022 we welcomed 10000 children and young people, their teachers, families and friends to plant trees and wildflowers, resulting in the creation of our flagship community woodland, Harmony Woods. On completion of the main wood, our focus on community engagement is through wildflower meadow creation and hedgerow planting; annual children’s tree planting continues on other sites in partnership with local landowners.
Community
We run weekly training and volunteering sessions for adults of all ages and abilities in the wood, at our tree and wildflower allotment and in schools. Our volunteering efforts have recently been recognised by KAVS, a notary we are honoured to have received (2024). We run nature activities for children and their families and are developing youth environmental leadership programmes. By involving the whole community in creating a resource and a legacy for Andover in the form of new urban woodland, open and accessible to all, we aim to aid the development of a sense of community and inclusivity in our expanding town.
Nature
The charity’s wood and its facilities provide a wealth of opportunities for learning in and about the natural environment. It remains a long-term aim of our project to offer a space that inspires a love of the natural world through a wide-range of conservation and creative activities, that promotes an understanding of the climate crisis and the need for environmental stewardship and that encourages community cohesion through action that includes all, irrespective of age, ability, aptitude or ethnicity.
