Nature Supporting Community - Community Supporting Nature

All living things - plants, animals, people and their physical environments - are interconnected; they impact and depend on each other to survive.

At Andover Trees United, we strive to achieve positive outcomes for the environment, whether that be directly through the creation and management of wild spaces or indirectly, through education and the communication of environmental issues to our community.  

We work to increase biodiversity, care for the wood through traditional management practices, reduce and offset carbon emissions and to educate the public about the mitigating need for trees and the importance of conserving the natural environment; we provide opportunities for our community to learn about the wider environmental issues of sustainability, climate change, ecological damage and the implications for people, especially young people.

There is a plan: ‘Branching Out [2022-27]. Connecting nature and people remains at the heart of the work we do.

Benefits For People:

• Weekly work days for volunteers, offering opportunities to learn new skills in conservation and traditional woodland management

• Weekend conservation days on the second Saturday of each month

• Regular events and projects e.g.

  • Monthly guided walks

  • Children’s activities during school holidays

  • Fundraising events

  • Annual archaeological explorations

• Opportunities to connect with others nationally and internationally through partnerships with organisations such as Plant for the Planet and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots. 

• Opportunities to work with schools to deliver outdoor learning activities linked to nature through tree planting, wildflower growing and events such as the annual Peace Day procession

• A local outdoor learning site Harmony Woods and The Cabin for Youth Organisations, Guiding and Scouting Groups to use

  … all of which, in turn, provides opportunities to socialise, develop communication skills, gain experience in project and events management together with an improved sense of wellbeing, achieved through time spent outside in a beautiful natural setting.

"I like volunteering with Andover Trees United because it is about getting outdoors and getting involved. It is also really great to socialise; everyone has a really good sense of humour!

I am learning lots of outdoor skills like I did not know how to do mulching before and I am slowly learning all the different types of trees. I also really liked learning archaeology skills in the summer."

- Matt, 15

We have positively impacted nature in The Diamond Wood - and on other sites in the Andover area:

Benefits For Nature:

• Enhanced and improved habitats for locally occurring and at risk plant and animal species

• Diverse habitats – woodland, coppice, hedgerow, pond, flower meadow, short-cut grass, long grass, ponds

• Regular site surveys, data collection and monitoring programmes

  … which lead to improved understanding, better management and a positive outlook for nature and for people a base for environmental education, volunteering and training in conservation and habitat management

As of Nov 2025:

• 20,000 British native trees have been planted

• 34 species of British native trees have been planted

• 35 species of calcareous grassland wildflowers have been introduced - over 10000 plants raised from seed and added to the wood

• Key Lepidoptera species, including the Small Blue, have been supported by wildflower and tree planting

• The Nature in Harmony wildlife monitoring and data collection project has produced 5 years of data

• The butterfly transect across Harmony Woods, registered with Butterfly Conservation in 2017, has produced 9 years of data

• Wildlife ponds benefit all wildlife in the wood and provide a habitat for amphibians, aquatic invertebrates and plant diversity. 

• The ‘Habitat’s Trail’ (2021-22) now provides a learning-in-nature-space

• Habitats have been conserved for a range of birds including the red-listed Skylark, Greenfinch, Swift and House Martin

  15000 children and 1000s of adults have made a difference to nature, improving biodiversity, emotional connections, personal understanding and encouraging more responsible behaviours