Summer event success at Great Avon Wood

Avon Needs Trees aims to create publicly accessible green space for people to explore the natural and cultural heritage at our sites. This summer has seen a wide range of events take place at our 113 acre site in the Lower Chew Valley.

We got off to a keen start in May with two events as part of Bristol Walkfest: an Early Morning Bird Walk with Ed Drewitt and a tour of the developing Woodland Trail across the whole site. Our bird walk was worth getting up for as we enjoyed the company of 26 birds including Song Thrush, Blackcaps, Gold Crests, Swallows, a Kestrel, a Green Woodpecker and three Skylarks soaring high above the meadow.

May also saw the first of our tree identification walks with ecologist Neill Talbot as we delved into Springtime tree id across the Wansdyke Wood section of the site. This was followed up recently with our Summer tree identification walk around Hermitage Wood. Look out for our autumn tree walk in October around Hicks Mead. For younger folks we recently held another Family Nature Activities event with bug hunts and nature trails to explore wildlife at the site.

We aim to welcome diverse communities to the project and to break down barriers to involvement. This year young people from Into University, who aim to expand horizons and opportunities, followed up their winter tree planting session with a summer forest school and tree care session. Students from the LGBTQ community at Bristol Uni attended an ‘Out in Nature’ wellbeing and reflection session in the shade of the Publow Oak. Most recently, wellbeing and nature sessions have been shared with a Bristol Muslim women’s group and Grief Encounters, supporting bereaved young people.

All these events are provided free and we are grateful to the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund for enabling this. You can see all our upcoming events here.