Over two days, GoodGym volunteers joined Earthwatch at Mutton Brook to investigate how Barnet’s four Tiny Forests are developing.

The oldest forest, now four years old, is tall and healthy but it has already lived through some remarkable conditions. The UK first exceeded 40°C in 2022, 2025 became our warmest summer on record, and London is experiencing increasingly frequent periods of extreme heat and dry soil. These forests are becoming valuable living experiments in how young urban woodland copes with a changing climate.

On the second day, a great turnout meant we completed the required belt transects across all four forests. Along each straight line, we measured every tree growing within half a metre on either side, creating a one-metre-wide sample. Repeating this process in future years will show how quickly the trees are growing and allow Earthwatch to estimate how much carbon they are storing.

We also managed some valuable weeding, reducing competition for water before the welcome rain arrived. in particular, thank you to Patrick and Abdellah

Among the three newer forests, the middle one where the ground was prepared with biochar appears to be faring better than those on either side. That is only an observation for now, but the measurements will help reveal whether that difference continues. This is exactly what makes the site so interesting.

Thank you to Grace, Earthwatch and everyone who came along. We hope to hold regular sessions with GoodGym and the Friends group, so come and help us follow the story of these trees as it unfolds.

Soussi abdellah went on his first GoodGym community mission helping the Friends group at Stephens House and Gardens.

I arrived at the session and was warmly welcomed by one of the volunteers, who introduced me to the others, including Noah and Catherine.

We then went into the garden and spent the morning removing weeds from under the trees, working until around midday. After we finished, they kindly invited me to join them for a cup of tea. I stayed for a short while before heading back for lunch.

It was a really enjoyable and rewarding morning. It felt good to do something useful, and the setting itself is beautiful, historic, and a lovely place to spend time.

Photo of the wonderful wisteria on the turret at the café

Weather was a bit nippy but pleasant when sun was out. Anna from Energy Gardens was joined by a couple of the regular local volunteers, Lisa and Margaret , by Paul and Subham from GoodGym and also Abdellah. We planted some tomato plants and other plants as well as deadheaded and cleared some of the plants that were on their way out. Great to see many of the seedlings now are growing plants and the artichokes look especially good! As always, we received many heartfelt thanks from many commuters as well as were told we were an inspiration.