Lederman Trainee blog - October 22

Emma Chaplin
, 01 November 2022
Lederman Trainee blog - October 22
Mark Newton and Rosie Hutchings with the Stedham and Iping volunteers


Rosie

The time is flying by and we’re now 11 months into our traineeship! We’ve been very busy out on reserves practising skills we’ve learned, including woodland and heathland management strategies.

At Eridge Rocks, I used a chainsaw to open up an area of Willow, Hazel and Silver Birch. This was a really great opportunity to practise using different felling cuts and working out directions for fells. It was a lot of fun and I loved trying out different techniques and practising dealing with hung-up trees. I find it really satisfying to look at the site after the work’s done and see how much light has been let in. Later in the month, I spent the day with some volunteers on the same reserve, opening up a pathway by coppicing hazel using hand tools. It’ll be nice to revisit in the near future and see how this reserve has changed.

I carried out pesticide training this month. It was something I was initially sceptical about, as I don’t really like the idea of using chemicals, however it’s a very good skill to have as I now know how to use them safely on specified target areas and avoid contaminating other habitats. It’s sometimes necessary to use pesticides to control unwanted plant species in order to maintain a more biodiverse habitat.

Recently at Woods Mill, I supported Ryan Greaves who was running a Forest School session along with a research project titled ‘Risky Play’. We provided a morning of activities for a small group of children who were accompanied by their parents. Researchers from the University of Sussex observed the children and will use the results to explore how time spent outside and exposure to challenges will effect children’s emotional well-being and hormone levels. It was interesting to get involved with this group and I’m looking forward to hearing what the research shows!

Mark

At the start of October, I had the exciting experience of ringing a juvenile male Sparrowhawk at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve (RHNR). While bird ringing we usually encounter small songbirds like migrating Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, or resident Blue and Great Tits, so having the chance to ring a bird of prey was very special. Over the last year Rosie and I have been trained to ring birds by our BTO-licensed trainer (and RHNR Reserves Office) David King, learning how to identify, handle and care for the birds during the whole process. Gathering this data is important for conservationists, so that we can understand how bird populations are doing and then respond with the right kind of action to help them.

Like Rosie I also worked at Eridge Rocks reserve, joining Reserves Manager Jamie Parsons and his regular volunteers to improve the woodland habitat there. I was able to put my recently acquired chainsawing and tree-felling license to good use, thinning out the Birch, Sweet Chestnut and Hazel to create glades that will support species like Purple Hairstreak butterflies.

At the end of this month, we worked at Stedham Common with our boss and mentor Steve Webster, who continued our training on how to lead volunteer work groups. Our task was to cut down the hundreds of small pine trees that had grown throughout the heathers. Left to grow, they’d soon outcompete the heathland plants for light and space, and we’d lose the habitat to a less biodiverse coniferous woodland. Our volunteers did a fantastic job of removing the saplings and the heather should be blooming well and buzzing with heathland insects next year.

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