Lederman Trainees’ Blog March 2022: Tree-felling, Forest Schooling and a Newt on the Doorstep

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, 23 March 2022
Lederman Trainees’ Blog March 2022: Tree-felling, Forest Schooling and a Newt on the Doorstep

By Mark Newton and Rosie Hutchings
Lederman Trainees

Rosie

March has been a very busy month of training for me. I started off with a week of Forest School training, something completely new for me. I didn’t know much about the Forest School ethos, so it was really nice to develop an understanding of how it all works. I loved trying different crafts, learning to tie knots and refining my fire building skills. Forest School is something I would have loved to take part in as a child and it’s great to see it becoming more accessible.

After a full on week in the forest, I had an equally busy week of chainsaw training. I really enjoyed this, as it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Having now got my licence I can put it to good use around the estate. I will be using this skill to manage trees in a beneficial way for nature. For example, we have a number of ponds which are very deprived of sunlight in the woodland here at Leysdown. Having this licence will allow me to pollard some of the surrounding trees, reducing the canopy to let more light into the pond and hopefully increase biodiversity.

Spring is finally here, which means things are beginning to reappear from states of dormancy (a good example being the Smooth Newt I found on our doorstep at the cottage some days ago!). I’m looking forward to conducting some flora and fauna surveys in the coming weeks, to record the different species present here at Leysdown. This will include small mammal trapping, newt surveying and woodland habitat management.

Mark

In comparison with Rosie’s month, March has been a much less busy one for me thanks to Covid! I became ill at the start of the month and was absent from work for a fortnight. My chainsaw training has been rescheduled for later in the year, but thankfully I fully recovered in time to attend my Forest School Leader training.

I spent a week in the woods at Tilgate Park in Crawley with ten other trainee-practitioners. We all learned bushcraft skills and discovered so much about ourselves through exploration, self-reflection and play. Our trainers Renzo Spano and Mike Murphy of Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Communities and Wildlife team introduced us to the tenets of Forest School: We learned how the practice develops the participant’s self-esteem, independence, confidence and practical skills, and improves their well-being and resilience through active engagement and exploration in a natural setting such as the woods. An important aspect of the practice is how learners can explore woodlands with purpose, and establish a positive relationship with the natural world - something I think we can all agree the world needs more of!

With Renzo and Mike’s expert guidance and support, we all had such a great experience and each of us is looking forward to preparing and implementing our own Forest School programme in the coming months. Watch this space!

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