Posts Tagged ‘nature reserve’

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Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

 

It’s hard for us to believe but we’ve now been with DWT for six months. It’s been a busy time that has seen us losing our wellies in mires, lost on foggy moSwaling 2013ors, and waist deep in muddy ditches which pong. We have, however, enjoyed working on the reserves and experiencing the wide variety of habitats that DWT looks after. To help preserve these habitats we’ve carried out lots of scrub clearance and selective felling with chainsaws, mostly birch, willow and gorse. As well as felling trees we’ve also planted trees, sounds like a contradiction but it’s what and where that counts! The work has also involved mending fencing for stock control, boardwalk repairs  so our visitors can continue to enjoy the reserves with relative ease, coppicing, swaling (very exciting, and can turn a freezing wintry day into a blaze of heat) and hedge laying. Some of our more entertaining moments have been trying to master the bowline knot for use when winching trees (turns out this is far more complicated than just a rabbit, a hole, and a tree) and we’re experts at getting our ‘off road’ landrovers bogged down!
As well as learning from practical tasks we’ve also ‘bandaged each other up’ in first aid training, completed  two chainsaw courses and next month we’ll attend a brushcutter course.
The winter work is coming to an end now and we’ll soon start carrying out more wildlife surveys. We’ve already seen the fiAdder 2013rst butterflies (comma, tortoiseshell and brimstone) and reptiles like common lizards, and an adder which was happy to pose for a picture.

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Exciting 50th year

Friday, November 23rd, 2012

It has been an exciting 50th year as Trustee Andrew Cooper explains:

‘The generous gift of Emsworthy on Dartmoor was a significant step for the Devon Wildlife Trust. Being given one of the most inspiring places in Devon, was I thought going to be the icing on the cake for our 50th birthday. Yet even before the last bluebells had faded this year, the offer of acquiring some of the surrounding land came hot on its heels. Funding from government agencies and generous donations have enabled the trust to successfully acquire more of this important area for wildlife.

Then, as if that was not thrilling enough, the prospect of the Devon Wildlife Trust also owning part of the World Heritage Jurassic Coast loomed over the horizon. The Axe Undercliff in the far east of the county is one of the most important wildlife sites in Britain. Funders and some generous donations have now made that acquisition a real possibility.  An appeal to our members is starting to close the financial gap but time is getting tight. Let us hope for more excitement in the New Year.’

Donate to the Axe Undercliff appeal

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‘Summer time’ on the reserves

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

 

Summer, what summer?

Normally sunshine, surveys and strimming; this year, showers, damp surveys and chainsawing.

Here is a brief snapshot of work carried out on some of our reserves:

Old Sludge Beds
Due to the wet weather only 53% of the water we would normally abstract from the canal has been required.

Andrew’s Wood
The annual heath lobelia count showed that numbers were down from last year, although this follows the
trend shown for the last few decades.  Many volunteer groups including the monthly group, The Wrigley Company and BTCV have been carrying out boardwalk construction, pond enlargement, scrub clearance, fence repairs and grassland management.

Dunsford
Bracken management, butterfly surveys and hypericum counts.

Ash Moor
New signs and a self-guided trail installed.

Woodah
Orchard management involved weeding around trees and adding extra barbed wire after a deer nibbled the top of a young tree.  Matting was checked for damage by voles etc.  A ridiculous amount of ragwort and thistles have been cut, pulled or slashed by a multitude of willing volunteer groups and staff.

A bat emergence survey was carried out on the buildings due to be renovated in the courtyard.
Planning has been approved and we are hoping to use green oak from Dunsford or Scanniclift for a timber framed building.

The Rough
A contractor reported that an ‘impressive numbers of glow worms’ made her night!

Venn Ottery
Seven southern damselflies emerged this year, this is very exciting as they should only appear every two year so it appears some have broken the cycle.

Uppacott Wood
A new gate and signage have been installed. A large straight oak was felled in preparation for making into the bridges and boardwalk that the site requires.

Bystock
Over 300 people attended events put on during Heath Week; glow worms, bats and nightjars were all spotted. Volunteers and ponies have been keeping the meadow and heathland valley looking fantastic.

Bovey Heathfield
Lots of fencing work carried out. More hibernaculms constructed for reptiles.  A very successful open day on a rare sunny day!

Clayhidon Turbary – Our newest site.
Monitoring work has allowed us to see grass snakes, lizards and green hairstreak butterflies.  No escape from bracken and scrub clearance work; the tractor and flail plus Exeter University staff have helped us out.

 

Across the reserves
We managed to make 150 round bales in July to feed the Trust’s herd this winter. Pied flycatchers nested in more boxes this year than last.

Several areas on culm sites where rush has become dominant have been topped and the regrowth treated with a quad bike and weep wiper, the results look promising.

Due to the delightful weather we have used chainsaws more than any other summer in recent years.  Fallen trees, blocked paths and windblown branches have kept us busy!

 

 

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Fungal forays

Tuesday, October 9th, 2012

Autumn is the perfect time of year to learn more about fungi.  We have fungal forays at:

See more DWT events

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Tina Luxton, Helpdesk Volunteer and Grazing Volunteer

Friday, October 5th, 2012

‘I have been volunteering with Devon Wildlife Trust since January 2012 to supplement my studies for a foundation degree in Countryside Management. Up until very recently I’ve been carrying out the rewarding role of Wildlife Information Officer for DWT’s Helpdesk service, based at Cricklepit Mill in Exeter. This involved working with a great team of staff and volunteers answering wildlife related enquiries from the public. Through this experience I have not only developed my wildlife knowledge, my organisational and communicational skills, but have also made some great friends.

Alongside this I have also been volunteering on the Trust’s Grazing Links project as a Grazing Assistant. I am thoroughly enjoying all aspects of this role, from practical tasks such as stock management and machinery care to site assessments and survey work. I feel fortunate to be learning from very experienced members of staff who have really helped me develop my knowledge and skills in an area I am particularly passionate about and hoping to become more involved in as part of my future career.

I would highly recommend volunteering for Devon Wildlife Trust especially if you are looking to gain employment within the conservation sector. Not only are the staff friendly and supportive, they also treat you as a valued member of the team. I am often invited to team meetings and staff training days, the latter of which has provided some excellent networking opportunities with external bodies such as Natural England and the Environment Agency. All in all, volunteering with the Trust is very rewarding on many levels!’

Find out about other volunteer opportunities with DWT

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Autumn has arrived

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Geoff Hearnden, DWT Trustee, talks about the arrival of autumn on his Devon farm

‘House martins and swallows have started their return to Africa. Blackbirds are beginning to eat our cotoneaster berries. Spiders need regular rescue from baths and tawny owls are starting to call from their daytime perches. Soon there will be fungus forays on some of DWT’s reserves and milling days at Cricklepit.

On the farm autumn shows the massive damage caused by grey squirrels, with many of our 15 year old oaks badly scarred and several aspens dead, completely devoid of bark. With the help of a small tracked excavator we have also cleaned out perhaps more than a ton of pond weed from one of our ponds; alien introductions are bad news for established ecosystems

In September I attended an open day at DWT’s Bovey Heathfield nature reserve celebrating its 10th anniversary. I was introduced to potter wasps which manufacture beautiful miniature pots in which a single larva is reared on paralysed caterpillars. When the trust took on this site it was littered with burnt out cars and eroded by motor bikes, now it is a flourishing remnant of once common heathland. Just one example of how careful consistent management can produce magical results.’

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From the reserves

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

Brushcutting, fencing, butterflies, plant identification and wildlife discovery days. The full-time nature reserve volunteers report:

‘Despite the poor weather the summer months have brought with them so far, we haven’t let the rain dampen our spirits, having made the most of occasional dry days and got out to continue with butterfly walks. Through this we have witnessed the shift from the early emerging pearl-bordered fritillaries we saw in the spring, to the larger, later emerging species such as the silver-washed fritillary.

As summer has marched on the vegetation has continued to rampage, and so much of our work has involved brushcutting and slashing as we try and keep paths clear for visitors and stay on top of the bracken and brambles. Fencing has also featured high on the list of summer tasks, and so we are all now well experienced in the use of fencing pliers and monkey strainers – a curiously named tool used to tension wire!

Along with other Devon Wildlife Trust volunteers we were lucky enough to attend plant training courses (funded by The Wildflower Society) at three of our reserves with the incredibly knowledgeable botanist Jeremy Isons, improving our plant identification skills no end. In addition we completed an environmental education course with fellow long-term volunteers at Wembury Marine Centre. As well as being great fun, the course put us in good stead to keep the groups of children, who recently visited Woodah for the ‘Wildlife Discovery Days’, well entertained!’

The Nature reserves volunteers are supported by the P.E. Wortley-Talbot Charitable Trust.

Volunteer on one of DWT’s nature reserve practical task days

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Winter work on DWT’s nature reserves

Friday, May 18th, 2012

New panels at Ash Moor nature reserve Dec 2011Andrew Warren, DWT Nature Reserves Assistant, gives us an update on the work the nature reserves team have been doing over the winter.

‘It’s not all been chainsawing and burning this winter…

  • Rackenford – several large patches of scrub were cleared by contractors, staff and volunteers. This was mainly willow, which is difficult to burn especially on an exposed, wet site and even more challenging in the snow.
  • Venn Ottery – extra dams were created to enlarge the areas of slow moving water required by the southern damselfly.  A barn owl box was put up by the Barn Owl Trust after they checked the site for suitability.
  • Halsdon – contractors have thinned the scrub and reduced the woodland understorey in some areas of the reserve.
  • Bystock – lots of holly and laurel clearance has taken place.  The car park has also been resurfaced.
  • Chudleigh Knighton – scrub clearance, coppicing and glade enlargement.  Fire breaks cut and swailing carried out on the whole reserve.
  • Dunsford – woodland track reinstated, glade clearance and coppicing work.
  • Marsland – the number of dormice nests have increased in the transect survey area.  Students from Petroc College in Barnstaple have helped with coppicing, cutting and raking work increase habitat areas for the small pearl bordered fritillary butterflies.  The new office at Gooseham Mill was used for a nature reserves team meeting. The nature garden has been cleared and extended. Butterfly transects have started.
  • Andrew’s Wood – a new interpretation board and way marker posts have been put in.  Several hedgelaying events were organised.  Woodland edge coppicing.
  • Dart Valley – gorse and alder buckthorn clearance.  Scrub clearance with the Wildlife Hit Squad, working alongside Natural England, Butterfly Conservation, BTCV and Exeter University.
  • Bovey Heathfield – ongoing scrub clearance and hibernaculum work.
  • Old Sludge Beds – reed management and gathering for reptile project sites (egg laying heaps).
  • Lickham Common – scrub clearance and hibernaculum building.
  • Ashmoor – regular sightings of male hen harrier for the third winter in a row.  New interpretation panels installed on the boardwalk, by the pond and near the old pits.
  • Swanpool Marsh – willow clearance to help re-wet the site.
  • Uppacott Wood – ride and glade work, some felling work to let more light in.
  • Veilstone – Culm restoration and lots of felling work carried out by contractors.

Many of these tasks have been carried out with help from our regular volunteer groups and corporate groups.

 

Help out on a nature reserve task day or find out more about these reserves

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The spring season begins

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Nature reserve volunteers Surveying May 2012Long term nature reserve volunteers Wendy, Ellie and James report

‘As we move into the spring the skills learnt during winter habitat management work are put to one side as we are called to face the different challenges of this vibrant season. Chainsaws give way to cameras, tractors to transects, hand tools to hand lenses and bonfires to binoculars as we have the opportunity to observe the results of our hard work.

We recently attended a hoverfly training course at Marsland Nature Reserve to spend the day learning about this little studied but fascinating insect. Other recent training opportunities arranged by DWT include courses on the bird species of Culm grassland, mosses & lichens.

A day spent with the Devon Rural Skills Trust at Woodah Farm produced some stunning ‘hedgerow chairs’ from the excess materials created during hedgelaying, three of which now proudly sit outside the door to our flat!

The DWT Wildlife Festival in Exeter gave us a chance to share the work we do with a much wider audience and for us to see what DWT’s nature reserves mean to the people who visit them.

Being able to observe the interaction of wildlife with the areas we have worked in gives us a chance to reflect on the long-term effect of the work that we have been doing.’

Volunteer on one of DWT’s nature reserve practical task days

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Nature reserves long term volunteer – Wendy Holland

Thursday, May 10th, 2012


‘I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Devon Wildlife Trust. Being a recent graduate I am looking to begin my career in the conservation sector and the Volunteer Estate Worker position will enable me to gain invaluable practical experience which will aid me immeasurably in the future. It is wonderful that Devon Wildlife Trust are able to provide such opportunities for people new in the conservation sector as without such schemes it would be a lot harder to gain the experience and qualifications necessary to secure a permanent position. Everyone I have met at the Trust has been supportive and friendly. I am thoroughly looking forward to my time here.’

Every year DWT recruits three long term volunteers to help DWT staff look after the nature reserves. To find out if there are any positions available have a look at the Volunteer Opportunities or Job Vacancies page.

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