Ecology and Conservation (Journal)

[THOaken]

I hope this is in the right place. It's not exactly a trip report, but this seemed to fit best. Mods can move it if they wish.

Hello, all. Decided I will keep a diary or journal of sorts, a bit like when I was at Butser Ancient Farm doing the boat build. I haven't been on BCUK for a while, so I thought I might post what I've been up to and what I'm going to be doing over the next few months. I started my diploma in Conservation and Wildlife Management in September and have done quite a lot. Obviously it's a bit difficult to summarise months of learning, but I can give an overview of my opinion of the course and the sorts of activities I've been doing. Perhaps it might nudge someone in the direction of studying ecology/conservation (maybe even at Sparsholt - I would thoroughly recommend this). I'm not really a fan of introspection as it sounds a bit to self-centred, but this might give me a chance to reflect on the course and my progression.

So I'm finding the course to be generally excellent. Not only are the lecturers experienced industry professionals, we also get to work with rangers from the National Trust and others such organisations. We get to go out on site visits when we do our practicals. These are most often estate skills such as stock fencing, hedge laying, building dormose boxes, but some management techniques we perform include gorse cutting, tree planting and coppicing and scrub clearance. Interestingly, the course has turned out to be far more academic than I'd have thought. Practicle work is actually a very small part of the course. We cover all major habitats over the two years. This year the primary units have been POWPEC (Ecology Principles of Wildlife Populations Ecology and Conservation), Woodlands, Heathlands and Grasslands, and Environmental Science. Early on in the course for a few weeks we covered the development of the countryside, which allowed me to interject with a few points about my experience at Butser Ancient Farm, which was quite nice. We also do ID tests on birds, mammals, ancient woodland indicator plants and so forth. As you can imagine they have ramped up in difficulty. I'm preparing for the ancient woodland indicator test next term, in which I have to learn 40 common names, scientific/taxonomic names, and their AWI statuses. We're currently doing surveys to build up to a portfolio, such as Phase One Habitat and simplified National Vegetation Classification. There is much more than this, but I want to keep this first entry fairly brief and I doubt you'd want to hear absolutely every detail!

There is a unit called the Investigative Project in which the student is to independently produce an artefact on a subject relating to the land based industries. If anyone reading this follows me on Facebook, they'll know I produced a double sided A2 poster presentation/report on the relationship between plants and humans. The hypothesis was that an understanding of and connection to the myriad uses of plants can promote conservation awareness in urban communities. I say this because I mentioned Bushcraft in there a few times.

I'm happy to say that, after working very hard, I currently have top marks in all assignments and am really enjoying my time at Sparsholt. In June I'm off to Scotland once again to volunteer for 3 weeks at Creag Meagaidh NNR, full and free accommodation. I'm not sure if I'll make a separate thread for that. Here's an assortment of the sorts of activities I've been doing. Lots of photos and it would take quite a while to put them in chronological order, so here's just a few chosen at random.

Cheers everyone. I hope some of you found this interesting.

 

[Jackdaw]

Looks like you're on a good course there. If you every need any pointers then feel free to get in touch.

Jack.

 

[THOaken]

Looks like you're on a good course there. If you every need any pointers then feel free to get in touch.

Jack.

Cheers, Jackdaw. I've seen your site before. Good stuff there.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Baelfore]

Hey Taylor,

Glad to here the course is going so well and you are clearly getting so much from it!

good to see you back on here too, we missed reading about your exploits!

ATB,
Ste

 

[THOaken]

Thanks all. Here's that presentation I was talking about earlier. You can just about read it if you zoom in, but if anyone wants I'll upload a higher resolution version.

I ended up getting a distinction and plenty of praise for this, but I'm not too happy with some aspects of it. Due to time constraints I had to really cut back on some detail. Still, it's a fair amount of work considering I had to juggle other academic work.

Hope you enjoy.

Edit: Looks like you can't zoom in. Here's a link to it so that you can: http://i.imgur.com/4HZLUJu.jpg

 

[Jackdaw]

Looks like a very good piece of interpretation there. You'll find that your bushcraft skills will increase in line with your surveying skills. I only went on my wildlife and countryside conservation course because I wanted to run similar survival courses for civilians as I had run in the Army. A quick SWOT analysis and I decided that there was too much I didn't know, so I picked a course and haven't looked back. However, instead of entering an already flooded market, I went into consultancy. My heart is still in conservation but it just doesn't pay the bills.

If you ever in the East Yorkshire area and we are in the bat season I would be more than happy to run some informal survey training for you.

 

[THOaken]

I thought since I've just posted my investigative project, I might talk about some of the work on the course. The assignments are surprisingly rigorous. Not degree level rigorous, of course, but a lot more academic than I had anticipated. It's great. I've written a 20 page management plan for a heathland site, written a woodland survey report, discussed ecology and the mechanics of evolution, produced grassland/heathlands ecology leaflets and more. I genuinely find it all interesting, so interesting in fact my average page count for such work is around 17 pages! I'm currently producing a poster/report on a soil science survey done around the Test Valley. All in all the course is more than I expected and I'm glad I've managed to get as much out of it as I can. And there's another year to go. I'm planning to do the degree, but we'll see how it all goes.

@Jackdaw: Indeed, the two are pretty well intertwined, are they not? And it's interesting you went into consultancy. I've thought about if that's the path I want to take. I find legislation interesting in parts, and we've covered a lot of it on the course, but not sure how much I'd want to be inside and/or dealing with developers.

Cheers.

 

[Bowlander]

Looks a good course, I did Countryside Management at Bishop Burton in 1993/1995. A really broad range of subjects stood me in good stead for work. Volunteering at every opportunity helped as well.

 

[THOaken]

Looks a good course, I did Countryside Management at Bishop Burton in 1993/1995. A really broad range of subjects stood me in good stead for work. Volunteering at every opportunity helped as well.

Good stuff, Bowlander. And I see you're an upland ecologist. Mind if I ask what your daily routine is like?

Oh and Jackdaw, I forgot to say thanks for the opportunity. If ever that's the case, I'll make sure to contact you. Thanks again.

 

[Jack Bounder]

Hi THOaken. I did a similar course to you at Merristwood College called Countryside Recreation (National Diploma). Basically, it was training to become a Countryside Ranger / Warden. You had to have worked as a volunteer to be accepted onto the course. I had been working as a full time volunteer for the RSPB in several reserves across the UK but was living and working at Killiecrankie, Perthshire when I applied to do the course. Luckily, the Scots agreed to pay my bursary to do the three year course, even though I had only been living there for 6 months. My home council (London Borough of Sutton) would not support me. I passed with distinction.

This set me on a course into higher education and, basically, everything I have today I owe to Perthshire paying for my bursary. I also met my wife at Merristwood (she was doing the same course). Unfortunately, a series of events conspired to move me away from ecology and conservation and into other pursuits. Today, wildlife and the outdoors is more of a past time rather than a job.

I wish you good luck with the course at Sparsholt. Who knows where it will end but enjoy the journey anyway.

 

[Jackdaw]

I've thought about if that's the path I want to take. I find legislation interesting in parts, and we've covered a lot of it on the course, but not sure how much I'd want to be inside and/or dealing with developers.

Cheers.

I think you may have the wrong idea on consultancy. Knowledge of the legislation is important, but beyond an indication on whether I think an offence will be committed or not i.e. non-technical legal advice, it's not really a part of what I do. My work is involved in the conservation of protected species under threat from development. If you take it as a given that development is always going to take place (I understand that no development would better for the environment) then you need subject matter experts in place to affect the decision and design making process of developers and architects where protected species are present. My work is mainly surveying for protected species and then providing guidance on the best way (for the species) to progress the development should they be present. This usually involves some form of plan that ideally avoids any impact to the species present. If that is not possible then we come up with a plan to reduce or mitigate for the impact. Beyond that the developer can apply for a licence to carry out the work that would otherwise be an offence. The decision remains with them and Natural England, or one of the other Statutory Nature Conservation Organisation. My job is to report on the presence of a species and the likely impact of the development. I'm not sure if that is what you meant by being inside. If it is then, rest assured that I am working for the protection of wildlife, not allowing it's destruction. If you meant inside as in "sat at a desk" then, again, don't worry; I'm out most of the time and only put in desk-time when I absolutely have to get a report out.

The offer of practical survey experience is still there because, as you already understand, being able to identify what is already there will underpin and inform the best management plan.

 

[Jack Bounder]

....My heart is still in conservation but it just doesn't pay the bills....

Most definitely true and the reason I decided not to pursue a career in ecology. I earned less as a ecological research contractor working for the Central Science Labs (York) than as a graduate engineer for a blue chip software house. Fortunately, my Masters degree in Biological Computation provided some flexibility in career choice.

 

[THOaken]

I think you may have the wrong idea on consultancy. Knowledge of the legislation is important, but beyond an indication on whether I think an offence will be committed or not i.e. non-technical legal advice, it's not really a part of what I do. My work is involved in the conservation of protected species under threat from development. If you take it as a given that development is always going to take place (I understand that no development would better for the environment) then you need subject matter experts in place to affect the decision and design making process of developers and architects where protected species are present. My work is mainly surveying for protected species and then providing guidance on the best way (for the species) to progress the development should they be present. This usually involves some form of plan that ideally avoids any impact to the species present. If that is not possible then we come up with a plan to reduce or mitigate for the impact. Beyond that the developer can apply for a licence to carry out the work that would otherwise be an offence. The decision remains with them and Natural England, or one of the other Statutory Nature Conservation Organisation. My job is to report on the presence of a species and the likely impact of the development. I'm not sure if that is what you meant by being inside. If it is then, rest assured that I am working for the protection of wildlife, not allowing it's destruction. If you meant inside as in "sat at a desk" then, again, don't worry; I'm out most of the time and only put in desk-time when I absolutely have to get a report out.

The offer of practical survey experience is still there because, as you already understand, being able to identify what is already there will underpin and inform the best management plan.

Oh no, of course I understand that your primary goal is to protect wildlife as a consultant and to mitigate any threats caused by potential development on a site. I merely meant the amount of time spent indoors might outweigh that of doing surveys and other such activities. But it looks like that's not the case. Either way, it was fascinating to read a little bit about your job description. Cheers.

 

[THOaken]

Hi THOaken. I did a similar course to you at Merristwood College called Countryside Recreation (National Diploma). Basically, it was training to become a Countryside Ranger / Warden. You had to have worked as a volunteer to be accepted onto the course. I had been working as a full time volunteer for the RSPB in several reserves across the UK but was living and working at Killiecrankie, Perthshire when I applied to do the course. Luckily, the Scots agreed to pay my bursary to do the three year course, even though I had only been living there for 6 months. My home council (London Borough of Sutton) would not support me. I passed with distinction.

This set me on a course into higher education and, basically, everything I have today I owe to Perthshire paying for my bursary. I also met my wife at Merristwood (she was doing the same course). Unfortunately, a series of events conspired to move me away from ecology and conservation and into other pursuits. Today, wildlife and the outdoors is more of a past time rather than a job.

I wish you good luck with the course at Sparsholt. Who knows where it will end but enjoy the journey anyway.

Thanks for sharing your story, Jack. I hope the job you are doing is still fulfilling and worthwhile.

 

[mrcharly]

Nice report and really good to hear you are enjoying your time at college.

 

[Jack Bounder]

Thanks for sharing your story, Jack. I hope the job you are doing is still fulfilling and worthwhile.

It has its moments

 

[THOaken]

Found out recently that there will be a good mixture of people from all around Europe who I'll be spending time with during the 3 weeks in the mountains at Creag Meagaidh. Braw. Again, when the time comes I'll update as much as possible.

Back to college in a few days. Been enjoying the sunshine and relaxing having finished assignments early.

Edit: Thought some of you may enjoy reading about the site and the activities I may be involved with (mostly monitoring of course, due to the season)

 

[THOaken]

I think I forgot to mention that I've started doing another vlog series, specifically for ecology/conservation and my course. They're just quick things and are quite infrequent at the moment, but I've decided to use these to compliment this thread. They're recorded on a phone and usually when I have a half an hour or so to spare, so they're not the best, but if they're interesting I'll keep making them.

This one was recorded a while ago before I started this thread.
[video=youtube;rIRRUWDL-Ec]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIRRUWDL-Ec[/video]

Here's one I did today and has just been uploaded.
[video=youtube;LAQdupFLlTA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAQdupFLlTA[/video]

Cheers.

 

[THOaken]

Out all day today doing a Breeding Bird Survey and out in Crab Wood for soils/woodland ecology lesson.

Good stuff.

 

[dennydrewcook]

Hey THOaken I've just signed up for this course at hadlow, so looking forward to it can't wait to leave school now! Could you give me some info on the sort of things I should look at prior to the course. Just wanted to be a bit ahead and know what sorts of assignments I've got coming up?


Denny 😊