February update from the Lederman Trainees
By Mark Newton and Rosie Hutchings
Lederman Trainees
Mark
As anticipated, our work has really ramped up in the last month and we’ve had the fantastic opportunity to try out a variety of tasks at sites all over the county.
At the Leysdown Estate, we’ve cleared a new path through a huge tangle of brambles. It was a very prickly, uncomfortable job but really satisfying making positive changes in our local landscape. This path now links one of the meadows with the front garden of the cottage to make a circuitous route around the estate. Together with mowing the meadow, this clearance work will also allow a greater diversity of species to thrive at Leysdown.
Rosie
During January and February, we were lucky enough to be involved in the early lambing up at the Wiston Estate with Grazing Officer Tom Parry. This was an amazing opportunity to get first-hand experience in a key part of conservation grazing. It was an experience that will be hugely valuable to future job roles, with tasks including assisting births, mucking out, and helping to feed some of the weaker lambs.
Recently we helped out Reserves Officer Nick Walford to repair a damaged pedestrian gate up at Southerham Farm near Lewes. It was really useful to learn how to create a functioning gate, as this will be something we will need to do here at Leysdown later in the year. It was very rewarding to see the public grateful for our work, enabling them to use the gate once more.
This month we also had the chance to spend time with reserves managers Jane Willmott and Steve Webster on their reserves, the Warren, Burton and Chingford Ponds Reserves and Iping and Stedham Commons respectively. It was lovely to visit these new habitats and we look forward to visiting more of the reserves across Sussex in the coming months.
Mark
With Gatwick Greenspace Partnership Officer Tom Simpson, we restored a pond at Maidenbower Junior School and learned how to make a hibernaculum in which amphibians can over-winter. This kind of work is great for connecting the community to wildlife, and enables children to discover species first-hand in their school grounds. Hopefully we can return there in the summer to see how the newly planted margins are flourishing with wildlife drawn to the site.
