Meet the Trainees
By Mark Newton and Rosie Hutchings
Lederman Trainees
We’re Mark and Rosie, the two latest Leysdown Trainees with the Sussex Wildlife Trust, and we’ve been given the opportunity to share what we get up to with the Trust via this blog. We feel very honoured to have this chance to gain skills and experience in the conservation sector, thanks to the generous legacy of the Vera Dalley-Lederman Scholarship.
It's less than a month into the traineeship but we’ve already got our teeth into some hands-on action. Our employment with Sussex Wildlife Trust also includes a residency at Leysdown Cottage near Hartfield, and one of our first tasks on the estate has been to clear the tangles of Blackthorn on the edges of the meadow so that more plant and invertebrate species can flourish. It was prickly work, but we soon made a new path and let in plenty of light for wildflowers to grow.
In the second week at Leysdown we began carrying out some Hazel coppicing along the same meadow. It was really nice to practise an ancient land management technique, and we’re excited to see the impact the coppicing will have on ground flora in the spring.
We joined Cleo Alper from the Communities and Wildlife team at her regular Forest School session, helping the Year 3 pupils at Buckingham Park Primary to make Rudolf tree decorations. It was so rewarding helping the children use hand tools and teach them about woodworking. I think our favourite part of the day was toasting marshmallows on the fire the kids had built!
This week we had some new arrivals at Leysdown. We now have fifty-nine sheep grazing our land! The sheep will be here for just over a week and in that time they should be able to transform the area, which is currently un-cut meadow, to a short grassland habitat, perfect for the regeneration of wildflower species in Spring.
It’s only three weeks into our traineeship and we have already learnt a lot. We’re looking forward to working within both the Land Management and Communities and Wildlife teams, as this will give us a really broad range of experience in two very differing areas. We are really excited to discover what the months ahead will hold for us.