Winter Tree ID

Today was my third course in less than a week.

On Thursday I attended a Workday Leader course, which was concerned with best practices when running a volunteer task day. We covered off what you should say to do with the group, and in the afternoon had a 'tool talk' looking at the various equipment and how to use it appropriately and safely.

This morning I returned to the nature reserve for a bit of self development on species identification. The aptly named Winter Tree ID course was just what you would imagine.  We wandered around for about two hours, looking at the various trees on site and their features.

In all, we identified 19 different species. I made copious notes and took numerous photographs, so hopefully now I will be able to tell apart all those trees with oval leaves that have confused me in the past.

Being autumn, most of the leaves are now on the ground so it was especially good to look for other features like bark, buds and catkins to help with identification.

Management Planning Course

The last few weeks have been quite hectic - busy in my existing job, and trying to get to grips with my traineeship as well. From a study perspective, I am still waiting for my exam results - due next Friday at the latest - and I'm finding it hard to get motivated in my new course until I draw a line under that.  I am doing a 30 point Level 3 module on Ecosystems, which started on 1st November and runs through to June 2014.  One of our first activities has been to measure the minimum and maximum temperature under the canopy of an oak tree and in the open - to gain an idea of the variety of temperature ranges and the micro-climates that can influence species over just a short distance. I am listening to the rain pouring down outside, and hoping my digital thermometers will still be functioning when I pick them up tomorrow!  I placed them under an oak tree near the reception at work at Potteric Carr, so whilst there are visitors on site it is fenced in and I'm hoping they are less likely to be stolen or disturbed.

My traineeship is on the Invasive Species project. Obviously with it being winter now, there is not much practical conservation work to be done. Tasks I have been involved with so far are updating the website pages on www.ywt.org.uk/invasives; creating a fold-out reference card of the main problem species; and making some videos for YouTube to educate people about the species, what they look like, and what to do about them. My supervisor Jon and I made our first video on Japanese Knotweed in York a few weeks ago, which just needs a final edit before we publish it. I have also been putting together some biosecurity kits and notes, to encourage our own staff and volunteers to clean their kit on site and stop the spread of plant fragments.

I don't get paid on my traineeship but I do get a training allowance, uniform and protective equipment so have already acquired quite a lot of kit.  Today I attended my first real course, which was an internal course about Management Plans: how to put together a five year management/action plan for the site.  In the morning we had a good run through how this should look, what to include, sources of information, consierations, funding, etc etc. In the afternoon, we had a walk around the nature reserve for around 2 hours, stopping and looking at various features and discussing what they were and how they could be managed. It was really useful to put things into perspective in that way and I came home with copious amounts of notes as usual.

Tomorrow I am on a Workday Leader course whilst will hopefully tell me more about running a practical session.

Last week I took part in a workshop that we ran jointly with Aire Action Leeds. There were numerous attendees from a variety of organisations: local council, utility companies, conservation groups, Environment Agency etc. The purpose was to consolidate our knowledge about the location and treatment of Japanese Knotweed and Giant Hogweed in the Aire and Calder catchments. During one session, we had maps laid out of the whole river - literally stretching from one side of the room to the other - and people could annotate actions that were being taken.  There was also a lecture on relevant treatments which I found really informative, as I may be getting involved in such practical work next year.