Making a connection

Thursday 24 November 2022

Conservation trainees

https://www.facebook.com/worcestershirewildlifetrust

Follow our four Conservation Trainees as they learn the ropes and develop skills for a future career in conservation...

New hedge with biodegradable rabbit-proof guards by Catharine Jarvis

Join our new trainee, Catharine, as she plants up a hedgerow at Dropping Well Farm...

Hello, I’m Catharine and I’m really happy to be one of the Trust's four Conservation Trainees. We are spending a year, on a voluntary basis, being trained in all the practical skills we'll need to get a job in wildlife conservation.

I don’t necessarily fit the profile of a trainee, I’m a middle-aged woman who has worked almost all my working life in an office environment in a variety of analytical and managerial roles in the National Health Service, Library Service and, most recently, Worcestershire Children First.

To get a full-time fix of wildlife, I had a break from the office in 2004 when I worked for a season at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) flagship Loch Garten nature reserve as a Capercaillie and Osprey Information Assistant. Alongside my work career, I’ve always volunteered for wildlife organisations such as the RSPB, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and then a spell with Worcestershire Wildlife Trust in 2017.

Woman in waterproofs and a woollen hat digging a hole to plant a hedgerow — Planting a hedge

I’m only eight weeks into my new role but I’ve already learnt so many new skills. Just a couple of weeks ago, I got the opportunity to learn first-hand how to plant a new hedge at Dropping Well Farm.

Hedges are very good habitats for all sorts of wildlife including birds, insects and small mammals. They provide food, shelter and can act as a wildlife corridor between areas of woodland. In these times of concern about climate change, research suggests that hedges are also great at sequestering carbon both in their biomass and in the soil beneath them.

Following the Trust’s recent purchase of land at Dropping Well Farm, near Bewdley, a lot of time and effort has been spent planning out where best to site and plant these important features to act as a boundary between the private farm and the Trust’s land. Existing hedgerows have been studied to ensure the correct mix of species and that birds like yellowhammer and skylark will benefit from them.

There was an air of excitement on Wednesday morning as a lorry carrying 3000+ mixed saplings, also known as whips, drove up the lane to Dropping Well Farm. Under the supervision of the reserve manager Andy Harris, and the trainees' manager Andy Bucklitch, the trainees and members of the reserve’s volunteer work party unloaded the large bags containing the whips. We had elder, hazel, hawthorn, rowan and crab apple. Almost as soon as we finished sorting them out, we heard the shrill call of a robin, which had come into the barn. It flew along the line of whips, landing on some of the saplings, as if inspecting each one.

The tree planting was also a community event so it was great to see members of the local community arriving as we were setting up. They were met by Andy H alongside Beccy Somers, our community lead for Saving Worcestershire's Heathlands project, and Joe Gillard, the Trust's Volunteer Co-ordinator. Information and instructions were imparted, the whips were divided into bags of mixed species and, along with spades, biodegradable tree protectors and canes, were carried out to the strip of land where the group would be planting that day. The ground had previously been ploughed to open up the soil ready for planting.

A wooden spacer in the foreground to measure spacing between plants by Catharine Jarvis — Measuring with a spacer by Catharine Jarvis

We began by measuring out two straight lines of canes using a home-made spacer. The rectangular wooden spacer was one metre long with bright pink marks with black arrows along each side in a zig zag pattern. The wooden bars of the spacer were 40cm apart. Using the spacer resulted in six canes being pushed into the ground in the space of a metre. This spacing is a requirement of the Countryside Stewardship scheme, which means that the Trust can claim a grant towards planting the length of hedge planted to their standards. A team of two people worked to the left and then to the right and, in just over an hour and a half, all the marker canes were in place along one long stretch of ground.

Fruit trees were also being planted and so a couple of volunteers hammered in tall wooden stakes to mark their future locations. For now, we underplanted hawthorn where a King Charles pearmain apple, a czar plum and a Worcester black pear tree will be planted in January 2023.

Woman dressed in black with a black hat digging a hole to plant elder tree whips into by Catharine Jarvis — Planting up a hedge by Catharine Jarvis

Once Andy H was happy with the positions of the canes, planting began. This was carried out in small teams. The whips were kept in the bags until the last minute, to lessen the risk of their roots drying out in the breezy conditions. One person removed a cane from its spot and in its place dug a T-shaped hole with a spade, bent down and planted the whip in the hole. This method of planting is known as slot planting. Whilst suitable for many species, slot planting isn't appropriate for elder whips as they have very large roots; for elder we had to dig holes.

Once in the slot, the person planting the whip then firmed the ground around it to remove any air gaps that frost might get into. Another member of the team then pushed the cane into the ground next to the newly planted whip and fastened a biodegradable rabbit-proof tree protector called a spiral around the base of the whip and cane, unfurling the spiral up the whip and cane. The final job was to hammer in the cane, with a few taps, so that it was secure in the disturbed ground. The team then moved onto the next cane and the process was repeated.

Everyone got on with what they were doing, chatting away to other team members. It was a lovely day, sunny and, thankfully, dry. Whilst we were working, a couple of buzzard flew above the nearby field, mewling, whilst a robin trilled away from the hedgerow. No doubt the robin was on the lookout for worms in the disturbed earth. A couple of woodpigeon zipped across the sky and over the fields behind us whilst skylark sang above the fields. Beautiful!

After lunch we did another hour of planting and then packed up at around 2.30pm. We looked back down the line of trees and congratulated ourselves on how many trees we had managed to plant in a day. We wandered back down the lane to the car park at a slightly slower pace than the walk up there in the morning but everyone was bouyed by the results of our work. Beccy had organised a number of planting days for the community to get involved with; we didn't plant all 3000+ whips on the day that I was there!

You can help to ensure that hedgerows and their wildlife thrive...

If you would like to find out more about supporting the local project at Dropping Well Farm, take a look at our Saving Worcestershire’s Heathland page.

Hedges on our nature reserves around the county provide a fantastic habitat for a variety of species. Members of our Tuesday and Thursday weekly roving work parties enjoy working hard to maintain and improve these and other habitats. There are also local groups based at different reserves around the county.

Your might be able to plant a hedgerow in your garden or influence the managers of your local green space to plant one nearby. You can discover more about how hedgerows are a one-stop shop for wildlife on our hedgerow investigators page.