Himalayan Balsam Bashing

Preston Montford is trying to reduce invasive Himalayan Balsam from our land that borders the River Severn, and thanks to our Sunday Duke of Edinburgh volunteer group (aged 14-25yrs), we are well on the way to Balsam eradication.

Himalayan Balsam is an invasive species that was introduced into the UK as a garden plant. It tolerates damp ground and is a particular problem along our UK watercourses. It grows from May to September and grows particularly tall and densely, shading out native vegetation which reduces the biodiversity of riverside vegetation. Furthermore, during the winter as it dies back, it leaves riverbanks unvegetated and vulnerable to erosion, releasing sediment into the river, which can be a problem for some aquatic wildlife.

At Preston Montford, the seeds from plants further upstream in the River Severn get trapped on our banks and grow. We have a VERY HEALTHY population of Himalayan Balsam and want to do our best to eradicate it from our land. It will take a long term continued attempt to take the plants out every year and involve solutions on a catchment scale from other landowners to completely eradicate the problem. In the meantime, if we can do our bit, we hope not to make the problem worse. This is where our volunteer crew come in very handy. Literally.

We handpull the Balsam, which is very labor intensive, so we rely on volunteers throughout the summer to come and take out the plants. Here are some before and after shots of one of the sections the team tackled earlier this month. We took 2 hours to clear an area the size of a footbal pitch and our volunteers found it really hard to stop for their cake break as they just wanted compulsively to carry on pulling – hooray! Here is a before and after shot of one 15 minutes of work.

Although it was a cooperative team effort to clear the area, competition for the tallest plant soon started, and it was every person for themselves. The winner was Ewan pictured above with what we estimate to be a 10ft plant!

If you have Himalayan Balsam growing near you, you can pull up the stems from late May until the seed heads form (usually mid-late August). Simply pull them out by the roots, break the stem and leave them scattered to rot on site. You can cover with a tarpaulin to speed up the rotting process. Strimming and grazing with cattle and ponies will also do the trick. (Source: Countryside Council for Wales leaflet & www.himalayanbalsamwales.co.uk)

If you are aged 14-25 and would like to volunteer either as part of your DofE award or just for fun, please contact us at enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org. We do our conservation tasks here at Preston Montford 10.30-12.30 every 2^nd and 4^th Sunday.

A wild week of work experience

Since July is one of our busiest months in the year, it provides a great opportunity for school students to come and gain valuable work experience with us at the centre. Over the last few weeks, we have been fortunate to have four work experience students with us who have helped out with our daily data recording and tasks, as well as coming out on teaching days and taking part in various activities around the centre grounds. Below they describe what they did during their time with us.

Julianne:
My week at Preston Montford has been a fantastic opportunity to confirm my interest in pursuing a career in zoology and conservation. One of my favourite experiences was recording the moths caught overnight in the skinner moth trap and it was interesting seeing the many different and impressive species, including Poplar Hawkmoths! Once identified, each moth was released into the vegetation where they could hide from predators. We also walked through the Preston Montford grounds to record butterfly populations and identify species in different habitats. Furthermore, we also went on a bird-spotting walk which I found really engaging due to my natural interest in birds and I enjoyed learning their calls to identify them. One of the more botanical tasks I helped with was willow coppicing. I learned about willow growth and how to maintain it in order to encourage growth.

Moth Identification - Poplar Hawkmoth

Jane:
I completed a week of work experience at Preston Montford where I helped to take daily records of the weather and send the data to the MET Office and also helped to set up the teaching equipment for the school groups that visited. Whilst completing a butterfly walk and doing some willow cutting, we also had a good laugh as it was really good fun. Doing all of the centre tasks with the education team has really opened my eyes to the conservation work they do behind the scenes; a lot of work goes into running the centre, but the staff are one big team which makes it an enjoyable place to work. To anyone who is thinking of a place to do your work experience, Preston Montford is one place I would definitely recommend. There is so much to help with, including teaching, grounds maintenance and wildlife identification.

Max:
My week has been very enjoyable and very informative; I chose to work at the field studies centre because I am currently taking geography for my GCSEs and I wanted to learn more about the subject to help with my understanding of the natural environment. I was very nervous when I first started, however the staff at Preston Montford made me feel very welcome and comfortable straight away! I got a detailed tour of the centre and it was fascinating to see how much goes on there. I enjoyed learning how to take weather readings, such as the amount of sunlight hours in a day and how much rainfall fell in the last 24 hours. I also got to have a go at moth trapping; I have never been too keen on moths but once I got to see them up close, I realised they weren’t so bad after all and are actually really varied. We managed to catch some really interesting species, such as hawk moths and peppered moths, which were my favourites because they have cool patterns on their wings. Taking part in the team meeting was also really useful to see how teams operate and how much planning goes into teaching to the centre. I have gained a lot of new knowledge about birds, butterflies and moths and conservation tasks, as well as about every day work life.

Conservation Task - coppicing willow

Georgie: 
If you’re interested in going into a career in the environment or you just love wildlife and being outdoors, I would definitely recommend Preston Montford FSC as a place to do work experience. My week at Preston Montford FSC involved a variety of tasks which allowed me to get hands on experience with surveying butterflies, bees and moths as well as helping out behind the scenes with office and laboratory work. There is also an opportunity to observe teaching skills of the tutors who teach a variety of topics including pond life identification and analysis, as well as river studies at Carding Mill Valley. Working at FSC Preston Montford reinforced my interest in wanting to work in the environment and enlightened me about the different paths I can take. One of my favourite moments has to be identifying the moths as I have never seen such a variety of species before! Thank you so much to all the staff at Preston Montford FSC who are so friendly and welcoming, I would definitely want to come back!

Looking for pond life

If you are interested in completing some work experience at Preston Montford, you can get in touch with us by email (enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org) or phone 01743852040. It is a great chance to get some experience in a growing sector.

Things that go bump in the night...

Here at FSC Preston Montford whilst the staff and (hopefully!) students are soundly asleep, our centre wildlife comes alive with activity.

As part of our species monitoring efforts, we have various methods to keep track of what’s going on.

Skinner moth trap:

From Spring to Autumn, once a week, our Skinner moth trap is put out overnight. Its brilliant bright bulb (don’t look directly at it once it’s fully lit up!) attracts moths in the area. They fall into the trap and find a nice selection of empty egg boxes to rest in for the remainder of the night. In the morning, members of our team retrieve the trap and set to work identifying the catch before releasing them again. The team has become very skilled at moth ID and can tell a Hebrew Character from a Common Quaker.

Common Quaker Moth

Hebrew Character Moth

Hedgehog tunnel:

This is our most low tech, but possibly my favourite, of our night time monitoring kit. A toblerone-shaped tunnel is set out overnight. In the middle of the tunnel is a plate with cat food on it to attract our favourite spiky creatures. As they enter the tunnel they walk through a strip of ink (don’t worry it’s non-toxic and biodegradable) which then causes them to leave a trail of footprints across the paper sheet. In the morning we’re left with a network of tiny footprints to identify the owners – again a real skill!

Bat detectors:

Bats catch their prey and navigate using a high frequency sound which they emit as a series of clicks. The sound bounces back to the bat and they know where things are - echolocation. We can’t normally hear their noises with our ears as the frequency is too high. However, with the use of a bat detector, the high frequency sounds can be lowered to our audible range. Each species of bat is identifiable by the noises that it makes – the frequency and series of clicks or slaps is unique to each. With a bat detector and a field guide, you can identify a common pipistrelle from a noctule.

Night vision camera trap:

Our coolest spy-like gadget is our camera trap, which can be strapped to a tree and left out overnight. Anything that sets off its motion sensor will get caught on camera and stored on the SD card. If you leave it in a known wildlife hotspot and point it the right way, you might just get some awesome shots or video footage of something interesting! Alternatively you can just end up with awkward shots of yourself and branches swaying in the wind… Worth the effort to get a badger wandering by, or an otter along the river.

Caught on camera - badger

Longworth mammal traps:

Our most used monitoring kit and a favourite of visiting school groups. These humane, small mammal traps are set out under hedges stocked with hay, various foods and some apple (for the juice). We return the next morning to check them and usually have a selection of mice and voles to show the children. Occasionally, the elusive shrew will even put in an appearance! The creatures are all released promptly and are left well-fed and rested and unharmed by the experience.

Whilst some of these are not going to be suitable for home use, a bat detector or a hedgehog tunnel is certainly worth considering for use in the garden! We definitely enjoy checking in the morning to see what’s been going on in the night!

If you would like to learn more about these monitoring techniques, why not browse our courses list to find one relevant to your interests - http://www.field-studies-council.org/centres/prestonmontford/learn/natural-history.aspx

Time to volunteer?

FSC Preston Montford’s grounds have seen great developments in the past five months, thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and garden helpers.

The first few months of 2018 have seen a steadily growing Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) volunteer group take root at FSC Preston Montford. We have grown from two to five volunteers in just a few short months. The five 14/15 year olds are completing the volunteering section of the Bronze DofE award, which involves undertaking an average of 1 hour per week of approved voluntary work over a three or six month period.

The group is enjoying getting hands-on with a range of tasks. So far we have renovated the composting area, helped to add more homes to our bee hotel, worked on improvements to our vegetable garden and community garden, and we have recently begun work to improve our dead hedge for wildlife.

The year began with the volunteers braving sleet and snow to clear our older composting bays of nettles, so that we could move the matter that had started to decay into a new vegetation-free bay. This involved a lot of shovelling of decomposing organic matter and interspersing it with layers of cardboard to prevent any nettles from coming through.

DofE volunteers get stuck in clearing our older compost bays.

Hark-work pays off: compost bays free of vegetation!

As the weather briefly got warmer in February other activities, such as creating a wattle fence, were undertaken. Yet with March, came the sharp return of winter and sadly both the sessions that month were snowed off.


Thankfully, warmer weather returned with the arrival of April, and for the volunteers this meant helping Sami (Education Technician Assistant) with the vegetable and community gardens. Following on from this, we looked at the importance of pollinators and what they need to survive by adding more ‘rooms’ to our bee hotel. This involved sawing sections of bamboo to create what is essentially a tunnel blocked at one end, tying them up in bundles, and adding them to our bee hotel. Many bee and wasp species do not live in hives and are in fact solitary, preferring to create nests for their few offspring in small holes in trees, brick walls and soil. Some even add mud and leaves to their nests. With declining bee and wasp populations in the UK, providing places for solitary bees and wasps to nest is vitally important. Our DofE volunteers are trying to help these insects to thrive - insects which are vital for wildflower success and ultimately food production.

A home for bees.

May has seen our DofE volunteers begin work on improving our dead hedge. Dead hedges are often made from materials that you would put in your garden waste bin or on a bonfire - cut branches and pruned foliaged. Large quantities of dead wood are built up into a small hedge formation with posts in the ground either side at strategic points to keep the dead wood within the hedge. This forms a barrier much like a fence but with the added benefit of providing a habitat for insects, birds and small mammals. It’s a great way to use dead wood and improve an ecosystem service.

Other improvements have been made in our sensory garden, which is coming on leaps-and-bounds thanks to the hard work of our garden helpers. Fuelled by tea and enthusiasm, our small team has been keeping our raised beds weed free, planting picturesque willow arches and generally restoring order to over-grown areas. This has made a big difference to the groups that visit the centre, providing an interesting place to explore during sessions with our education team and a welcoming place to wonder in free-time.

If you are someone, or know someone, who is keen to learn new skills, meet new people and enjoys spending time in the outdoors we would love for you to join us on our volunteer days.

Duke of Edinburgh Volunteers meet every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month.Garden Helpers meet fortnightly on a Wednesday.

To discover more about volunteering, please contact us at enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org  FSC Preston Montford.

From barnacles to bees with Growing Confidence

During the Easter holidays young people from the Growing Confidence project had fun at the seaside and also spent a day at FSC Preston Montford.

The sun shone all day for Growing Confidence Project away day to meet Andy from the North Wales Wildlife Trust at Llandudno. First stop was the north beach where we spent the morning discovering who and what lives on the rocky shore when the tide goes out. Top spot was a starfish and Andy introduced us to the world of limpets, barnacles, top shells and dog whelks.

Tidal treasures
(Top: Dog Whelk, Left: Top Shell & Bottom: Periwinkle) 

Top spot: Starfish!

Following lunch, the effort of a steep walk up the Little Orme was rewarded by the amazing sight of 57 seals and pups lounging in the sun. A fantastic day at the seaside!

Later in the week a group of young people got into garden challenge mode tackling some overgrown areas of the sensory garden at FSC Preston Montford. This area is being transformed and brought back in to shape with the help of our regular gardening volunteers and Duke of Edinburgh volunteers   - find out more about these opportunities in next month’s blog. 

Weeds were removed from tyre planters and a layer of peat free compost was added to ready them for plants and seeds - we favoured nectar and pollen species such as calendula, bugle, nasturtium sunflowers and scabious.  Good use was made of damaged wellies, which were no longer suitable for use by our visitors, and fingers crossed we will have nasturtium topped wellies all summer.

Weed removal

Our newly planted tyre

Sowing seeds

Having fun planting up reused wellies.

Paper pots were made using newspaper and everyone took home a pot or two planted with sunflower seeds, which will provide a little pollinator haven in their own garden.

Planting our paper pots with sunflower seeds

Sunflowers - ready to take home 

The sensory garden is already a haven for wildlife and with the increased planting of nectar rich species it should support even further species which can be observed by all our visitor young and old. During the Growing Confidence residentials this summer for young people over 16 we will be planting more species trying to increase the length of flowering season of plants in the area.

You can find out more about the Growing Confidence project, an environmental project for young people aged 11-25, at www.field-studies-council.org/gc or you can email gc@field-studies-council.org

If you would like to know more about volunteering please contact us at enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org  FSC Preston Montford.

Preston Montford's Plastic Progress

On the day that UK businesses pledged to eliminate single use plastic packaging by 2025, Preston Montford is pleased to report our progress on reducing our plastic footprint.

We have:

1.      Stopped selling plastic bottled drink in our shop. We now sell reuseable water bottles that visitors can refill with cold drinks from our kitchens.

2.      Changed our breakfast yoghurts from single portion pots to large pots that we serve in bowls.

3.      Replacing our milk sachets in bedrooms to a jug that can be refilled from the kitchens.

4.      Packed lunches are now wrapped in paper bags, and visitors are encouraged to bring their own reuseable packed lunch box.

5.      Fieldwork resources are no longer laminated, instead we use reuseable plastic wallets.

6.      Developing a community garden and beds to grow some of our food, reducing packaging.