Society of Biology Bioblitz Event this weekend!

All are welcome!

New Biodiversity Audit Reveals all!

The annual biodiversity report for the College estate has just been written and it makes encouraging reading. As staff and students have discovered this year, the Moulton College estate continues to hold an array of interesting terrestrial and aquatic communities. The provision of the integrated Entry Level Stewardship plan continues to have a net positive effect on biodiversity, especially the infield options including pollen and nectar and wild bird seed mixes.

The conservation focus from now will be on enhancing existing priority habitat patches including Tank Field Willow Coppice, Briscoe’s Spinney and the network of College ponds. The discovery of great crested newts in three ponds on the eastern margins of the estate suggests that the management of these lentic water bodies should be prioritised to ensure the long-term survival of extant metapopulations. The bioblitz event in the autumn revealed 105 plant species, and this was augmented by the discovery of bee orchids near Pitsford Quarry (see image below).

Thanks go to all the students who have contributed to this inventory - you know who you are, it's time to take a bow!

Aiming for a Career in the Great Outdoors!

Did you know that there’s a whole industry built around managing the environment with rewarding, fun lifestyles where you get to meet the most extraordinary people and see the most extraordinary places? Just think…..you could actually get paid for wandering around the countryside – now surely that has got to beat an office job?! 

Official statistics estimate there are 73,300 people employed in environmental conservation in the UK, and 200,000 volunteers are also actively involved. Over the next ten years, the industry forecasts that the environmental conservation industry will need a minimum of 36,000 more people. So whether you are interested in habitats and wildlife, managing the land, environmental education, gamekeeping or forestry – there could be an exciting role out there somewhere for you!

To talk about the range of opportunities in countryside management, get in touch now!

Moulton Graduate wins Industry Accolade!

BSc Land Management graduate Lewis York was recently nominated as one of three student undergraduate finalists for the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) annual awards of 2014. 

Lewis (pictured below) worked closely with supervisor Dr James Littlemore and staff from Moulton's Centre of Ecology and Hydrology at Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire on his undergraduate thesis. James' work examined the habitat preferences and population dynamics of woodland birds at Monks Wood National Nature Reserve.​ 

It is a remarkable achievement for Lewis who was up against the best ecology graduates from all participating UK Universities. Lewis has progressed through the FdSc Countryside and Wildlife Management and then BSc (Hons) Land Management courses that run collaboratively between Moulton College and the University of Northampton. He has now has secured employment as a Graduate Ecologist with Jacobs Engineering UK based in Leeds.