A Curious Tale of Hurdles and Water Quality!

Our intrepid Foundation Degree in Countryside & Wildlife Management students study a practical conservation module on their course. This was directly requested by our network of employers and means that students can practice the secret arts of traditional countryside management skills including hedge laying, dry stone walling and the like!

This week students learnt how to make a traditional woven hurdle with their tutor James at our small short rotation willow coppice - you can see the results of their endeavours in Plate 1.

Plate 1: Woven hurdle as made by (from left) Nat, Dan, Becki and Sophie.

These can be made from willow or more traditionally hazel, and are often sold as garden screens or exhibited as artisan products at countryside shows. This particular one however had a different use as later in the session students donned waders and deployed it is a revetment to manage bankside erosion along our water course running through the College farm (Plate 2).

Plate 2: Secured hurdle (outsized revetment) in Moulton Brook for erosion control

In the next session, students will backfill the hurdle and create some instream flow deflectors to create a diversity in conditions that will benefit biodiversity - all in a day's work for a Moulton higher education student!

To learn more about the exciting activities our students get up to, why not get in touch today?!

If you go down to the woods today!

Working collaboratively with a local country estate, we procured this stunning footage from a camera trap set up in the woods. Do you recognise the species?!

The Wonders of Nature

The 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition held at the Natural History Museum produced some fantastic entries - here are some of the best submissions (in my erstwhile view!). See more at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/wpy/gallery/2015/index.html.

Forestry Education!

In December, we were the proud recipients of a teaching excellence award from the Royal Forestry Society - read the attached article in the current Quarterly Journal of Forestry to find out more!

Blog author James (left) in the woods!

Rob Stuart, ex-student

Barn Owl Bonanza!

OK OK, I know it's been a while! Trust me - if you work in education - you'll know time is never on your side but at last here's a nice post I think you'll find interesting.

We have been doing some collaborative work with a local country estate and using some camera traps recorded some interesting interactions between a resident barn owl and a feisty kestrel - enjoy!