Back in the Saddle Again!

With the summer months nearly over, its time to welcome you back to the Countryside Blog and a fast approaching autumn academic term at Moulton College for new and returning countryside management and agriculture students!

If you are reading the blog and haven't yet made an application fear not as it is not too later - the clearing process is 'live' for Higher Education applicants and Further Education courses will continue to recruit into the middle of next month. Infact, if you'd like to drop in for a chat there are some open days at main site next Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th August - come along and be nosy!

Check out our events calendar at: http://www.moulton.ac.uk/

Finally, it's a warm welcome to one and all from the Agriculture and Countryside Management team here at Moulton including James, Mel, Paul, Jonny, Matt, Phil and Lou!

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.

Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog!

Foundation Degree Countryside and Wildlife Management students accompanied your resident blogger to set some very crafty 'bottle traps' to try and capture a highly elusive and secretive creature that is protected by law - the great crested newt. With trapping success in one farm pond last year, students were pleased to find that the specialist traps had snared live specimens in another pond where they had previously never been recorded before.

Matt and Tim (pictured below) were careful to obtain some pictures of the belly markings of each animal which gives each a discernible identity (akin to a finger print). Studies have shown that these surprisingly long lived creatures can return to the same pond for up to 20 years! The presence of great crested newts on the farm clearly shows the health of the farmed environment for wildlife which to the untrained eye would appear of limited value to any native rare species. Indeed, these amphibians exist in 'a population of populations' (or a metapopulation) where breeding animals can migrate up to 1 km between different ponds. But how they are able to do this, no one knows!

Paul's group of BTEC Countryside Management students have also done their bit by expertly fencing off one of the ponds to protect it for future surveys.

Bee-ing a Student on a Moulton Countryside Management Course!

Countryside Management lecturer Jonny has been able to share his passion for bee-keeping with students on the BTEC Countryside Management Diploma's this year. The College currently has two hives and is exploring options to offer a range of short courses to the general public. You can see some images of the students working with the bees below, but can you tell who is who?!