A blog about work experience at Hams Hall Environmental Centre
We were delighted to host a 6th form student for 4 days of work experience at Hams Hall Environmental Centre. Check out the blog below to find out what tasks were involved!
Day one
I started the day off with a tour around the site, Emily (Landscape Recovery Support Officer) took me through the trust’s land which included a large meadow, a pond area, a portion of The River Tame and some local structures such as Lea Marston church. The area remains largely unmanaged, allowing the vegetation to thrive but some areas are looked after more closely, for example the bank of the river. Along the bank of the Tame there is an invasive species of plant called the Himalayan Balsam which is invasive in the UK. Tomorrow there is a ‘TameForce’ volunteering group that will help remove some of this plant and build a fence close to the main building to help protect the left-over trees from a hedging project done to help maintain hedgerows of local farms.
After my tour I was given the chance to do some pond dipping in the pond next to the main building, I was given a net, tray, a magnifying glass, a clipboard and a species identification sheet. There are two platforms on the side of the pond, I started with Emily as she showed me an example of what to do and then was left to do as I please. I started by creating a table to record what I found. I cast eight nets in total (four form each platform) and recorded what I found. (This is a photograph of my table and the equipment that I used).
After lunch Emily and Su took me to the classroom and explained the strategies of WWT (Warwickshire Wildlife Trust). They told me about the Trust’s strategy to get 30% of land in recovery, protected and connected for nature in 2030. Su (Tame Valley Wetlands Manager) highlighted the importance of engaging 1 in 4 people with nature to help deliver this strategy. As Tame Valley Wetland only works on a local scale it is relevant for the group to target areas of people that may influence change, for example the council or local MP.
Day two
This day was a volunteer day, where many people who are registered as volunteers for the WWT are asked to come in once a week to help with the ‘Tameforce’ team. I started the day with a briefing from Eddie (Practical Conservation and Training Specialist Officer) who leads the volunteer group, Eddie started off by explaining the general risk assessment to me and we filled it in together whilst he did this and showed me the emergency numbers in case of any issues that may occur from today’s volunteering. After the volunteers arrived Eddie went through the plan for today’s task, we were asked to help build a fence and put gates in outside the tree nursery. He drew out an image of what he wanted and showed us the area he wished to be constructed. Before we could start digging we had to move two metal plant pots containing many large plants, as they were too heavy for us to carry, one of the volunteers suggested using a ‘Stonehenge like’ method of moving them by using small round logs( that we had moved earlier) to roll the pots along the garden so that we could all move them without the risk of injury.
After we moved the pots, we decided it was time to start digging, which ended up being a harder task than we expected. Hams Hall used to be a large power station which created lots of ash that was released into the air when it settled. It had a chemical reaction to the rain which turned it into a thick stone made up of the pulverized coal fuel that covered the surrounding area. This made it very hard to dig with our shovels. After a few hours we had managed to dig a large hole for the slam post for the vehicle entrance, after many attempts at putting the post in and realizing it needed to be much deeper we decided to have a break which also allowed us to get to know each other better as many of the volunteers help out regularly, it was nice to make some connections as I had never done a ’Tameforce’ mission before.
Following our break, we decided to start again, by this point some had split off to try and put the slam post for one of the pedestrian gates further down the line, I stayed with a few volunteers to continue working on the original post, by this point we had managed to dig just over 2 foot down. Next after spending at least an hour trying to widen the hole as the ground, we managed to make it wide enough for the post and used a wheelbarrow to bring it closer and tip it into the hole and finally left it in there as we had managed to get the right depth and width needed for the post. At this point we all decided to have lunch so that we could recover and get through the final stretch so after a well deserved break we got back to the post and started securing it, we started by throwing large chunks if the pulverized ash rock to wedge the sides and fill up as much space around the base to secure it, we then used a soil rammer which essentially is a large metal bar with a wide square base used to compact the soil and rocs making the ground more solid. After ramming the larger blocks, we added a large layer of soil that was already removed from the hole when digging and compacted that with the soil rammer gain to fill any small spaces between the larger rocks. This was repeated many times until the hole was filled, and the post was secure and level. During this time the other group of volunteers and dug out a hole for the pedestrian post, filled and secured it. Finally, as we had some time left, we decided to add the hinges and secure the gate onto the post. By this point it was time for the volunteers to head home after packing all the tools away and tidying up the site. We said our goodbyes and left for the day.
Day three
This day was a more chilled out day due to the work on the volunteer day. After we had all settled in Emily took me out into the woodland area of the site to look for birds so that I could take photographs of them for my portfolio, we started by walking through the woodland area stopping periodically to listen to the bird songs and using the ‘Merlin Bird ID’ app to identify what we could hear. We then walked into the wetland areas and stopped for a while, I took some photos of the insects that I could see but many of the birds were too small and fast to photograph so we just listened to the calls. Next, we moved down to the River Tame and saw some ducks and I got some photos of a Great Tit. When we got back to the office Emily asked me to log the volunteer hours from the last few weeks which showed me some of the responsibilities of the admin in the Trust.
After lunch we did a bit of maintenance around the site including clearing some overgrowth from the water meter. Su also showed me an overgrown green space that they use to monitor wildlife inside the area through cameras, but due to the large overgrowth of nettles it was practically inaccessible. I was given some gardening tools, some gloves and eye protection. The nettles were young enough to just be pulled out with their roots so I found the best way to clear them was to just grab them by their base, after clearing a large amount of these nettles I started clearing the small bird bath of debris from the surrounding trees and the filled it up to see if it still held water, which it did so finally I filled up the bird feeders around the area and packed all the tools up.
Day four
As I arrived Emily showed me how the Tame Valley Wetlands website worked, and I started editing the blog in order for it to be uploaded later in the day. Soon Emily told me that some maintenance was needed around the Round House on site, it had become very overgrown and needed some nettles pulled. After I had cleared the space I went back to the office to continue editing the blog for the web page. After lunch me and Emily took some visitors around the cottage on site and to the Round House.
I would highly recommend coming here for work experience if you are interested in conservation as it has given me a greater insight into how to get into the industry through courses and traineeships, it has also helped me with my geography NEA and given me some of the skills necessary to complete my fieldwork.
Thank you to all that helped me this week.
