Mid and West Kent Downs Volunteers - December Update

• We now have GPS collars on a number of our livestock, so we can not only track their grazing patterns, but it’ll also make it much easier to find them for our daily welfare checks. We only have a few on a trial basis at the moment but hoping to roll this out wider in 2022. 

• Sevenoaks Greensand Commons People Engagement Officer role has now been filled. They will be developing a good mix of existing links and projects with new approaches that meet the intentions expressed in the Activity Plan.  

• A large female adder was spotted in new location at Darland Banks in September. 

The trainees at Sevenoaks have had a busy few months! Attending training courses, study days, running volunteer task days and helping with livestock. Here are a few highlights: 

Brushcutter  

We attended a brushcutter course in October, learning maintenance of the tools and swapping out the heads to use as a strimmer, what types of vegetation to use different blades on and how to safely cut different types of vegetation on different terrains… just in time for the busiest season of vegetation clearance here on our reserves. We’ve been using the brushcutters on our task days every week since our course! 

First Aid 

We have also attended a three day British Red Cross first aid course, meaning we are First Aid at Work certified and can now lead volunteer task groups ourselves. 

Study Days 

In December we attended two study days. First was the lichen day with Ros Bennett: starting with a class at Tyland Barn, we learnt about identifying lichens, where they like to grow and how they can be used as biological indicators of the environment they grow in. We then spent the afternoon at Hothfield Heathland and St Margaret’s Hothfield churchyard in the bracing cold looking at foliose, fruticose and crustose lichens with hand lenses and putting our new identification skills into practice. Thank you Ros for running such a fantastic study day, sharing with us the outlandish world of these fascinating organisms! 

The second study day we attended was Raptors of the North Kent Marshes. We spent the day on the Isle of Sheppey bird watching and learning about the behaviours and habits of birds of prey commonly spotted in the area. Our list of birds spotted includes Kestrel, Common buzzard, Marsh harrier, Hen harrier and Short-eared owl. 

Ruth & I are now nearly half way through our Trainee Warden time, and it has flown by. 5 months in & I have nearly worked out where everything is in the tool shed, & how to’ tetris style’ pack the tools in the van, but what way  the rakes go in always baffle me. 

We were honoured to be part of the species recovery project, reintroducing Kentish Milkwort to one of the Sevenoaks Site. The plot at Fackenden Meadows was carefully chosen, and Kew gardens provided us with 10 tiny plants. We delicately planted & named them, like precious children & wished them good luck. We will keep an eye on their progress & the addition of grazing sheep, will help keep down the competition from other species.  

We were also given the responsibility of leading the twice weekly volunteer groups. It proved to be a totally different experience from being the follower to the leaders, but we are lucky to have kind, hardworking, knowledgeable volunteers, and both days ended without injury or anything broken, which is success enough for your first time!  We did have one slightly damp volunteer on the Tuesday who, as part of a team, enthusiastically cleared the river channel, by getting really stuck in! Another of the volunteers made a block & tackle to help pull cut trees up the bank & this worked brilliantly.  

Winter tis the season to rake & burn & we will power through this with copious mince pies, so for now, Merry Christmas to all & Happy new year! 

The regular volunteer team at Sevenoaks got a boost last month with a corporate group from the BEIS International Energy Team. The team of 13 put in a good days work helping to clear woody growth from one of the reedbed before the water levels rise over the winter.

Nick Trowell said “ We would like to thank the KWT and warden, Paul Glanfield, for a great corporate day out at the Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve.  We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day working under Paul’s supervision cutting back willow and alder, followed by a communal gathering in one of the local hostelries. We hear that the Trust is keen on the reintroduction of beavers:  we think they would have enjoyed what we did too!” 

September was a busy month on the Commons and saw our team of volunteers complete the hand cutting of bracken at Bitchet Common, which was not an easy task! A monumental effort was made by all those involved so thank you once again. We look forward to seeing the results of our efforts when we survey the site again next year and measure the impact of different bracken regrowth management techniques. Volunteers also began the process of thinning sycamore at Farley common and earlier in the month enjoyed a very interesting guided walk on grassland species ID at Hosey common led by botany expert Alex Lockton.

Felling season has well and truly begun and in October excellent progress has been made on improving access through the commons so that more people can enjoy these lovely places. The removal of holly along the path edges has not only created wider rides for the benefit of both people and wildlife, but has also created sight lines to some of the beautiful mature trees on the commons. Fawke Common in particular has some stunning mature yews, beeches, and oaks – worth a visit if you haven’t been to this site yet.

In November the team moved onto improving access on a footpath in Godden Green, again revealing some tremendous mature trees, and also clearing a glade. Further access works were carried out at Farley Common and some conifers removed to encourage heather regeneration at Crockhamhill Common.

We are also please to say that Aimee Howe has recently joined us as the Sevenoaks Greensand Commons People Engagement Officer. Please give her a warm welcome. One strand of Aimee’s work is to encourage hard to reach groups to access, get involved and enjoy the Commons. Also we are looking to develop and help support ‘Friends of’ Commons Groups.

Thank you so much to all those who joined us through this autumn/winter and worked hard to make these improvements possible and these amazing sites more apparent and accessible. We are already planning more works for the next few months. Have a great Christmas and New Year!