Ashford and Dover Volunteers - February 2022 update

The Dover reserves volunteer team have been busy this winter clearing a huge amount of scrub this winter on our Dover reserves.

One of the big accomplishments is at Old Park Hill; a 37 hectare site owned by Port of Dover. KWT are managing the site to restore chalk downland with species such as Adonis and Chalkhill blue and adders recorded on the site.

The volunteer team have been focusing on one of the compartments where not much habitat work has taken place. They have cleared a huge amount of dense scrub in a short amount of time, opening up the compartment and creating areas for chalk downland to establish.

The volunteers have been hard-working and enthusiastic as always, even when faced with going back and forth on a slope! 

I knew I had a short, but intense day ahead, so out of curiosity, I decided to put on a fitness tracker. Within three hours I did a livestock check at Broadham Down and Down Bank, changed into PPE, carried chainsaw and other gear up a hill, chopped three big ash trees that have fallen onto the access track, cleared the logs, carried the tools back and returned to my car. I walked over 7km, did around 15,000 steps and burned more than 500 calories. All that out in the fresh air, in beautiful surroundings, and helping to look after a nature reserve. 

If you ever wondered about benefits of volunteering, one of them is: a proper workout! 

After being the trainee warden in the Ashford area, I took on the role of Access Officer to encourage appropriate use of the Ashford Warren.  

Ashford Warren sits on the edge of Ashford town and as such is very popular with visitors as it hosts gigantic trees, sandy cliff faces and ponds teeming with frogs. If you’re lucky enough to visit in Spring, you will see the woodland floor covered in bluebells however this is where the effects of visitors are seen the most. Every year new paths are created cutting through the landscape causing compaction of the soil and ground flora to be misplaced. These barren paths are most obvious when cut through the blanket of bluebells, so we are trying to reclaim these areas back to nature.  

With help from the Ashford Volunteer team, the use of tree felling and dead hedging has enabled us to close some of these paths and by being on site regularly and installing signage, we can engage with visitors, educating and creating awareness of the need to follow paths and maintain a harmonious human-wildlife balance at the Warren.  

Another fundamental part of the project is working alongside the mountain bikers who have built and developed the bike jumps on site. Through consultations and social media discussions, we have built up a good relationship with the bikers and aim to co-operate with them in enabling their sport on site, but in a way that promotes responsible riding and doesn’t have a detrimental impact on the surrounding wildlife. Containing the jumps to an area and having safe jumps available to all skill levels has enabled this strategy to be effective and created mutual respect between the parties. We continue to work with the mountain bikers to improve safety on site for them and other visitors.  

Going forward we look to recruit volunteers who visit the site regularly and can become “Friends of the Warren”. Their main responsibility will be to report any issues on site via a designated WhatsApp group. There is no set schedule, and it can be done when and as often as you would like. The opportunity to engage in some more practical works on site will also be available. So if you would like to help make a difference at the Warren, or would like more information, please email: Aaron.Hart@kentwildlife.org.uk or scan the QR code.