We can accept a general booking for a 2028 Knepp Field Course to give people an opportunity to start fundraising and begin preparing earlier. As the location dates for our expeditions are not released until the September before the expedition season, our 2028 booking form allows you to put a deposit down for the amount of time you would like to join, and receive early access to the locations and dates we have available for 2028. In September 2027 you will receive our brochure and early access booking form, to give you first choice of what we have available! – this is a great way of ensuring that you get your first choice of what you want to do, whilst also being able to kick start your fundraising as you will have a place confirmed!
Please note: field courses prices for 2028 may be subject to change.
Our mission is to give the next generation of conservationists the practical skills, critical thinking and professional grounding they need for a career in UK ecology and climate resilience. Based at the Knepp Estate, one of Britain’s best-known rewilding projects, this course uses a working, still-evolving landscape as a live training ground. Participants carry out the same fieldwork used across UK conservation: bird and mammal surveys, habitat mapping, biodiversity assessment, and carbon accounting, taught by working ecologists and conservation professionals. Rewilding is central to the course, but so is examining it honestly. Participants hear directly from those who practise it, and from talks that set out the debates around land use, food security and how rewilding fits alongside farming – not just its benefits, but its trade-offs and open questions. We want participants to leave able to weigh these arguments for themselves, not simply to repeat a single view.
The aim of this 2 week course is to give the participants experience in field survey techniques that are likely to be encountered if undertaking a field ecology or climate change career. In the first week the practicals are aimed at training participants in how to quantify a range of different taxa from DISTANCE sampling for large mammals, to refugia surveys for reptiles and amphibians. UKHAB mapping and calculation of the biodiversity of a site using the DEFRA biodiversity metric will be taught through habitat surveys, which will open up opportunities for planning authorities and developers.
In the second week volunteers will get to experience an even wider range of surveys! This includes surveying small mammals through trapping and tracking with hedgehog print tunnels and learning how to trap and identify newts, which will help volunteers to work towards a Great Crested Newt license if they wish to in the future. Volunteers also get to join a freshwater invertebrate survey to quantify biodiversity of ponds, pollinator surveys and how to identify bee and hoverfly species, and also get to take part in some wildlife photography workshops to improve scientific communication. All of these surveys will give volunteers a brilliant understanding of survey methods, and prepare them for a career in UK conservation.
In addition, the course includes evening presentation from professional ecologists or climate change specialists in how they developed their careers.
Our mission is to give the next generation of conservationists the practical skills, critical thinking and professional grounding they need for a career in UK ecology and climate resilience. Based at the Knepp Estate, one of Britain’s best-known rewilding projects, this course uses a working, still-evolving landscape as a live training ground. Participants carry out the same fieldwork used across UK conservation: bird and mammal surveys, habitat mapping, biodiversity assessment, and carbon accounting, taught by working ecologists and conservation professionals. Rewilding is central to the course, but so is examining it honestly. Participants hear directly from those who practise it, and from talks that set out the debates around land use, food security and how rewilding fits alongside farming – not just its benefits, but its trade-offs and open questions. We want participants to leave able to weigh these arguments for themselves, not simply to repeat a single view.
The aim of the course is to give the participants experience in field survey techniques that are likely to be encountered if undertaking a field ecology or climate change career. Thus practicals involve include pollination surveys that can be used in land management, while others such as UKHab mapping and calculation of the biodiversity value of a site using the DEFRA biodiversity metric will open up opportunities for planning authorities and developers. Volunteers will learn to identify different bird species by sight and sound and get involved in bird ringing, point counts and breeding bird transects. The introduction of large mammals at Knepp is the key to its success as a rewilding project, and these species are surveyed through a DISTANCE transects and camera trapping, while invertebrates are surveyed through pan traps, sweep netting and Malaise traps. Volunteers also learn how to process invertebrate samples, and these then go to the Natural History Museum for analysis. Bat surveys and light trapping for moths give insight into some of our nocturnal species and how to identify them. Reptiles including slow worms and grass snakes are surveyed using artificial refugia, and volunteers also get to learn about the voluntary carbon market while quantifying carbon sequestration in fields, hedgerows and trees. All of these survey skills will help to improve employability in the field of UK conservation.
In addition, the course includes evening presentation from professional ecologists or climate change specialists in how they developed their careers.
Climate
The British summertime is somewhat hard to predict, usually average daytime temperatures from June to August are between 18°C and 21°. Rainfall can be variable on site from very dry weeks to wetter weeks. It is important to check up to date weather forecasts before departure, and be aware it can be very cold overnight.
Fitness Level Required
Medium – there can be long walks and terrain varies, with some transects being flat and others more challenging.
Creature Comforts
Facilities in the camp site are basic (sleeping in tents), with compost toilets and hot showers. Phone signal can be patchy.
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