2023 Dates
2 weeks: 2 weeks terrestrial only – 18 June – 1 July 2023
2 weeks: 2 weeks terrestrial only – 2 July – 15 July 2023
2 weeks: 2 weeks terrestrial only – 16 July – 29 July 2023

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This project is based at the Knepp Estate in the Low Weald of Sussex, which is Britain’s premier and most famous rewilding site.  The 3500 acre estate is being returned to a pre-human habitat by almost abandoning human intervention in the management of the landscape and allowing fields to revert to natural vegetation. Fallow and red deer, wild horses, long-horn cattle to mimic the effects of the extinct auroch and pig to mimic wild boar control the vegetation on this unique estate to produce a patchwork of different habitats.  Beavers are being introduced to help restore the wet grassland and wetland habitats.

This approach was started in 2002 and has turned out to be visionary with many other farmers now looking to similarly restore areas of the country using this approach.  The effect on wildlife has been breathtaking including massive increases in floristic diversity, insect abundance, many more butterflies including special species such as Purple Emperor, growth in the abundance of threatened bird species such as nightingales, and turtle doves and 13 of the 17 bat species returning to the land.

This course is aimed at those participating positioning themselves to be able to benefit from the anticipated explosive growth in career opportunities in wildlife management and climate change careers in the UK (see Opportunities in the UK jobs market for ecology and climate change careers)

Practicals in the first week are aimed at introducing methods used to quantify a range of different taxa.  These include practicals on UK Hab mapping, terrestrial invertebrate surveys including Malaise trapping, water pans, pitfall traps, light traps, Pollard counts for butterflies and sweep netting, bird point count and mist net surveys, reptile search transects and cover boards, amphibian spotlight and tadpole surveys, DISTANCE sampling and camera trapping for large mammals and sound surveys for bats.  For part of each day the participants will be learning how to analyse large data sets using R (open source software used in most universities) so that skills are acquired to write up science reports based on data collected from field surveys. This is an important skill to acquire alongside the field survey skills if wanting to work in field ecology.

In the second week , the practicals are aimed at developing applied skills for wildlife careers.  These include pollination surveys and how to quantify bird and mammal population that can be used in land management careers.  Others such as UK Hab mapping and calculation of the biodiversity value of a site using the DEFRA biodiversity metric will open up opportunities for planning authorities and developers.  The carbon practicals will look at how to quantify carbon in fields, hedgerows and trees and how the voluntary carbon market works.

In the evenings there will be presentations from professional ecologists or climate change specialists in how they developed their careers.

There is also the opportunity to learn how to use canopy access techniques to be able to undertake surveys in tree canopies.  This is an optional extra course costing £170 provided by Canopy Access Ltd and you can do this half day practical instead of one of the other practicals being offered.  All the equipment and training is provided and you will be accompanied into the canopy by an instructor.  Seeing the Knepp estate in the same height as Purple Emperor butterflies defending their territories or nesting White Storks is an amazing experience.