As we move quickly into August (my final month!), it is that time again when I get the opportunity to reflect on the past weeks. This month has undoubtedly been the most eventful one so far, so sit tight and prepare for the mother of all blogs.

Out and About

It has been a wet and windy summer for the most part so far, so plant growth has been a little crazy! Because of this, the hazel maze at the Hairpin has been growing thick and fast. As it is now the summer holidays, we hope that families will be wanting to make the most of the facilities we have to offer. I have been taking turns with Andree to run up to give it a trim while keeping an eye on other paths for overgrowth. The maze looks magical in the summer – like you really could get lost within it. If you are visiting Ramsey, I would recommend checking it out!

Also at the Hairpin, I have been working with Nick Pinder, from the Manx Bat Group, to set up bat detectors for the long-term monitoring programme that he set up. Each year he places the detectors in the same places to see which species are present. This year I believe there were fewer species than normal, but this may have been due to the poor weather over the weekend that they were out for. I also placed detectors at Creg Y Cowin in an attempt to set up another long-term monitoring project. The data collected will form a baseline of species present so that each year, as the site develops into woodland, species presence can be monitored.

Creg Y Cowin also has a new hub for tree planters! A small group of volunteers ventured into the valley on a warm Sunday to create a fenced-off area for tree-planting parties. I helped to create the plan of action and fell into the role of volunteer management. Whilst we were building, a couple of ladies from BBC 4 interviewed some of the team for their programme. The day was successful and we got a large chunk of the fencing done.

I have been involved in a couple of public engagement activities this month, one of which being the infamous Festival of the Sea, and the other being a stall in Douglas town centre for Bee Day. Both events required me to step out of my comfort zone and speak to members of the public about conservation and wildlife. Festival of the Sea went swimmingly, and I spoke to a lot of people about respecting seals on the beaches and the potential of seagrass beds for absorbing carbon. People seemed really engaged by the whole event and we raised a lot of money which made the ordeal of setting up well worth it. The events certainly increased my confidence and I would be more comfortable within myself to do an event like that again.

I also stepped out of my comfort zone by joining MWT’s Viking Longboat Race team! It has been something t that I have wanted to do since I watched my father take part when I was a child, so I was excited when Hannah sent around an email to gather a team. We did so well considering it was everyone’s first attempt and came mid-range within our category. I am very proud of the team!

In the office

The freshwater fish of conservation concern report that I have been writing is now in a completed draft phase! I am really happy about how it is turning out and it will certainly be one piece of work that I will be able to sign off as complete by the time I leave MWT. The next steps are to go through it with Lara and David, the to send to DEFA for comments. Then Graham will work some magic to make it look pretty and as a part of the coherent Red List booklets.

I have helped Andree with a couple of jobs this month. As a part of the government’s biodiversity strategy, a series of Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs) have been written. These are posted on the government website and are available for the public to read. Andree has been writing action plans for rare plants as a part of the Wildflowers of Mann project, but they have never been put into the BAP format. I helped Andree by formatting all of his action plans so that they can be posted with the other BAPs on the government website. This took me a while, but all 37 have now been re-formatted.

This month I also helped Andree with the mapping for his Woodland Grant Scheme applications. The Woodland Grant Scheme is a government initiative that provides money for tree planting. I had already helped him create the layers of acid and neutral soils and tidied his layers of planting mix areas. I created a series of small woodland maps colour coded for each type of planting mix as well as location maps. I then helped by converting the applications into PDFs. Hopefully, the applications return successfully and provide some funding for Creg Y Cowin.

David requested that I taught him some basic GIS mapping skills so that he will be able to continue updating our nature reserve layer when I am gone. I taught him how to create and edit polygons and attribute tables on QGIS. He picked it up quickly and I am sure he will find ways to use the software within his Agri-Environment work too.

August will be my final month with MWT and so there will be only one more blog after this one! Keep up to date on what I am up to by following my Instagram page @rachels_placement and any questions please don't hesitate to send over an email to rachelsmith@mwt.im