Work Experience
As a Trust, we like to do what we can to support people who are trying to gain experience in the wildlife conservation sector. If you are looking to undertake a work experience placement, and are over the age of 18, please feel free to contact us on [email protected] and we will see what we can do to help!
Please note that we are a very small team and due we nature of our work we unfortunately can not grantee you a placement.
Please note that we are a very small team and due we nature of our work we unfortunately can not grantee you a placement.
Moving brash to create dead hedges.
Hi all, it's Henry here. I'm an Exeter university student who undertook a work experience placement with Vale Landscape Heritage Trust (VLHT) for a week in April 2022 and wanted to share my experience.
I chose to do my placement with VLHT because of a glowing recommendation from a family member who knew about the charity and the amazing work they do, and I thought this would give me a great opportunity to gain some outdoor, practical experience in the conservation sector.
Watering a fruit tree after replacing the guard.
Monday
I met up with Gary and Ben at the office, and learned about the charity, where they operate and what they do to help conserve and enhance the wildlife and habitats across their nature reserves around the Vale of Evesham. I also learned a bit about how the charity, and other similar organisations are funded (it turns out that donations are really useful so please donate if you can!). We then went to North Littleton Community Orchard, which is one of their younger orchards, to upgrade some stock guards to keep the trees safe from the inquisitive grazing sheep. I got to use the petrol-powered post driver to knock the posts into ground which was actually quite fun!
Using a small ground clearer to mow the grass along the line of the electric fence.
Tuesday
We spent the entire day at Stocken Orchard, a mature orchard near Tiddesley Wood in Pershore. We dragged some brash left after some pruning work done earlier in the year to the edge of the site and made a dead hedge which will act as a great habitat and transit corridor for all sorts of small animals! We then put up an electric fence so we could let sheep graze most of the orchard, but leave one quarter for wildflowers to grow. Finally, we drilled some holes in a dead tree trunk and dug a hole so we could stand it up to make a lovely home or rest spot for some of the bees and beetles that live in and around the orchard.
Using hand tools to repair and install fencing.
Thursday
We had to contend with strong winds whilst installing a new gate at Lower Moor. This involved digging several holes for the gate posts, and then levelling the posts themselves, before filling with postcrete to insure they were firmly fixed. It was a lot of hard work, especially with the wind working against us, but when the gate was finally properly fitted it was really satisfying!
Friday
I spent the last day of my placement learning to undertake a Phase 1 habitat survey at a Littleton Meadows, mapping the different habitats found there, like flood plain meadow, scrub and ponds.
We had to contend with strong winds whilst installing a new gate at Lower Moor. This involved digging several holes for the gate posts, and then levelling the posts themselves, before filling with postcrete to insure they were firmly fixed. It was a lot of hard work, especially with the wind working against us, but when the gate was finally properly fitted it was really satisfying!
Friday
I spent the last day of my placement learning to undertake a Phase 1 habitat survey at a Littleton Meadows, mapping the different habitats found there, like flood plain meadow, scrub and ponds.
Installing the gate posts ready to hand the new gate down at Lower Moor.
My favourite bit of the week was installing the new gate on Thursday as it was fun using all the different tools, and at the end of the day it felt like we made a significant improvement to the area.
Overall, I got a load of great experience working in conservation, learning both how the Trust is managed and what the Trust does in terms of managing its land with the conservation of wildlife in mind. I also learnt how to use new tools such as the pole driver and fence pliers.
A big thank you to Gary for giving me the opportunity for this placement, I really enjoyed it!
