Hills and hedges – Through the eyes of a Ranger Intern

Written by Jess, Community Ranger Intern

Trimming up the hedge and knocking it down into line ready to bind the tops

What a diverse job being a Ranger is!! I don’t think I’ve experienced a job role like it, but I’m very lucky to be doing so, and my sponge brain is defiantly a lot weightier than it was a week ago!

So this week I’ve been to Sundon Hills and Sharpenhoe Clappers.

Sundon Hills with its lovely rolling hills and little patches of woodland, and a old disused quarry that’s now home to lots of orchids and butterflies, and other wildlife. At the moment we don’t know as much as we would like to about the history of the place, but I may make it my mission!

Sharpenhoe  Clappers, another lovely piece of woodland on top of a hill, which is home to an Iron Age hill Fort and medieval rabbit warren. Both these sites required some litter picking from their car parks. Why cant people people just take their litter home? Its saddening how much damage litter can cause to the environment and the wildlife that inhabits it, and Fly Tipping? I will never understand. Why not just take it to the tip? Surely a lot easier than driving around to find somewhere, and a lot kinder on the countryside too.

 This Wednesday the Ranger team visited Travel Choices for a brainstorming afternoon. We looked at how we can make the Downs more accessible for people without their own transport and better ways of getting our local community outdoors and closer to nature. I, like many people, take it for granted how easy it is to get about when you have your own transport. It was interesting to find out there are things out there and places to go to get help and maybe even borrow a push bike!

 

Feeding our feathered friends is defiantly one of my favourite tasks, and although it’s evaded my eyes, a Brambling has been spotted at our feeding tables! Another favourite task is being out in the countryside, getting stuck in to whatever needs doing to keep the countryside in check. So I was out with the volunteers for a day, preparing the hedges that were going to be laid. Although more time consuming than getting your tractor out and flailing the hedges, hedge laying is not only interesting and more rewarding, (well I think so!) it doesn’t need doing again for several years, unlike flailing which needs doing annually. Our carbon footprint was better as we used vastly less fuel than a tractor (just a bit for the chainsaws). We also cleared a footpath of all the dead leaves and the boggy mud, better than any gym session!. So not only am I going to be a wealth of knowledgeable I’m going to have muscles like Arnie as well! It’s all good 🙂 

Working with the midweek volunteers to prepare stakes for hedging.

I have also been looking through all the old photos of Dunstable Downs. The Orange Rolling looked like a great day out, such a shame we’re not still able to do that, mind I think I’d have to roll a lemon, just to be different! It’s interesting to see how much things change over the years, and in fact I think I’ve developed a bit of a love of history since starting my internship. It’s been a great week, no two days are ever the same, I have all my uniform and feel well n truly part of the team. My only bad thought about the week, why do people feel the need to leave litter?

Crowds gather for orange rolling on Dunstable Downs