Spike's Countryside Management Blog

Today I was asked to fill in a scorecard for the criteria I am marked against for the Countryside worker apprenticeship. In certain aspects such as Hand-tool usage, Risk-assessments, boundary management etc, I gave myself a higher mark out of 10 because they are activities I partake in every day, inversely I also gathered a list of criteria I will never usually meet in my day to day at the Maydencroft Grounds and Estates team, which I have marked myself 3/10 or below in because of my lack of knowledge. These are the criteria in question: K1 - Conservation K2 - Ecology K8 - Countryside legislation K10 - Climate change K11 - Sustainability K14 - First Aid S1 - Manage habitats S2 - Construct or repair boundaries S3 - Construct or maintain access ways S8 - Identify a range of British flora and fauna S9 - Undertake surveys B3 - Work constructively The 'K' Criteria or 'Knowledge' Criteria most likely will have to be covered in independent research or college for key informati...

For Thursday and Friday last week I was sent to Panshanger Park primarily to help out with assembling and securing Treeguards in the park, the Trees in question were planted as part of a stewardship scheme the Park was participating in so it was especially important that they were well presented. I assume I was sent there to help keep the task progressing as some of the park staff were doing a two day long spraying course. Nonetheless, it was interesting experience that made me understand the process from beginning to end. The process for the Treeguards went as such:  Assemble Tree Guard panels in a field with a frontloader and unwrap them. Place 3 panels in a circle and then use three sets of Nuts, Bolts and Washers to join each panel Go down in 3 columns from where you started, the panels will align better if you do all 3 nuts before moving down to the next three Once 12 Nuts have been placed, secure them tightly with a Wrench and Drill with a Bolt Socket attatchment Once the gu...