Each year, the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) takes the new cohort of MSc students to the Wildwood Trust, in Blean, to learn about the biodiversity that exists on our doorstep.
The Wildwood Trust is a “charity dedicated to restoring nature through innovative rewilding projects… home to over 200 British species.” Wildwood is an important location for captive breeding and release programmes for wilding purposes, but it’s also a visitor centre that aims to give the visitor an experience of walking ‘back in time’. Each year, we take our MSc students for a tour of the park. The trip is a great opportunity for our new cohort to learn more about Kent ecosystems, understand what species used to live here, and see how Wildwood and the Kent Wildlife Trust partners are using approaches like wilding, species reintroductions and habitat restoration to improve landscape resilience against climate change and biodiversity loss. It’s also a chance for our students to get to know one another! As a new member of staff for the E3 Sharing Space for Nature initiative, I was thrilled to be invited along to document the day. Here’s how it went…
We boarded the coach together in the morning and travelled just a few miles from our Canterbury campus to Wildwood in Blean.
Once there, we split into our two groups for the day and headed off to our morning activities. For my group, that was a tour of the park with our group leader, Conservation Officer, Suzanne. Suzanne gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of the conservation and rewilding projects at the Wildwood Trust. Amongst others, these projects include the rewilding of water voles, bison, and (my personal favourite) hazel dormice, which were the projects we got to see close-up during the trip. This particular dormouse can’t be rereleased on account of inbreeding, but it was certainly my favourite animal of the day because of its chubby little cheeks and long tail.
During our tour, Suzanne also gave us information on the other animals at Wildwood and their importance and effects on biodiversity in Kent and wider ecosystems – the rewilding of choughs in Dover, and the effects of declining populations of keystone species like the Eurasian beaver and the red squirrel. It was amazing to see these species up close and learn about why their survival is so important.
After a cup of tea and a sandwich from Wildwood’s on-site café, we swapped over with the other group to move onto the second part of our visit. This was a talk from Bison Ranger, Don, who gave us in-depth insights into the release of bison into the Wilder Blean. We learned about the project’s development from the start, how the bison are monitored and the incredible effects these animals have had on biodiversity in Blean so far. Don told us that he observed the effects of the species on the environment within just one hour of their release; the bison created new paths and space in the dense woodland that allowed light to reach the forest floor, and from the bison rubbing up against trees, new homes for insects were opened up in the deadwood.
The day concluded with a workshop, where we were tasked with starting our own bison rewilding project. We were provided with a map of the Blean woodland and asked how we would begin this project from scratch – what we would research, who we would approach for licenses, all the things we think we would need to release bison. It was interesting to hear ideas from the MSc cohort and see the differences in opinions, from how many bison each group would choose to release, to where they would place monitoring facilities based on road layouts and public footpaths.
Afterwards, we had some free time to wander the park on our own. I grabbed a cup of tea from the café and went for a closer look at the hibernating otters, but a lot of the group sat around tables and talked about their favourite parts of the day.
Innovation Associate and DICE alumna, Emily Rampling, attended the trip and said, “I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Wildwood this year, and this time as a staff member! I originally visited in 2020 as a DICE MSc student, so it was nostalgic being back and with this year’s MSc cohort. It was amazing to see how the bison wilding project has come along over these years and the Wildwood staff were so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about its positive biodiversity impacts. These types of visits are really important for strengthening DICE working relationships with our partners and ensures that we tackle conservation challenges in a holistic and systematic way.”
Then, it was back to campus on the bus, ready for a new week of learning at DICE!
If you’d like to find out more about postgraduate study at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, we have lots of information available on our website.