Sevenoaks Greensand Commons - A Volunteer's Story

When I joined the project in October 2022, in truth, I didn’t really know what I’d signed up to. I had little experience of practical habitat conservation - apart from making ponds for amphibians! I knew I wanted to volunteer with Kent Wildlife Trust, but I had no prior knowledge of the practical projects on offer. Anyway, one evening, I went online and, on a whim, when asked what project I wanted to join, clicked ‘Greensand Practical Conservation’. I confess, I hadn’t heard of the Project, and had to read up on it online to find out what the project was.

When my first task day came around, getting out my car, I was on edge, with my heartbeat beginning to rev up in my chest. As I locked my car, one or two smiley people approached me and introduced themselves. The kind, friendly vibe of the group was evident. Soon, the Project’s pickup truck arrived, from which emerged Jo and Suzie, who welcomed me into the group. Barely a few minutes had passed before my nerves were forgotten and Suzie was offering me a strange yellow contraption known as a tree-popper, showing me how to use it to yank small birch trees out of the heather (while trying not to bash the popper’s heavy metal plate into one’s shins). 

Back in 2021 I finished a Master’s in conservation, as I’ve always been interested in wildlife and biology. Unfortunately, the MSc took place during Covid, meaning much of our practical fieldwork trips were off the cards, and my project became desk-based. After my course I found myself in an office job again, before finally realising that I’d had enough of sitting at a desk all hours. Instead I felt an inexorable pull to work outside, on the reserves, helping manage land for conservation. I grew up not far from the foot of the Greensand Ridge, where it passes through Shipbourne and Plaxtol, near north Tonbridge. But I was only familiar with this small section of it - the fruit-growing slopes and the woods, which I would habitually wander or cycle, or meander along the bit of the Greensand Way which goes west from Shipbourne via Ightham Mote towards Knole. I couldn’t have imagined how many hidden gems of Commons land could be found nestling along the Greensand Ridge, nor that I would (begin to) cut my teeth in conservation by working on them.

Since October last year, I‘ve spent weekly or twice-weekly task days on the Greensand Commons Project (GCP) many sites, which encompass varied important habitats, but are predominantly lowland heath (an important, rare habitat type globally) and broadleaf seminatural woodland, much of it ancient. What’s special about the Commons, and why it’s interesting land to help conserve, is that it’s the product not simply of nature – it’s been formed over centuries of humans working alongside and tweaking wild processes, living on and around these habitats, and altering them for their subsistence.

Historically, locals had the right to use commons land as a shared resource, using the resources nature provided – timber, fishing, household fuel like kindling and turf. Importantly, they could graze their livestock on commons’ pasture, and use mast (acorns and beech nuts) for feeding pigs. In particular, heathland is a product of human-nature coexistence, occurring when people cleared woodland for grazing in the Bronze Age, and many wild species have since adapted to heathlands. Our project has helped to restore overgrown, neglected heathland areas of the Commons, clearing away scrub, bracken and rhododendron, to what the habitats were before. This will help the heather and bilberry to thrive without being covered over by young trees. Already, we have discovered some amazing species inhabiting our Commons. On one site, Matt and Caro discovered a nightjar nesting - a brilliant find, given how camouflaged their cryptic plumage makes them - although this meant it narrowly avoided being trodden on! We were also pleased to find two great spotted woodpecker nests, complete with hungry chicks peeking out of their nest holes, being waited on by doting parents. We’ve had speckled yellow moths, green tiger beetles, slow worms, holly blue butterflies, tawny owls (and their chicks!), badgers, and roe deer, to name but a few species – as well as the variety of fungi which proliferate in autumn and winter.  

The project has helped me learn so much about practical habitat conservation and management  – not least the useful practical skills: using tree poppers, mattocks, bowsaws, and how to have controlled bonfires to burn brash, especially rhododendron cuttings, which grow back into the ground if given the chance! One of the project’s aims has been to improve access for the public – something so obvious but which I’d never even thought about before. To do so, we’ve cut back vegetation around footpaths, and have dried out woodland paths by removing understorey holly, letting light onto the woodland floor. Hopefully now, more of the local community can come to explore these lovely green spaces. Thanks to our knowledgeable staff and long-term volunteers, I’ve learnt many conservation techniques, including ‘haloing’ veteran trees, felling small trees with bowsaws using gob cuts and step cuts, and why heathland conservation often means pulling out reams of birch saplings! It’s been interesting to watch how the various sites change as winter has given way to summer. I’ve experienced working in deep snow (rhodi pulling, of course), and the relief of getting around the bonfire during coffee break in such conditions – while recently we’ve been out working in blazing sunshine, butterfly net in-hand (you can’t not feel upbeat when watching a group of grown adults cartoonishly chasing after butterflies with nets). 

Since early spring, Matt conscientiously worked to make the final NHLF-funded months of project go out on a high. So he allowed us to put down our tools and have some fun survey activities – we’ve had a go at butterfly site-sweep netting surveys, and have been introduced to surveying for veteran trees. As a way of giving back to the volunteers, Matt worked to spend the remaining project budget on our training and development – and has therefore been able to enrol volunteers on all kinds of training courses and study days. I’ve recently completed a chainsaw training course with a few other volunteers, which will be a great skill for my hoped-for conservation career. Alongside our task days, we’ve had the chance to deepen our knowledge of the wildlife here through guided nature walks, such as a fungi walk on Hosey Common back in autumn, as well as the chance to learn about the history and archaeology of the Commons from Kent County Council's archaeologist Andrew Mayfield, who has run a couple of very interesting dig days at Crockham Hill Common - letting us have a go at being detectorists for the day. I’ve also had a go at trying to inspire other volunteers about my own particular interest, herpetofauna, by organising a couple of amphibian torching surveys back in March, seeing what amphibian species we could find on and around the Greensand Ridge area. I was really pleased that a group of our volunteers actually turned up, despite the dark and the rain, to join me on these surveys! We even found a couple of great crested newts one evening, so it was certainly worth the trouble. Since spring, I have helped to help set up and lead reptile surveys using refugia, on two sites, Bitchet Common and Crockham Hill Common. We’ve found many slow worms under refugia so far, as well as an unexpected nest of shrews! In May, Matt showcased his detailed ornithological knowledge, leading a dawn chorus walk at Bitchet Common, meeting at 5AM (this early start was voluntary, I must add!) so we could learn to identify different bird calls and songs. In late May a ‘field trip’ day was organised for volunteers, and we went over the chalk grassland of KWT’s Fackenden Down reserve, where we spent a relaxed day wandering the meadows, looking for wildflowers and netting butterflies for a close-up look. 

At the end of June, the project came to the end of its five-year period of funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund – but we are all eager to ensure the project’s work carries on, at least with some regularity, into its next phase. It’s important that all of our hard work to restore the commons does not ‘reverse’ itself through the ecological process of succession – where the mix of species continues to change in a given area, with different groups of species ‘taking over’ and altering a habitat. Because heathland is colonised and develops quickly into woodland, our restored heathland areas may be rapidly lost to birch saplings pushing up through the brush, unless we work to preserve the heaths. But due to the enthusiasm and dedication of our volunteer group – with several individuals channelling their energy into campaigning and trying to convince various bodies of all the worthwhile work done through our project – our campaigns have paid off. We’ve recently been told the Project will continue, which is excellent news. 

For me, the all-round best thing about volunteering over the last nine months has been the lovely group of people at the heart of the project. Our group of volunteers create a relaxed, convivial atmosphere (many of them regulars who give their time each week) and are a friendly, bright, and empathic band of people, who it’s been a pleasure to get to know and share our love of wildlife. The same goes for our great project staff, Matt, Jo and Suzie, who have made task days fun, have encouraged lively chats over tea breaks, and have always taken the time to get to know every volunteer. So, naturally, the task days have always passed quickly, even when we’re doing tricky or tiring work (think swinging mattocks at rhododendron roots) in our capricious British weather. I’ve made many new friends, of different generations, all who share a love of the natural world. The conservation work we have done as a volunteer team has threaded the paths of our lives together (even if only for a little while), and has deepened our roots in these age-old wild places which we may have only driven past before. 

I thought I would end with these lines from Manley Hopkins – however you interpret the words ‘be left’, and whether that is conservation – the words speak of the tenacity of the natural world, and the strength of our will to conserve it. 

What would the world be, once bereft 
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, 
O let them be left, wildness and wet; 
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet. 

Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘Inversnaid’