Volunteers' Week: SNCI volunteer Andrew Woodcock
Monday 3 June - Sunday 9 June is Volunteer's Week, a chance to recognise, celebrate and thank volunteers for all they contribute to our local communities, the voluntary sector, and society as a whole. In this blog, SNCI volunteer, Andrew Woodcock talks about his experience volunteering with Dorset Wildlife Trust.
Andrew Woodcock, SNCI volunteer
Hi, my name is Andrew “Woody” Woodcock. I’ve been volunteering at DWT for a little over five years. Due to poor health I had to take an early retirement from my career, but I didn’t want to spend my time listening to the radio and doing crosswords. I realised that Dorset Wildlife Trust HQ is only a little way up the road and, as a long-time member, maybe there’s something useful I could do, providing it’s not too ‘physical’. Well, not surprisingly, after knocking on the door and enquiring I was soon convinced that there were MANY things I could do!
In my time I’ve worked with several different people on different projects, although the core of my ‘work’ has been for the Sites of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) project. There are over 1,300 such sites around our county of varying size, habitat, and quality but all of which have flora species important to Dorset. I’m principally involved in managing and maintaining the information for the sites so that it is accessible to Dorset Wildlife Trust Staff and available for sharing with landowners. The sites are routinely surveyed, often by volunteers, to establish whether the range of flora there is improving or declining. This means gaining consent from the landowner, often by letter but this is made more complicated where, over time, landowners sadly pass away or properties are sold, and we have to track down the new owners!
Needless to say, we do our best to maintain a database of landowners and to keep in touch with them through an annual newsletter, the distribution of the newsletter falls to myself, but it all adds to the variety of the role.
Being involved in the SNCI project, I’ve learned a little about our wild flora, sometimes surprising. I didn’t realise that there are four types of ragwort (marsh, Oxford, hoary and common) I remember as a youngster being ordered to tear it out of the ground for the protection of grazing ponies. It is indeed toxic, but I won’t be doing that in my garden!
As mentioned before, I've been involved with different projects and one of great things about being based at Brooklands Farm (Dorset Wildlife Trust HQ) is that I meet many of the ‘movers and shakers’ of Dorset Wildlife Trust’s key projects. The knowledge and enthusiasm of the professionals here is amazing and truly inspiring, it’s the main reason I come back every week. I never know who I’m going to meet or what I might learn about beavers, nightjars, shield-bugs or the latest plans for Dorset Wildlife Trust.
The role is often challenging, particularly interpreting the Latin names for hundreds of species of plants but it’s certainly more absorbing than the Daily Telegraph Crossword! I think in my five years I’ve proven that you don’t need to be knowledgeable and physically active to volunteer for Dorset Wildlife Trust, there’s plenty to be done in the ‘back-office’ so if you’re thinking of volunteering don’t be afraid, come and knock on the door.
Brooklands Farm © James Hitch