Total Hours completed to date: 9 hours.
This weekend (19th December) I attended a conservation day run by Cumbria Wildlife Trust. This was a work party aimed at providing more suitable habitats for 'Raft Spiders'.
Raft Spiders are large, chunky spiders with chocolate-brown bodies with pale yellow striping each side. They tend to live by water, around the edges of ponds, or on wet boggy land as they use the vibration on the water surface to detect prey with their front legs. They are able to skim along the surface of the water and can even dive underwater when threatened.
Raft Spider -wikipedia.org
Although Raft Spiders are thought to be quite common they are rarely seen and there have not been many surveyed in this area of Cumbria. We were working on a lowland mire, which had previously had water drainage channels dug to allow grazing. Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the owner are working together building dams to allow water to build up into small ponds to form better habitats for these spiders, while also re-routing the water back onto the land.
The dams were made using 1,2 and 3 metre wooden planks which needed to be dug in and hammered down to the stream bed across the water flow, this then created a pool behind the dam ideal for the spiders, and also allowed any overflow to spread across the mire.
Wooden Dam to create small ponds and divert water (Naomi Lock)
There was a group of six volunteers with three people leading the group. We split into pairs to work together on each dam. I was with the owner of the land who explained the long term goals and a little bit of the history of the land as we worked.
We managed to complete thirteen dams in total for the day and finished very muddy, very wet but feeling accomplished!
(Naomi Lock)
Reflections of the day:
Working as a group we encouraged each other and helped other pairs with any issues and problems when needed. Having to discuss which way the water would flow after damming and if this would not only help the raft spiders but also achieve the re-flooding of the mire. This bought the group together and we all worked really well taking each others ideas and suggestions into account. This has been a great way to increase my communication and teamwork skills which were one of the areas I needed to improve on my Skills Audit.
I learnt about some of the history of the land, from originally being a Lowland Mire (wet and boggy), to being used for peat extraction, to then being drained for use as agricultural grazing land. Now the land is being returned to it's original state by creating these dams which will divert the water back where it was. This gave me an insight into how eco-systems are effected over time and humans effect on them.
As well as the communication skills, teamwork and developing skills there was also some practical skills which I have learnt from the day, digging out areas for the dams to fit at a good point in the water flow, and making sure that health and safety was adhered to.
I am hoping to volunteer some more days on this project to see how it develops over time and develop more knowledge and skills.
This follows the Schon Reflective Model (Schon, 1983) in that we re-evaluated and worked through any problems or issues as we worked (Reflection in action) and I have also looked back and evaluated the skills and knowledge gained and to be taken forward (Reflection on action).
References
Schon, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York:
Basic Books.
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