Latest News and Views | Old Chalk New Downs

Level 1 bat licence training – a review

By Abigail Dodge On the 6th and 7th July, I joined Wild Wings Ecology on their Level 1 bat licence training course in glorious Norfolk, thanks to the short course bursary programme run by the Old Chalk New Downs Project. Wild...

Old Chalk New Downs Project Conference

OCND Project Conference - Reflections from the Day The Old Chalk New Downs (OCND) project conference was a resounding success, thanks to the support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the engaging speakers, enthusiasm of all that attended and the...

OCND Visits Slovenia - A Review

By Jenny Price and Lyndsay Wayman-Rook In July 2022, the Old Chalk New Downs project, alongside colleagues from Medway Valley Countryside Partnership and Hadlow College, visited the Goricko Nature Park in the Prekmurje region of Slovenia. The project was organised...

Bat Ecology Training and Survey - A Review by Alli Clarke

Bat Ecology Training and Surveying By Alli Clarke On the 11th and 12th of April 2022 I attended a Bat Ecology and Surveying course run by Ecology Training UK. We were based in West Harptree in Somerset close to the...

A typical day at the office OCND style?

By Jackie Williams and David Rowlands Volunteering this summer with the OCND project made scrambling on hands and knees on steep meadows the new office for two late career changers. Summer surveys are needed to identify the special, but declining,...

Securing the Landscape Toolkit

We just published a ‘one stop shop’ toolkit for people and landowner affected by rural crime. The toolkit allows you to easily find information about certain crimes and, most importantly, explains how to report crime and what...

Scrub Clearing – the Do’s and Don’ts.

By Jenny Price, OCND Habitat Management Adviser Scrub (low level woody species such as bramble, clematis, dogwood, and hawthorn) is fantastic habitat for wildlife. Small nesting birds find nesting sites, food, and protection from scrubby habitats. Small mammals,...

My OCND Kent Country Parks Voluntary Traineeship – The First Three Months

Hi, my name’s Hannah and for the past three months I have been working as OCND’s new Kent Country Parks Trainee based with the awesome ranger team at the beautiful Trosley Country Park. Having recently graduated...

OCND Conservation Trainee - My Time as a Trainee

My last day as a trainee with the project is this week. I cannot believe how quickly the last 9 months has gone. It has been an amazing experience and I cannot believe that it over. Since finishing my Zoology degree 4...

OCND Conservation Trainee – Halfway Point

I am now well over halfway through my traineeship here with OCND and despite lockdown, the time has zoomed by and I have got lots done! Here is a summary below of some of the interesting things I have managed...

Walk the Chalk- Self Guided Walks

We have compiled a selection of 23 self-guided walks that'll help you explore our fantastic project area. Each walk varies in lenght and difficulty, simply click on the links below to download a map and more information about the...

OCND Conservation Trainee - My First Month

Hello, I’m Hannah, the OCND Conservation Trainee. As I have now been working on the project for just over a month (and what an unusual month it’s been!), I wanted to let you know what I...

Survey Work Under COVID-19 Restrictions

Our obligation is to conduct work in a safe manner which doesn’t put our staff, project partners and members of the public at risk. For the time being all of our public and training events have been cancelled...

Fighting Climate Change with Hedgerows - What On Earth?

Hedgerows – many of us are noticing hedgerows more than ever before on our daily exercise, from the unidentified small brown bird dashing into the undergrowth, to the hum of insects foraging. There is plenty to take notice of, but...

OCND Traineeship: Hedge Laying at Holly Hill

In January I was lucky enough to participate in the course I’ve been hoping to get to do, possibly most of all: Hedge Laying at Holly Hill. This craft dates back at least to Roman times, maybe even...

Making 2020 ‘The Year of the Hedgerow’

A hedgerow is defined as any boundary line of trees or shrubs over 20m long and less than 5m wide at the base. Whilst this is the standard description of a hedgerow, it does not paint a very exciting picture...

OCND Traineeship Andy’s 2nd Week

Week 2 It was time for me to do some proper work, so Tuesday was spent plucking Ragwort and Common Thistle from the Top Field at Queendown Warren, but even this seemingly monotonous task was enjoyable in the end. Ragwort is...

OCND Traineeship Andy’s 1st Week

Week 1 As with all positions in all organisations, the first few days largely consisted of paperwork, meeting colleagues, and site familiarisation. However, that is where the similarities with other jobs I have done in the past ended. I was treated...

OCND Traineeship. How it all started

Andy's Blog For the past few weeks I have been digging out thistles and ragwort, wandering through nature reserves, making maps, being treated to a day out at Knepp re-wilding project (including five star picnic!!) and generally having a...

Chalk Champions of the North Downs

Chalk Champions of the North Downs Lyndsay Wayman-Rook, Community Engagement Officer for the Old Chalk New Downs (OCND) project tells us about the important contribution volunteers make to their conservation work. “Whilst only being part of the OCND project...

Chalkland Events 2021

2021 This summer the OCND project is working in partnership with the Ramblers Association to deliver a number of engaging guided walks throughout the OCND project area. We also have Ispy events and a wildlife activity day delivered by the...

Reflecting on the project: Year one

Beginning in May 2017, Old Chalk New Downs set out to deliver a new approach to chalk grassland management and restoration, recognising that people needed to engage with their natural environment if they were to be encouraged to protect it. With...

Is a chainsaw wildlife’s best friend?

Preservation of trees is a topic that raises great passion in many with an interest in Conservation. Mention a chainsaw and many will strap themselves to a tree to save it. Britain’s natural state was once a wooded...

Kentish women in agriculture during World War One; Lest We Forget.

Many people will be familiar with stories of the British Land Girls of the Second World War. This land army fought in the fields of home, keeping the national agriculture going and doing “their bit” as their menfolk...

Not All Bobble Hats and Backpacks!

The Old Chalk New Downs project encourages everyone to get out and enjoy the Kent Downs with Kent’s newest walking festival. You probably took your first, eager steps around your first birthday, but as you get older, spend...

Conservation Grazing

Hundreds of years ago, Kent was covered by mixed woodland. Then man began to make clearings for farming and grazing animals kept the regrowth of shrubs and trees at bay. This allowed other species which prefer more open spaces to...

Money for Old Chalk

Chalk grassland is now a rare and fragmented habitat of international importance. The UK holds 50% of the world’s chalk grassland and in Kent, we have around 1900 hectares (5%), a fraction of what we used to have. This fragmentation is...

Spring is in the air.

The recent weather may have had us all shivering, but Spring is certainly in the air. The first day of Spring, St Brigid’s Day, Imbolc or February 1st, seems to most of us a little early and wintery...

Help Our Hedgerows!

Mention hedging and many people will think of garden chores and neighbourhood boundaries, without realising the extent and value of our county's field margins. These long rows of bushes, often interspersed with trees, divide up our landscape, preventing livestock...

Ecosystem Services – branding Nature for a sustainable future.

Sweet flower! Of all that bloom by hill or glen Through smiling Kent, there’s none I love like thee For thour’st the truest type of true born men Hardy unbought, untamable and free...”
The Amicci, ‘The Fly Orchis’
(lines on a fly orchis found on the brow of Boxley Hills) (1836)