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...”
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 poisonous to many herbivores and Common Thistle will take over a field if left unmanaged, so they’re both best removed where practical. There were about twelve volunteers of all ages, characters and abilities, all of whom worked incredibly hard to achieve the task at hand. Morning coffee and afternoon tea was provided by virtue of Ghillie Kettles along with donuts and biscuits for energy, we brought our own lunches along though.
Wednesday and Thursday were taken up with a QGIS map making course. QGIS is a free to access online tool for map making. Not as in Treasure Island X marks the spot paper or cloth maps, but proper professional quality online maps consisting of our own data or secondary data gathered from myriad sources on the net. This data can be shown in a million different ways including: making polygon sections, routes from data points, etc. Each section or data point can also be allocated its own pop up chart, which gives added information about that data points. The ability to create an informative and attractive map, designed with the user in mind and containing all relevant information required in an easily read and accurate format will be an invaluable skill when undertaking future projects with colleagues/volunteers, or even for informing and engaging members of the public with regard to upcoming events or projects.