Dover Lifestock Checker Team, Fifth Continent Heritage Volunteers, John Hammond, Mike Remon, Paul Alford and Tim Parry, Romney Marsh Community Garden, and Selwyn Dennis
Dover Livestock Checker Team
Throughout lockdown, the Dover Livestock Checkers have excelled in making sure the animals were checked daily. The livestock checkers have also taken on new sites and are even checking more than one site in a day, each one occasionally taking more than a couple of hours, all completed on a voluntary basis. They have demonstrated flexibility which has reduced the amount of staff time needed and reduced the time needed to recruit new checkers. The livestock are constantly being checked to a high-quality standard and injuries or illnesses are picked up quickly which has vastly improved the welfare of the animals and ensured the conservation grazing of Dover reserves run smoothly. This required a lot of collaboration within the team to deliver high-quality livestock checks and ensure the high-quality welfare of animals.
Fifth Continent Heritage Volunteers
The Heritage volunteers have gone above and beyond to help with the delivery of the archaeological and heritage aspects of the Fifth Continent Project. The Fifth Continent Landscape Partnership Scheme, which the Kent Wildlife Trust is part of, is successfully delivering a broad range of exciting projects across Romney Marsh based around the three themes of ‘Restore, Rediscover and Reclaim’. Over the past year the volunteers have shown up in person where possible and worked on projects from home where needed, enabling the work to continue. The Heritage volunteers continue to carry out their roles even through a pressing time, to fulfil their commitments and allow work on Romney Marsh to continue, so that people are encouraged to rediscover, reclaim and reconnect with their heritage and wildlife. The Heritage volunteers have demonstrated passion, collaboration, knowledge and responsibility by instigating Zoom sessions during lockdown.
John Hammond
John is a regular volunteer in the Dover Reserves Volunteer Team. He sets up bonfires with a mechanised blower, built by himself, which reduces risk to other volunteers. John goes the extra mile through using his engineering skills and ensuring the upkeep of tools, which are all built from recycled and dumped materials which helps to save money. John works very well with other volunteers and has dedicated many hours to the Dover Volunteer Team, helping with the management of the restoration of chalk downland. He demonstrates commitment and inspires new volunteers to dedicate their time to helping KWT for the benefit of wildlife.
Mike Remon
Mike has turned his hand to anything thrown at him over the last two years as a Facilities Volunteer, going above and beyond in his role. His contributions have included painting, plumbing, building flatpack furniture and even installing nappy changing stations and hand sanitisers for health and safety. His reliability and sense of humour has been a massive boost to Kent Wildlife Trust. Mike’s contribution to the Trust has enabled them to complete several projects, including maintaining and improving the kitchen, the training room and the education cottage for school visits.
Paul Alford and Tim Parry
Paul and Tim are Romney Marsh Visitor Centre Grounds Volunteers and have made a huge difference around the grounds from emptying bins to fixing and repairing the infrastructure. They have been instrumental to the centre’s successful re-opening to the public after the coronavirus outbreak and have created lovely wildflower areas for people to enjoy. This has given the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre site a breath of life making the garden fun and attractive with a picnic area and paths for people to get closer to nature. These developments would not have been possible without Paul and Tim’s contributions and dedication.
Romney Marsh Community Garden
The Romney Marsh Volunteer Garden Team have gone above and beyond expectations in the community garden to create a lovely and attractive space for the public and for Kent Wildlife Trust to use for events. The space has fun sculptures and bird feeding stations to support the local area’s bird population. This has made a massive difference to the site and the garden will now produce lovely fruits and salad for the first time in years. The garden is now used by multiple groups and people are using and enjoying the space, getting them closer to nature. This would not have been possible without the contributions of the community garden volunteer team.
Selwyn Dennis
Selwyn is incredibly passionate about wildlife, people’s enjoyment of it and how it should be protected. Throughout lockdown, Selwyn has kept everyone up to date with weekly updates from his explorations of Queendown Warren and Potters Wood while the task day team was not running and volunteers could not visit the reserve. He kept track of wildlife highlights and general goings on and helped to keep the volunteer team connected to both the reserve and each other. Selwyn’s contribution of 6 years’ worth of transect data is invaluable to monitoring the health of butterfly populations across the reserve. His data also provides yearly reports on wildlife highlights and trends on the reserve. Selwyn has inspired and continues to inspire many of the team, both staff and volunteers, and the general public to engage in conservation and nature.