From snow days to t-shirt weather and mucky hands to ball gowns, March has certainly been a month to remember. It has been so hectic that I don’t really know where to start! I have felt such a sense of pride this month as everything seems to be going my way. To make things simple, I will split my monthly blog into outdoors and indoors headline achievements…

Outdoors

I had my first experience of corporate work parties this month, with 3 of them in total! It was such a joy to be able to work with the groups from Ocorian and the Post Office. Ocorian did a fantastic job in finishing off the Logstickle course that Andree and I had been working on and I can happily say that it is now complete! I played a role in volunteer management and guided a group of 4 allocating their roles. I spent time fleeting between them all making sure they were okay and offering guidance. They added steps to the beginning, extra balance beams and levelled out the ground. They even added a beautiful bench to finish the course off with the most amazing view over the North of the island. I really recommend heading up to see it and feel free to take a picnic!

The Post Office also did an amazing job of tree planting in some very challenging conditions. We did our best impressions of mountain goats as we clambered on the steep slopes to plant where Andree had been halo felling around the struggling Oak trees.

I also had the pleasure of visiting Billown Quarry for the first time. Andree took Laura and I on a short tour before we cut some willow sets to later take up to the Mountain Mile. Cutting the willow gave more light to the small pond and I was amazed how easy it was to create these ingenious willow sets and simply stick them into the ground on the mountain. Andree showed me an example of a set he had planted a couple of years earlier and it was doing really well.

Indoors

I had a good re-evaluation on my priorities for my final 5 months of placement and decided that the wallaby opinion survey of farmers and other stake-holders would not be one of them. I felt that my skill set was much better suited to focussing on ecology and that someone who felt more comfortable interviewing should take on this survey instead. I have, however, been writing up the methodology I planned to use so that in the future another volunteer can take it and run.

I took the PA1 course on the safe use of pesticides and passed the exam! It was a good to think about pesticides with a conservation hat on and now that I have passed, I am able to take the PA6 course. This will mean I am qualified to use pesticides – unfortunately, UCM is not running another course until I head back to Nottingham.

On a slightly different not, I had to choose my options for my final year modules this month. I decided on taking the marine field course which will be held in Pembrokeshire and the freshwater ecology module. I am looking forward to applying all that I have learnt on the Isle of Man to this new context.

Speaking of freshwater, I have finished a first draft of my Freshwater Pearl Mussel report! I am really proud of how it is turning out, even if I do have to confirm that as of March 2023 there are no suitable sites for reintroduction. I spoke to the conservation team about my project in the monthly meeting and they were very impressed about how it has come along. David even suggested publishing it in the next edition of Peregrine – what an honour!

March ended on the best possible note with the MWT 50 years anniversary ball where I had the best time with the MWT team. I helped to set up the event and sold plenty of raffle tickets during the event. I was blown away by the attendees’ generosity and felt very proud of the team’s accomplishments.

As usual, keep up to date on what I am up to by following my Instagram page @rachels_placement and any questions please don't hesitate to send over an email to rachelsmith@mwt.im