Nick Tomalin, Site Manager of our new New Forest reserve RSPB Franchises Lodge, has been keeping a diary of his work on the site - and now that the land has fully been transferred to the RSPB, we can finally share his journey. Here are his first two installments, join us next week for more...
Dear Reader,
Welcome to my diary! I’ve never really written a diary before; not in the traditional sense. To me a diary is a personal thing, so perhaps this is more of a blog. Given that these words will be available online, it doesn’t seem quite the same process as getting your thoughts and emotions down on paper, to be shut away from the world. But I invite you to share my thoughts and emotions, not out of any deep desire to unload the burden of my mind onto the wider public, but because I am at the start of journey (temporally, not emotionally!) that I thought you might like to share with me. I hope it might be interesting, entertaining, and perhaps cathartic too!
My name is Nick Tomalin, and I am the Site Manager for a new RSPB reserve in the New Forest. The site is on the northern edge of the Forest, and contains nearly 1000 acres of woodland (including wood pasture, broadleaved woodland and plantation forestry), as well as some wet mires and some grassland. It has been in private hands for many years, without a great deal of public access, so we don’t know exactly what is there. For that reason, I will be exploring the area as much as I can, and I will post updates on here (and twitter?) with any exciting finds or photos as I find them. I may even share my thoughts and emotions with you! If you want to follow my progress as I uncover the secret forest, then please read on!
Photo 1: RSPB Franchises Lodge by Clare Elcoate
Tuesday 5 December: Feet on the ground!
We have land! This is my first visit to the site since the first parcel of land was transferred to the RSPB. A whole day to go off exploring new tracks and paths to see what is there. But I am not wandering aimlessly around the site alone. Today I accompanied by some extra expertise: Al, who was checking tree safety issues; Victoria, who was keen to assess safety issues around any infrastructure; and Dante, who wanted to look at the condition of the tracks and boundaries. These early checks are vital to ensure we meet any requirements for Health and Safety legislation and any other obligations as landowners, such as boundary fencing. But they are also invaluable for us to get to know the site, to understand how we access different areas, and to see what is there!
Much of the area we covered was within the Special Area of Conservation (SAC). This is a designation that recognises particularly important features on the site, and gives them protected status. In this case the features are bryophytes – mostly lichens of international importance! We have about 66ha of SAC on the site, and though the rest is not designated, we hope that suitable habitat management in time will allow some of these areas to become more important for relevant species and habitats.
Photo 2: Internationally important lichen by Terry Bagley
The species highlights from today include three woodcock that burst out of the vegetation by the side of the path. These dumpy waders spent their winters in our woodlands before migrating east to breeding areas, though some remain to breed in the UK. Research by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust shows that some undertake huge migrations each year, moving as far east as Siberia.
It was a genuine privilege to be wandering the paths and tracks and navigating the site. It’s on days like these that I am reminded why I do this job. Too often I find myself stuck at my desk staring out, and I could feel the excitement building at the prospect of being on site more often. For now I will have to be patient, as there is plenty of work to be done from the office to help us set up the site. But it did feel like the kind of day where we might look back in years to come and realise what a significant step it was being on our own land for the first time.
Monday 8 January: Work begins
After a few days of windy weather I realised it would be a good idea to walk the public rights of way to check if any branches or trees had come down. Following reports of a tree on the byway, I called in the assistance of our Ecological Services team, complete with chainsaws. They made very short work of the tree, and I put them to good use clearing some dead fruit trees around the cottage. Franchises Cottage has been derelict for some years, and we hope to be able to use it for something suitable in the future, but for now it needs to be made safe. The rubbish and fire pits around the building are testament to the most recent usage there. Around the building were four old apple trees, but they had grown heavy with the weight of fruit and, left unattended, three of them had toppled and were either dead or dying, with one of them now leaning on the building. Thankfully the fourth remains upright, and we hope that some careful pruning will reinvigorate this old tree.
Photo 3: Fruit tree maintenance
The team had also brought the angle-grinder and a generator with them to deal with some pieces of rusty metal that were protruding from the stonework around the cottage. These were just small enough to go unnoticed by anyone climbing on the concrete structures, but large enough to cause damage if landed on, so they had to go. These are the kinds of jobs that will likely occupy much of my time in the first few months. There is still more work to be done at the cottage, but to have people and machinery on the site, and actual work carried out for the first time, feels very satisfying.
After the work was done, I took the opportunity to check the boundaries. The southern boundary borders the perambulation – the area on which commoners have the right to graze animals. Although that right does not extend to the reserve itself, as we share a boundary it is important to ensure that the fence is stock-proof so that animals do not get lost wandering onto our land. Most of the boundary was in good enough condition, but in one or two places the fence had been cut. We will need to work out who is accessing the site and why, and of course to fix the fence so that animals do not wander in. That will be added to my list of jobs!