Pond and TreeWardens

Pond Warden
In the autumn of 2004 Ros Rowan qualified as a Pond warden after attending lectures and site visits run by The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV), who are sponsored by Southern Water. She loved every minute of the training and considered herself very lucky to be taught and led by enthusiastic and well qualified tutors. Ros enjoyed meeting the other students each with their own area of expertise or interest. They studied Pond Management, Design and Creation, Surveying and Assessment, Wildlife Monitoring, Identification of Amphibians, Dragonflies, Aquatic Invertebrates and Aquatic Plants. A day was spent learning Risk Assessment, Fund Raising, and Community Involvement. Ros now knows a lot more than she did but certainly not everything so it is good to know that BTCV is always at hand for help and advice.

Ros also qualified as a Great Crested Newt surveyor. This qualification has to be renewed each year and this year's course starts in February and involves night time surveying. She was glad last year to have Joe Haskie to help her as surveying ponds alone in the dark can be quite dangerous. Also spotting and identifying newts in the torch beam and writing down the totals is definitely a task for two.

Ros continues to attend courses and sets out with her packed lunch, wellies, and note book as keen as ever.

Last summer she surveyed fourteen ponds in Pluckley. Each pond should be visited three to six times but she failed to manage this with all of them. Most of the ponds surveyed were field ponds which are in decline and suffer from lack of suitable habitat surrounding them.
Ros is happy to share what she has learned if anyone has queries about their pond. What she does not know she can probably find out. Contact her through the Clerk to the Council

Tree Warden
Nick Mengham, Pluckley’s Tree Warden, was appointed by parish council in 1999. Since then he has received training in his own time. The National Grid Tree Warden scheme is managed in Kent by the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and its wardens are intended to gather information and encourage interest and practical projects relating to trees in the community. Their role is not to provide information on dangerous trees or to mediate in disputes. Over many years trees, woods and hedgerows have been threatened by a variety of things ranging from diseases, neglect and new development. The storm of 1987 destroyed 15 million trees in south east England. If you have any ideas for projects relating to the Tree Warden scheme or would like advice, please contact Nick on 01233 840660