Hi all, this is reading for if you want to join us on MSc Conservation and Ecosystem Management from Sept 2023. Please also feel free to contact me at helen.adamson@ncl.ac.uk

Here is the induction timetable

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/nes/about-us/current-students/student-induction/induction-timetables/postgraduate-taught-students/

We are starting on Monday. Is there something I can be doing in the meantime???
We will have an introductory session on RStudio – but you might like to have an advance look: https://bookdown.org/ndphillips/YaRrr/

What other preparation can I do? Reading material?

Here are my suggestions:
1. Keep up to date by following e.g. Natural England and Defra on social media, but also Northumberland National Park, AONBs and other organisations
2. Read reports like the 25 Year Environment Plan – its updates and State of Nature (you don’t need to read every word, of course
3. If ecology is new to you, or you want a refresher, try https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology
4. If you are feeling a bit anxious about stats or R, then https://bookdown.org/ndphillips/YaRrr/
5. If you haven’t done much in terms of species ID I suggest the Collins books (the black ones) for wild flowers (Streeter et al) and for birds (Lars Svensson) and by all means use Apps (e.g. Seek) to help you – but start to look at plant families – and start to record sightings on iRecord. If you are a beginner in a habitat or group of species, then the FSC pull out guides are great. https://www.field-studies-council.org/product-category/publications/?fwp_publication_type=fold-out-guide – I am not too proud to use them; they can be extremely helpful.
6. If you really want to – you can start to ‘play’ with GIS – QGIS is free software which you will use, but you will also use ArcGIS which the Uni has the license for. This is really only if you fancy having a look, GIS comes alive when you have your own data. You can find beginner tutorials on YouTube.
7. The Knepp and Carrifran rewilding books are good reads if you haven’t read them
8. The first module is forest and woodland ecology. This book is a good introduciton, but don’t feel you have to spend a lot of money. You will have the library at your fingertips when you register: Ecology of Woodlands and Forests: Description, Dynamics and Diversity (Thomas and Packham).
9. If you are coming from a different discipline, have a look at some journal articles in a topic that you are interested in. Use google scholar to search. DO NOT allow yourself to be overwhelmed – but do skim read them. Some will be better than others and easier to follow. In google scholar you can search for e.g. red squirrel conservation, or hay meadow management or ancient woodland indicator species – whatever you are interested in. You can limit to papers e.g. since 2017. Look at the abstract and glance through the structure, read the conclusion … just get the feel for them a bit

Please feel free to add comments and suggestions if you have read something good or want to share.

And in case you are wondering what happened to my posts – we are still having fun in the field, but I have reached my capacity for photographs, so I need some serious overhauling!

Our stage 1 students have worked to answer a question on a topic of current interest linked to Sustainable Development Goals, having worked as a group, without meeting their group mates, and never having set foot in a lecture theatre or computer lab.

I am so proud of them. Each degree program produced at least one excellent poster – I have chosen from 4 of our degrees – Food Business, Marketing and Management narrowly missed my inclusion of their sugar reformulation poster

Really pleased to have both Ray’s dissertation and Ellie’s Internship being presented at the NHSN 18:29 winter talks this year, following on from Alex’s excellent lichen talk last year

Ray just messaged to say he has his perfect job with Natural England playing with GIS (as a GIS Analyst, I mean) to hopefully enhance priority habitats in Northumberland, like Lampert SSSI above. He says he can’t believe that 2 years ago (he was part time) he knew little about conservation and ecosystem management apart from what he had gleaned from volunteering with the Wildlife Trust. And now he has clinched the job he wanted where he can hopefully make the difference, doing the things he is best at. He formerly a physics technician and also runs his family business https://www.foldedsquare.com/

Phil came out on an optional, for fun, weekend trip to Hauxley in February, where Elizabeth impressed us with her knowledge of birds. Phil know very few birds I believe, but got the bug and was out every weekend after that, Whatsapping us pics and eventually selling gear to buy new and better binoculars … he helped on the UG field trip – and I have just learned, just 2 years after that fateful day, he is working full time and permanent as a bird surveyor in an ecological consultancy.

… and Chris below has followed Laura’s example and managed to escape from teaching; he has landed a job with Natural England in Wildlife licensing, while Laura, who was with a a couple of years ago, will be next door to him in the Environment Agency

Wonderful to hear from Ellie (former MSc BCEMstudent) in Belize as she starts her internship.

Here’s what she wrote “I moved to Belize to start as a Community Ecology intern with the Crocodile Research Coalition, based in placencia lagoon. I will be running bird and terrestrial surveys, joining in on education and outreach and doing my own research project. The skills I learnt from the masters, such as research methods and stats will really help me, as well as the confidence I gained moving to a new city and working with people from all around the world. Thank you Helen and Janet and Simon!!”

Do you remember the olden days when we could go to the pub and get within 2m of each other? Just found this photo of these beautiful people – Environmental Science students, Phoebe, Gabi, Jackson and Kieron – miss you guys. Now working in Environment Agency, Environmental Consultancy, AEA …

Janet and I are sad when the MSc students have received their results and are saying au revoir. Some of them converted to part time because of Covid, but here’s what some of those who stayed to the end had to say:

“As a mature student, returning to study after such a long time away felt like a huge leap into the unknown, but it has been a fantastic experience and transformative in many ways. So thank you!” – Ray

“You were helpful and compassionate – and not crap!” that was apparently a reference to previous experience, not being damned with faint praise. He qualified with “you were fantastic” – Anon please

“It has been a wonderful masters and I feel I have learned the skills and gained the knowledge in biodiversity conservation to a high standard, it has been so much fun and at last I am confident in statistical analysis thanks to you! The modules have been brilliant, your guidance in professionalism such as report writing and potential career paths has been fantastic. It’s been a fab year, I’ve loved it! – Theo

Jake (j.mcpherson2@ncl.ac.uk) was telling me today about this society our undergrads have set up. Looks like fun – if I were 35 years younger! I’m sure Jake would love to hear from you if you are joining us next year and would welcome your ideas

Brief Description of Society Activities
EVEA is an abbreviation of both environmental and earth sciences which we noticed didn’t have their own subject society.  This society aims to provide a link between all the years studying this subject and provide a way for us to socialise together.  We combined the subjects as we found we shared similar modules and therefore spend a lot of time together in lectures.  One main issue we noticed is that there is no link for first years to other years.  Once set up we aim to have a tutoring system in place for all academic years to enjoy.  There will also be the potential for a Ball at the end of the year.

https://www.nusu.co.uk/getinvolved/societies/society/eveasoc/

https://www.instagram.com/ncleveasociety/

Remember the ‘olden days’ when we could go to the farm and work in groups with students? Here’s a dim distant record of a memory from February 2020!

This is our “Sustainable Livestock Production Systems” module where I teach grassland. We had a day at Nafferton Farm where the students spent half an hour each at a different ‘station’ learning about sustainable beef and dairy, pigs and feed, stewardship on the farm (I actually no longer remember if it is called ‘countryside’ or ‘environmental’ at the moment without looking it up – ELMS is ok!) and vegetative pasture grassland identification. This last bit was my bit of course and you can see the students fascinated (definitely) by ligules, stolons and patterns, shapes of leaf blades … Students made sustainability recommendations to James, the farm manger.

Freya Lance is the star performer here – it is so encouraging to hear our students recognising that they have to be responsible stewards of the land caring about the sustainability of the processes.

Credit to Hannah Davis for organising the day and to the marketing team for joining us, happily just made it before lockdown.

As we emerge from lockdown the farms should be a valuble resource and outdoor space where we can hopefully work on research projects – but nothing is guaranteed, of course

Was lovely to catch up with the MEnvs (Masters in Environmental Science) this week. I confess to finding some things about lockdown pleasant – and I don’t mean that as disrespect to those who are struggling, because I completely understand some people are – but I have enjoyed the peace and the family time. Also, not getting up as early as I used to is on my list of flippant positives.
But – I was very sad not to meet up with the MEnvs for their talks, not to catch up with them properly or go for a celebratory drink afterwards or have lunch with the External Examiner… which leads me to remember Richard Payne who shared our presentations last year and his excited anticipation for his imminent Nanda Devi expedition https://www.york.ac.uk/environment/our-staff/richard-payne/ . You are missed, Richard. Our thoughts are still with his family.
Back to our students, miss you too, but pleased to see you virtually at least. You all handled zoom with professionalism with talks on carbon budgeting on building sites and in business, water pollution in urban nature reserves, low tech environmental monitoring and grazing on bogs.
See you at graduation everyone! I wonder if you will wear gowns …