The first two weeks of our internship have been full of different tasks and opportunities! Our first day at work, Tammy Smalley, the Head of Conservation at the Trust, made us feel at ease as soon as we walked through the door, something that really helped with first day nerves! We were introduced to the Chief Executive of Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Paul Learoyd, who warmly welcomed us into the organisation and then met the different departments and team members that work at Banovallum House. Although there were lots of faces and names to remember everyone was so friendly and kind. We also went to a local M & S supermarket to obtain some local produce from farmers that have worked closely with Tammy; these were used for the farming table at the Lincolnshire County Show. We then went on to Gibraltar Point National Nature Reserve, the first of the Trust’s nature reserves, where we had a walk out to the Lill’s Hut view point and then had some lunch while enjoying the view from the visitor centre and café.

Day 2 and 3 meant getting thoroughly stuck in as we were attending the Lincolnshire County Show and helping out the Conservation Officers, Beth Fox and James Wood, at the Marine table. We really enjoyed our time at the show and felt very lucky to have been trusted with representing the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust in such an important public engagement event.

The marine table was about the Wilder Humber restoration project that the Trust is working on in collaboration with both Orsted and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Beth’s choice of activity for the table was amazing; using pens to paint the oyster shells collected from the natural die off at the project which allowed us to communicate our restoration efforts. It was a huge success with both children and adults.

The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust tent did exceptionally well and won 2 awards; one for the best stand in the countryside arena, and the other for the runners up across the entire show! These awards were given with special mentions to the marine table as the judges really liked the Oyster Shell painting! What an incredible way to start a new job, we are both so happy to have been given the opportunity to be involved in such a hands-on way.

Our last day of our first week and most of our second week were spent getting set up on all of the different equipment and software we will be using. We had an introduction with the Data and Insights team at The Crown Estate as well as our mentors there. We completed our health and safety training and made some preliminary decisions regarding the selection of our projects. Currently we are thinking of doing a main joint project on natural capital, a mini joint project on native oyster restoration in Grimsby including regularly visits to ProjeKt Renewables, and an individual project each on smelt recovery and circular economy.

The last day of our second week of the internship, we attended the Conservation Strategy Team (CST) meeting. This was followed by a site visit of the future Sea View Farm seed bank and plant propagation nursery being funded by Orsted through the Wilder Humber project. CST is attended by trustees and employees of the Trust, as well as other organisations involved in conservation around Lincolnshire, like the Environment Agency. It was a great opportunity to network and meet people involved in the Trust’s work.

At Sea View Farm we had a tour by Matt Blissett, the Trust’s Warden for the area, and a run through of what will soon be Lincolnshire’s fully accessible, Kew grade seedbank and nursery for saltmarsh and sand dune species!

We had an amazing start to our internship and are very excited for the rest of it. Next week we will be travelling to London to meet everyone at The Crown Estate, who are the funding partner of our internship, and we can’t wait to write all about it in our next blog! 

Kiera