Yesterday was a truly inspiring day out at Stoneyburn Primary School, near Bathgate. Our corporate volunteers from the Royal Bank of Scotland helped dig a path and create a turf wall throughout the school grounds.
This promotes school security, habitat enrichment and of course encourages an awareness of the environment amongst children. In 2005, Scottish Natural Heritage commissioned a report that showed that only 11% of school children in Scotland have an irresponsible view towards nature (for example, not
following the Scottish Outdoor Access Code), with primary school children being the most responsible of all age groups surveyed.
Encouraging responsibility and interest in environmental matters at schools such as Stoneyburn is therefore of prime importance. The RBS volunteers seemed to enjoy themselves as well (although they started to get rather competitive!), and a photographer came to gather material for an article in their in-house magazine. It was quite exciting to be involved with a live photo shoot! Someone decided that the pond was more interesting than the path, and I was called in to clear thistles and willowherb so a few volunteers could pose with Grim Reaper style scythes before the rain started again. They looked fantastic! Hopefully someone will send us a copy once themagazine is published.Another positive from yesterday came with the realisation that I need to vastly improve my wildlife identification skills. At one point I was asked to ID a butterfly – I had thought it was a marsh fritillary (Eurodryas aurinia) when it was actually a ringer. They’re both brownish in colour but that’s where the similarity ends. I was asked at least a dozen times to identify random flowers and insects, and I didn’t know the answer to at least half of them. Admittedly, nobody else knew the answers either, but that’s not the point… I now wish I’d been able to join in that butterfly workshop this weekend, because I certainly need it!The trouble with identification is that habitats and species vary so much with location, and there is just so much to remember. You have to learn by doing, which can take time. It is one of the skills of working in the environment sector that is fairly crucial but all too often gets overlooked for the sake of more immediate things such as leadership skills or first aid. Not only that, but most people find they have a particular interest in one area – bryophytes, for example, or sea lochs – and it is often far easier to develop expertise in that field than to retain a more general knowledge of a range of habitat types andspecies.For example, I’m mostly interested in woodlands and coastal ecology, but realised yesterday that I still need to be able to identify a pretty good range of meadow or wetland species as required.I think I need to visit the library…
