Last summer I took a trip across the UK in an old landrover, camping, hiking and running my way throughout Devon, Cornwall and Scotland. This year as I am further into my study towards a degree in Environmental Science and Ecology and working part time I am slightly more fixed in my location and time available to get away.
Therefore, I would like to undertake a series of exploratory hikes throughout Sussex and possibly parts of neighbouring Kent and Surrey. The Forestry Commission reports that the South East not only has more woodland than any other English region but at 15% cover it has twice the national average. It states Surrey as England’s most wooded county followed closely by Hampshire and Sussex and that Kent is England’s number one county for Ancient woodland. It’s no Caledonian forest but amazingly there are still patches of forest that you could get quite lost in!
These hikes will cover exploration of mainly forested and riparian areas and will be with the aim to provide background research for a project I would like to do for my final year. Possibly feeding in to future post graduate study looking at connectivity (particularly via rewilding conservation and wildlife corridors) and its importance for healthy ecosystems.
I am 33 years old female and live in Sussex. I love everything outdoors and am a keen hiker, trail runner and lately kayaker too. I am ideally looking for 1-3 likeminded people with a genuine interest in natural history and adventure that would like to join me both in planning but also on as many hikes as possible. Although we will be using a lot of marked routes the challenge here is on the ecological viewpoint and mapping areas of connectivity. I am hoping this project may even help predict movement of certain species such as otter which we know has been sighted once again in neighbouring counties. I am not sure of the time span of this project as yet but I am anticipating that a few planning sessions in a pub surrounded by ordnance survey maps might be needed to get it started! If you are interested in finding out more about this or getting involved please get in touch.
Rina
katharinequinlan@yahoo.co.uk
P.s This is a non-commercial adventure and will be done on as small a budget as possible with each person paying their own expenses!