Education

January to March saw the education team, supported by our wonderful education volunteers, working with over 350 young people.

Students from Central Bedfordshire College continued their regular volunteering tasks at Rushmere Country Park carrying out practical conservation management on our heathland, supporting their coursework. Their studies undertook 6 different sessions clearing scrub and planting trees.

Our 2025 - 2026 Youth Rangers graduated at the end of February from our very first scheme hosted at Clophill Lakes. The young Rangers took part in a number of conservation tasks on site including replanting a hedge and their final celebration event concluded with a well-planned guided walk and presentation for family and friends.

Enthusiastic ‘graduate’ Youth Rangers also rejoined us for two conservation tasks at Linslade Wood (supported by CBC) in this quarter, working in muddy and challenging conditions to coppice some hazel woodland and open some path edges.

‘Birds Bingo and Binoculars’ event returned to Tiddenfoot Waterside Park during the February half term as a simple introduction to bird watching for families of all ages. A gentle walk around the lake discovered 19 different bird species despite the poor weather!

We attended a successful careers fayre event at a Luton school for year 6 pupils. The students were considering their future options and were enthusiastic, well engaged and genuinely interested in conservation and the environment.

‘Sandtatstic’ our sand-themed classroom visits, were delivered to both year 3 classes in Southcott Lower School pupils again in March.  These sessions include a focus on local heritage, quarry safety and geology linking to their rocks and soils topic.

Riverbank Primary School returned for their annual visit to the Working Woodlands Centre and Maulden Wood, bringing over 100 year 2 pupils from Luton, over two days, visiting to look for clues of animals who live in the wood and to learn about different habitats.

Brooklands Farm Primary School visited Rushmere with their 4, EYFS classes and we enjoyed working with the children looking signs of spring and comparing different trees.

 

Partnerships & Development Projects 

Bedfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy Launched!

The Trust was present at the official launch of the Bedfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) in March, hosted by the Lord Lieutenant of Bedfordshire at the Forest Centre, Millennium Country Park.  A series of presentations included the exciting news from Charles Whitbread, Deputy Lieutenant, that beavers have been released into an enclosure on the Southill Estate, within Greensand Country.

The Trust has been involved in the LNRS from the very start, playing a central role in the initial work, setting up workshops, carrying out research and leading work on habitat and species priorities.  The LNRS forms the blueprint for nature recovery in Bedfordshire, alongside similar strategies across the whole of England, highlighting where the best opportunities for action are and helping secure funding to deliver them.  The Trust is already looking to take forward such activities, including its work on peat in the Flit Valley.

Putting more peat on the map!

The Trust has completed the second phase of work on researching peat in the Flit Valley, funded by the Environment Agency through its ‘Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot’, building on work in 2024.  Further investigation work was supplemented with ‘Water Level Management Plans’ for three areas, identifying what could be done to help manage water levels to conserve peat and wetland soils, whilst not impacting surrounding land uses such as farming and roads. 

The Flit Valley is a complex area, with towns, villages, the A507, farming, businesses and nature reserves.  It has suffered from flooding, notably in 2024, and it is hoped that measures to manage water levels for the benefit of wetlands can also help ‘slow the flow’ of water, and alongside other measures reduce flooding and pollution.  The Trust once again worked with consultancies OHES Environmental and Hummingbird to produce the Water Level Management Plans and is now seeking to work with landowners and partners to secure funding for delivery.

Broughton Brook Restoration Project

The Broughton Brook is special – it is an unusual spring-fed greensand stream, rising near Woburn and joining the Ouzel in Milton Keynes.  However, it has been affected by abstraction of the underlying aquifer over the years and has been observed to stop flowing and dry up in places.  This has a devastating effect on its wildlife and the Trust has been working with Anglian Water on a project to deliver improvements to the channel to help it continue to flow in dry periods.  Alongside an ‘augmentation’ scheme, which will pump water from other parts of the aquifer into the brook to help sustain flows, features such as woody deflectors and brash ledges help create a narrower, more sinuous and natural channel better able to cope when flows are low.

The project, led by the Trust, has taken place in a plantation woodland near Husborne Crawley, thanks to the Bedford Estates and with funding from the Environment Agency’s ‘Water Environment Improvement Fund’.  The work was carried out by various Trust and other volunteers, supervised largely by former Trust ranger Chris Sitzberger (CMS Landscapes) pictured here with volunteer Andy Wood following installation of the first ‘woody deflection’. Weather and water levels were not always helpful, but the project completed on time, installing over 20 features.  Experts from the River Restoration Centre joined us on the final day of the project, giving us their seal of approval!

 

Greensand Country

These last few months have been busy preparing for the 40^th anniversary of the Greensand Ridge Walk: Bedfordshire’s premier long distance walking route. To mark the occasion, we want to make the route more accessible to people that haven’t tried it before. We planned a five-month programme of guided walks, using the Greensand Ridge Walk as its base. These are more accessible in terms of distance than previous walks, linking in to other attractions and local businesses, such as Wooden Hill Coffee and the Cowshed Café.

Oh Deer! 

Early this year saw the launch of our ‘Oh Deer’ video, created by animator Rachael Presky. This project was funded by the government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund administered by Central Bedfordshire Council. We launched it as an educational resource to the wider environmental sector, feedback has been extremely positive.

Artist PJ Zimmerlink returned this year to complete phase two of our Cainhoe Castle topographic model. This work included further work on the landscape and creating a castle overlay to interpret what the castle structures would have looked like. This work has made us look closer at the structure of the earthworks and to target potential areas for further investigation.

We continue to work with Bryan Bland of Ampthill Ghost Walks on his ‘Cainhoe Story Walk’ series, bringing the histories of Cainhoe Castle to life.

After a successful UKSPF and CBC funding bid the toddler’s play area at Rushmere was redeveloped. An engagement campaign was undertaken which positively communicated the temporary closure by inviting the community to suggest a name for the play area. A list of over 100 suggestions was shortlisted to 3 and went out to a public vote which resulted in the play areas being named ‘The Bug Stop’.

The often-contentious woodland management messaging required during the significant felling undertaken at Rushmere was an area of focus in January and February which sought to address some of the concerns and criticisms of the work. A series of informative posts were published which positively welcomed questions. The communications team worked closely with ecologist Phil Irving to answer questions. This resulted in balanced coverage in the local press.

A bird nesting awareness communication campaign was developed between the education team, ecologist Dr Sue Raven, and the communications team. This was focussed somewhat on Clophill Lakes as it is the first bird nesting season to begin whilst opening, but aligned messaging was used for the GST in general and Rushmere. A social media campaign was supported by posters and signage on site at Clophill Lakes. Further to this the education team worked with visitor services to undertake a ‘nest trail’ for children, to further educate visitors.

In February the Youth Rangers were tasked with doing a social media ‘takeover’ for Clophill Lakes - four of the young people took up the mantle and provided us with images and text (including some beautiful artwork) that shared their insights from their time on the Youth Ranger Scheme. This followed a workshop with one of the communications managers in which they were briefed for the task. This was valuable addition to our social media coverage.

In March we launched our new animated film ‘Oh Deer’. This short film was funded by BCLF UKSPF Culture Fund and created by artist Rachael Preskey in 2025. The film was developed to explain why deer management is a vital part of woodland management. Again, as with the felling aspect of woodland management, this is a tricky subject and is often quite contentious.  Using animations and a storytelling style this short film quickly summarises the topic and, we hope, will be a useful resource for ourselves and our allies in years to come. It was launched directly to stakeholders in March 2026, as well as our own channels and has, to date received just over 1k views.

Facilities and Associated Activities 

Facilities, Café & Visitor Centre

New wildlife cameras were installed at Rushmere showing the heronry, a new nesting box and the Bat loft which will improve the visitor experience.

The felling work was wrapped up before bird nesting season and the timber was extracted before the February half term. The Ranger team and volunteers worked hard to re-establish damaged paths and the car park, as well as clearing in the felled areas. Further clearance will be ongoing.

An audit was carried out and additional dogs off lead signage was put up in the park around the accessible trails in an attempt to reduce the number of incidents.

Spring cleaning was carried out around the visitor centre, inside and outside to give it a lift after the excessive wear and tear over the winter period.

Heron Watch started in February and continues. Ravens have once again predated many of the heronry nests - our volunteers are logging the activity and numbers. Good news from the decking is that a Tawny owl nested in one of the nesting boxes which is visible from the visitor centre decking and the Owl has had two Owlets.

Events Update

Heronwatch – Ongoing, run by our Heronwatch Volunteers

Easter self led trail – End of March into April

Upcoming Events

Rushmere Summer Fayre – Sunday 28^th June

Volunteering

Our second annual volunteer feedback survey was undertaken in January, which showed that 93% of respondents were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their role as a volunteer, and 94.5% feel valued by the Trust. 98% of respondents felt safe volunteering with us and 89% understand our policies. 67% of respondents felt they’d seen an improvement over the past 12 months (since the last survey), whilst for those who answered no, many quantified this by saying we were already pretty good! We were heartened by a great many positive comments, including:

A great opportunity for a laugh and a chat. The efforts I make are always appreciated by GST and I know I am valued as a volunteer. The best part though is that I get to be up close to the flora and fauna that we are working to protect and nurture - truly a blessing!

We take feedback very seriously, with any negative responses being followed up and addressed where possible.  We continue to hold ourselves to high standards and will work to maintain and improve these figures.

The Rushmere Volunteer Leadership and Engagement Programme continues; January saw the first workshop with ‘critical friends’ Woods Hardwick who are working with us to develop our corporate volunteering offer. Ranger David Williams has been named as the key ranger for the project, and we recruited the 2nd Bedfordshire Inclusive Guides and Rangers as our first ‘community’ critical friends as we look to develop our inclusive volunteering offer. Our first workshops are planned for April.

Heron Watch 2026 was kicked off by a preparation meeting. This meeting was in response to feedback gathered last year in which the team shared that they would benefit from meeting one another before the season started. This was vitally important this year as we sadly lost the driving force behind Heron Watch, Sheila Alliez, who passed away in late 2025. A representative of the GST attended her funeral in January 2026 to pay our respects. Established members of the team took on various elements of Sheila’s recording role and a new volunteer joined the team. We also took delivery of a new Heron Watch sign which was developed with help from the team.

 

At Clophill Lakes we were joined by Isabelle from Highways Agency as a Volunteer, Communications and Partnerships Officer from February as a 3-month secondment. Isabelle hit the ground running assisting at volunteering tasks, including river restoration and riverfly tasks, as well as visitor services support. She has also worked to summarise our policies for the volunteer newsletter, in direct response to volunteer feedback.  Part of her work has been to convene a Clophill Lakes Support team comprising of two volunteers, the volunteer manager and herself, to develop a programme of work designed to support Visitor Services at the Lakes. They have instigated the lost property procedure, a photo and poster archive, oversight of Duke of Edinburgh volunteers and the development of volunteer nature survey Stephen Plummer’s ‘nature diary’ – a new visitor resource for the lakes.

Duke of Edinburgh students joined us at both Rushmere and Clophill Lakes.