John Muir Awards for the Parks Trust Youth Rangers

John Muir Awards presented to The Parks Trusts’ Youth Rangers

by Laura Tarry

 Morning session (L-R): Gemini Harrison, Deiniol Edwards, Melissa Lindsay 

Twelve Youth Rangers were presented with John Muir Awards by The Parks Trust Education team on Saturday 5 December.

The Youth Rangers celebrated at Howe Park Wood at an official awards presentation for their commitment to the programme.

Since February 2015, the Parks Trusts’ Youth Rangers have completed a number of tasks as part of their John Muir Award.  It’s a scheme that supports connections with and care for nature, landscape, and the natural environment – wild places. 

Afternoon session (L-R): Back row, from left to right: Katy Barnett, Bethany Heathcote, Niamh Kennedy, Frances Barnes, Ayla Webb, Taya Webb. Front row: Isabel Shipp, Harry Noon, Eleanor Charman

To achieve a John Muir Award, each participant must:

• Tackle all four Challenges – Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share their experiences of a wild place.
• Complete the required time commitment
• Show enthusiasm and commitment towards their Award involvement
• Have an awareness of John Muir, his life and achievements
• Have a sense of making a difference and doing something positive for wild places

The Parks Trust Education Ranger, Caylin Gans said : “Young people that attend Youth Rangers are very passionate and committed to conserving the environment and wild places. This Award is a way for us to acknowledge the Youth Ranger’s dedication through a nationally recognised award scheme.

“The John Muir Trust also promotes similar values to The Parks Trust and we feel that partnership work with similar organisations brings greater benefit overall.”

John Muir Award England Manager, Andy Naylor said: “I am delighted that the Youth Rangers have achieved their John Muir Awards.  This recognises their commitment and hard work as volunteers over the last 10 months.  It’s wonderful to see the Rangers engage in such a rich variety of activities including practical conservation tasks, wildlife monitoring, bushcraft skills and community action. The John Muir Trust also welcomes the opportunity to support The Parks Trust and its work to conserve local wildlife and wild places”.

To earn this Award, participants attended monthly Youth Rangers session as well as taking part in activities in their own free time. In total, the children spent 570 hours working toward their John Muir Award.

Activities as a group:

• February – Helped to cut back vegetation on south facing bank of Walton Lake so the area could be more easily surveyed for grass snakes.
• March – Lambing visit to Home Farm to learn about farming practices and use of grazing animals in land management.
• April – Assisted our Community Rangers with site checks at Caldecotte Lake.
• April– Great Crested Newt survey at Elfield Nature Park
• May – Pond survey at Stony Stratford Nature Reserve to test water quality and habitat suitability.
• June – Built hibernaculums (hibernation shelters) for newts and toads near pond at Manor Farm.
• July – Adventure activity: Raft building at Willen Lake.
• September – Terrestrial invertebrate survey at Howe Park Wood.
• October – Looked at aspects of water safety in summer and winter with Community Ranger team.
• November – Planted daffodil bulbs in Campbell Park to increase numbers of early spring flowers in the parks.

Some examples of what the Youth Rangers did individually:

• Went on walks in the parks with family and friends
• Used a trail camera to observe nocturnal animals like badger, deer and fox
• Climbed trees
• Took photographs of plants and animals in the parks or in their gardens
• Built insect hotels, hedgehog houses, bat boxes, bird houses and feeders
• Planted trees and sowing wildflower seeds
• Went litter picking
• Wildlife identification of birds, insects, flowers

ABOUT THE PARKS TRUST 

The Parks Trust is a charity that cares for Milton Keynes’ parks and green spaces – the river valleys, ancient woodlands, lakesides, parks and landscaped areas alongside the main roads that make the city such a great place to live, work and visit.

• About 25 percent of the new city area is parkland, adding up to 5,000 acres.
• In addition to parkland, The Parks Trust takes care of the landscaping along the main grid roads – 80 miles of trees, shrubs and flowers.

For more information on the John Muir Award, please visit: www.johnmuiraward.org