1. Ancient British woodlands and butterflies

The ancient Forest of Blean once formed a large arc to the north and west of Canterbury, and the remaining woodland is amongst the richest of all Kent’s habitats for wildlife. It is also the site of the resurrection of a seemingly doomed species of butterfly: the heath fritillary. The larval foodplant of this butterfly is common cow-wheat, a species which is intolerant of shade. The Kent Wildlife Trust has resumed the long-neglected traditional management technique of coppicing the chestnut woodland – cutting areas of trees to the ground and allowing them to regrow as multiple stems for future harvesting. This is done on a rotating basis, in different areas each year. For a number of years after coppicing, common cow-wheat and a great variety of woodland flowers flourish in the increased sunlight, and as a result, the heath fritillary population is now thriving. The wood is also wonderful for birds: nightingales, tawny owls and green woodpeckers, to name a few. Our guide will be Alexander Wheaton and various of his colleagues from the Blean Woods Research Group. This group of enthusiasts has studied the Blean Woods for many years, and have just published a book on the natural and archaeological interest of the Blean woods.

Half day on Sunday 14 and on Friday 19 July
Cost: bus fare and voluntary donation to Blean Woods Research Group.
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2. Urban Ecology in London

Arriving into London by bus from Kent, bumble bee expert Roselle Chapman will give us a tour of the gardens surrounding the Thames barrier, those giant radial gates that protect London from surge tides. These gardens are an important refuge for rare bees. We will identify bees and their favourite flowers and discuss the utilisation of London by wildlife, before continuing past St Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben and the Millennium Wheel, to the Barnes Wetland Centre. This is an extraordinary wetland landscape near the heart of London, where Malcolm Whitehead will be our guide. Run by the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, the Centre offers extremely fine environmental education, with observatories, and lovely wildlife gardens. The extensive ponds, pools, lakes and reedbeds provide a haven for 140 species of wild birds, more than 300 butterflies and moths, 18 dragon and damselflies, and four amphibian species. Highly endangered water voles have recently been reintroduced into the reserve.

Full day Sunday 14 July
Cost: £27.50
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3. English houses and gardens: Sissinghurst and Scotney Castle

The National Trust is both one of Britain's largest landowners, and one of its largest membership societies, empowered under an Act of Parliament with conserving the nation's built and natural heritage. This field trip will encompass two contrasting gardens, which are both havens for biodiversity.

Sissinghurst is the famed country house and gardens of Harold and Vita Sackville-West, central figures in the Bloomsbury literary set. In an oast-house on the grounds a clumsy hand-printing press is exhibited, which was used to print first editions of books by Virginia Wolfe, E.M. Forster, Robert Graves and T. S. Eliot. The 16th century house has a long and beleaguered history, including being used as a prison, and was virtually derelict when it was bought by the Sackville-Wests in 1932. It was into the garden that they poured their hearts. Amongst its unique delights are the medieval herb garden, full of borrage, caraway, fennel, tansy and woad, the White garden, the walk of pleached limes, and the extravagant rose gardens.

Scotney Castle is widely regarded as one of England’s most romantic gardens. Roses and wisteria embellish the ruins of a moated 14th century castle which was really more of a well-fortified house. Its apparent strength was a sign of the tensions existing at that time between France and England - the French having sacked various Kent and Sussex coastal towns in 1377, the year before the construction of Scotney began. The only substantial remains of the original castle are the circular tower in the southern corner, and the four piers of the Gatehouse entrance. Wonderful views abound framed by azaleas and rhododendrons, and there are lovely woodland and estate walks. The castle and gardens were left to the National Trust by Christopher Hussey, who for more than 40 years was a champion of English architecture and the landscape in which it is set.

Full day Sunday 14 July
Cost: £33
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4. Reed-beds and bitterns: Stodmarsh

The largest remaining reed-beds in Kent are found in the Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve. Our guide will be Stodmarsh warden David Feast. As a part of the Biodiversity Action Plan, a large area of turf was acquired in 1998 and restored to wetland for the benefit of threatened species like the bittern, bearded tit and marsh harrier as well as many wildfowl species. The reserve also has shallow lagoons, grazing meadows, willow scrub and wet woodlands, attracting a wide variety of wildlife. English Nature manages the reserve by controlling water levels, harvesting reed, and grazing the meadows with cattle. Wildlife can be seen at close quarters from the boardwalks, and trails. The Reserve has also been declared a RAMSAR site. One of Kent's best known pubs, the Red Lion, is situated nearby at the heart of picturesque village of Stodmarsh.

Half day Sunday 14 July
Cost: £12.50
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5. Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew

Kew Gardens is one of the foremost botanical collections and centres of horticultural research in the world. The gardens were founded in 1759 by Augusta, widow of Prince Frederick of Wales, and there are trees, such as a large Ginko biloba, which date from original plantings in 1760. There are more than 30,000 types of plants grown at Kew in open-air gardens as well as architectural masterpieces such as the Victorian domed Palm House. In the Temperate House you will see the world's largest indoor plant, and, in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, you are likely also to see the rare flowering of one of the world's largest flowers, the Titan arum, Amorphophallus titanum. Over two metres in height, one Titan burst into flower in May, stimulating media interest all around the world, and now another plant is likely to flower just in time for the SCB conference. The crimson-robed central spike-like spadix gives off a pungent aroma likened to that of rotting flesh or excrement. From Canterbury we will take the train to central London and then reach Kew by boat from the Westminster pier just by the Houses of Parliament. This boat trip will take 60-90 minutes, depending on tides. We will be returning to Canterbury by train. Come prepared for walking and wrapping up for windy boating.

Full day, Sunday 14 July
Cost: £35
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6. Charles Darwin, his home and favourite orchid fields

Five years after returning from the voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin and his young family moved from central London to a pleasant country home near the Kentish village of Down. He lived here for forty years until his death in 1882. And it was here at Down House that he raised pigeons, studied earthworms, performed elaborate experiments with orchids and developed theories which have become the conceptual cornerstones of biological science. It was here that he paced out his thrice daily "sand walks" and wrote his books in long-hand. An area of dry valley near their home was especially dear to the Darwin family. They called it "Orchis Bank" in reference to the eleven species of orchids found there along with plants such as toothwort, adders tongue and false oxlip. Irene Palmer is Honorary Warden for the Downe Bank Reserve, as Orchis Bank is now known. She is a plant illustrator, garden designer and photographer who also publishes on orchid pollination. She is actively promoting the declaration of the Downe area as a World Heritage site and will guide us in our visit. After seeing around the house, there will be a 5 km walk around the Nature Reserve.

Half day with out the hike on Sunday 14 July
Full day July 19 July
Cost: £23
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7. Captive breeding for reintroduction: Wildwood and Port Lympne

Kent is home to two of Britain's best known conservation-focussed zoological parks: Wildwood and Port Lympne. Both are set in natural countryside and both are heavily involved in captive breeding for reintroduction programmes. Yet both have contrasting missions.
Port Lympne, founded by the legendary John Aspinall, is a magnificent mansion surrounded by stunning gardens on a ridgetop that overlooks the much lower lying Romney Marshes. The gardens are home to two bachelor gorilla groups in the largest family gorilla house in the world, as well as tigers, lions, black rhino, elephants, wolves, and monkeys. Amongst recent success, gorillas from their Congo orphanage have been returned to the wild, as have black rhinos to Africa, Przewalski horses to China, pythons to Indonesia and rare ocelot cats to Mexico.
In contrast, Wildwood has been founded more recently, and is a smaller establishment set amongst a wild chestnut woods. Wildwood, run by Derek Gow, focuses more on the captive breeding and reintroduction of native British species including water voles, dormice, wild cats, and pine martens. Other native animals at Wildwood include owls, otters, bees, beavers, wild boar and wolves.

Full day Sunday 14 July
Cost: £24
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8. White Cliffs and Chalk Grassland

Chalk is one of the most distinctive features of Kent. The cliffs and downs are made from chalk deposits originating around 70 million years ago. This part of Britain was then covered with a shallow sea whose bottom was gradually carpeted with fragments of coccolith skeletons, tiny algae that floated in surface waters of the sea. During the last Ice Age, this chalk was uplifted and formed into the cliffs which have provided an ideal defence against invading armies for thousands of years. The commanding White Cliffs have also inspired poets, from Shakespeare (King Lear), "There is a cliff, whose high and bending head looks fearfully in the confined deep: " to Matthew Arnold in his famous poem Dover Beach, "The sea is calm tonight, The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits:-", as well as soldiers returning from battles on the continent.

The story of the chalk grasslands of the valleys running into Dover is of equal interest. The thyme-scented turf is of great entomological and floristic diversity which has a seemingly paradoxical dependence on harsh conditions: the infertility of the soil and close grazing of the sward. Lydden Temple Ewell is a National Nature Reserve owned and managed by Kent Wildlife Trust. It is renowned for the quality of the Chalk Downland flora and invertebrates and hosts a thriving colony of endangered Wartbiter crickets. This trip involves a return walk of approximately 2 km, guided by Reserves Officer John McAllister who will join the coach at Canterbury.

Full day, Friday 19 July.
Cost: £25
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9. Cattle and shore-birds

Elmley Marshes is an important breeding site on the Isle of Sheppey, close by to Canterbury. It is home to many wading birds, including the lapwing and the elegant avocet. Visitors are often treated to the spectacle of thousands of birds wheeling in the air as they respond to frequent passes by the many birds of prey on site. On some days it can be staggering, with up to 8,500 golden plover and 11,000 lapwing in the air with widgeon, Sheppey white-fronted geese, and black-tailed godwits. Birds of prey at Elmley include short- and long-eared owls, peregrine falcons, merlins, kestrels, marsh harriers, hen harriers and sparrowhawks. The marshes are kept in such ideal condition for shore-birds by cattle-grazing, a traditional management system which was devised by Philip Merricks, the farmer who owns the land inside the Nature Reserve, which he manages on behalf of English Nature.

Full day Friday 19 July
Cost: £15
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10. Coastal Change and Roman Settlement

An opportunity to explore the impact of two great forces on the shape of this corner of England: the power of erosion and accretion to reshape the land; and the historical might of the Romans who began their conquest of Britain here in 43 AD. Roman settlements will be explored at each end of the Wantsum Channel which once separated mainland Kent from the Isle of Thanet. We will also visit Richborough Castle, one of the most magnificent Roman ruins in the country. Chas Matthews, Community Education Officer for Kent Wildlife Trust, works at both Reculver and Pegwell Bay and knows East Kent well. Peter Forrest is Area Warden for KWT, covering Sandwich and Pegwell Bay. Reculver is a site of significant coastal erosion. Sandwich and Pegwell Bay is a National Nature Reserve well known for its shorebirds.

Full day Friday 19 July
Cost: £25
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11. Game-bird management and conservation: Torry Hill

This visit to Torry Hill is a rare opportunity to see how a private English estate, without any formal conservation status, is managed for game-bird shooting and to explore to what extent this management is also beneficial to conserving biodiversity. Torry Hill is a privately owned working farm run by the Leigh-Pemberton family. It supports grazing livestock, cherry orchards, and arable farming of crops like wheat, peas, and barley. Various measures are in place to increase the density of gamebirds such as the English partridge, woodcock and various breeds of pheasant. Supplemental feed is provided for these birds, and predators, such as squirrels, stoats, weasels, foxes, rats and corvids, are kept to low numbers. Torry Hill participates in conservation and countryside stewardship schemes, including the establishment of conservation strips around arable fields, creating ‘beetle banks’ (raised tussocky ridges in fields which encourage aphid-consuming carabids) and leaving crops to overwinter in fields which is particularly beneficial to passerines. John Leigh-Pemberton who now runs the estate, will be our host, and will provide our lunch.

Three-quarters' day Friday 19 July
Cost: £28
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12. Land-use and conservation in the Swabian Alb mountain range (Baden-Württemberg, Germany)

The field trip will address questions and issues related conservation management in a central European cultural landscape. It will strongly compliment the symposium on Cultural Landscapes, and Martin Dieterich will be our host. You will visit reserves and project areas that are well-suited to illustrate programmes and laws that promote conservation management in landscapes that for centuries have been shaped by human use (cultural landscapes). However, you will also address causes for severe deficiencies in the implementation of existing laws.

Sites visited are located in or adjacent to the Swabian Alb mountain range in southwestern Germany. The natural vegetation in the area is beech forest. Cultural landscapes are characterised by nutrient poor and highly diverse chalk grassland (orchids, butterflies). Traditionally, these grasslands were grazed by migrating herds of sheep. Current threats to grassland biodiversity include abandonment and intensification of agricultural use. Several State programmes and project areas have been implemented to support low intensity use of such grasslands. This support is based on direct subsidies and on concepts to help market products derived from low-intensity land-use.

Other aspects of the field trip include: insights into environmental compensation legislation in Germany (EnComp) and its actual application; attempts to preserve old orchards characterised by a rich avifauna; the upper Danube restoration project including management of floodplain grassland; traditional use of moist grassland and swamps in the Federsee Reserve; and the management of the highly endangered yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata), a target species listed in the European Flora-Fauna Habitat directive.

Four full days, from Friday 19 July (Detailed Schedule)
Cost £255, providing a minimum of 10 book before 12 July
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