Over the last 2 weeks, the Nature Conservation team has been joined by Sophia who wished to carry out her work experience with us. Here she writes about her time. We wish Sophia well in the future.
Being an A level geography student and an avid environmentalist, I did two weeks of work experience with Nature Conservation Lewisham. Having lived in Lee or Grove Park for all of my life, I feel passionate about the borough I live in and the importance of allowing for young people like myself to support it and help prevent potential future damage to it. This was what inspired me to work with Nature Conservation Lewisham.
The work was hugely varied and involved working in a variety of situations including working with primary school aged children in public green spaces, cleaning rivers, and removing invasive plant species from riverbanks. Working outdoors allowed for me to gain practical experience and be able to face and resolve potential challenges such the impacts of the weather and finding unexpected numbers of a plant species. I thoroughly enjoyed the variety and unpredictable nature of the work in that each day we would be working on different tasks each day and not visiting one place more than once. This allowed for me to plan ahead and demonstrate the skills and ability to complete tasks of strongly different disciplines; one day we could be waist length deep in mud and river water removing Himalayan Balsam, and the next we would be in a park counting and observing birds. How different this is to most people’s perceptions of work: 9-5 hours at a desk doing a fairly predictable job in a centrally heated building wearing a suit!
The people I was working with were friendly and welcoming (special thanks to Jess and Emily!) and I immediately felt like one of them and part of their projects as soon as I started work at Nature Conservation Lewisham and felt that it was a very supportive working environment.
I wish the organisation and its people all the best for the future and (despite the awkwardness of having a large proportion of cold and dirty river water enter my wader when I was in the river) feel proud to have had the chance to work with them and feel that this would be a unique and interesting opportunity to reflect on and relate to when I complete my A levels and go on to do a human geography degree in the not-so-distant future.
Nature Conservation Lewisham 
Hi Paul, are you trying to create a meadow along the embankment? If so there is some useful advice here https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/discover/in-your-garden/article/124
Also, as I am sure you are aware different butterflies have different life cycles, but I would have thought you’d be ok in September.
https://butterfly-conservation.org/how-you-can-help/get-involved/gardening/get-gardening
Also some good advice on the RHS website
https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/nettles-as-weeds
Hope this helps!
Well done. Sounds like it was a great match up for everybody 🙂 Quick question – we created a butterfly bank on an old railway line. We seeded and hoped kidney vetch would grow on it and attract the small blue butterfly, but it’s full of nettles. We know better that to fight nature and will settle for the nettle loving butterflies instead. My actual question is, at what point is it safe to cut it all back to ground level? We don’t want to disturb any butterfly eggs or caterpillars.