Animal management students from Barrow Sixth Form College had a chance to take part in a groundbreaking project to map rare species.
Three of the students – Gregor Ross, George Solari, Gracie Fisher – supported scientists from the University of Cumbria as part of the Back on our Map Project at Barrow Slag Bank.
They spotted, caught and marked small blue butterflies, a rare species of butterfly in the UK and very scarce in Northern England, as well as finding bee orchids and hummingbird hawk moths.
Lecturer Jenny Holden-Wilde said alongside gaining field skills they also got to speak to people about their chosen future careers in ecology and conservation.
“They spent a day carrying out techniques learnt in the classroom, including ecological census techniques and the way these studies benefit species conservation,” she said.
“Barrow Slag Bank has gone from being an industrial dumping site, to UK priority habitat called ‘open mosaic’ and is being colonised by pioneer species, which grow on the ground with very low nutrition, so there are a lot of rare and specialist species there.
“The students found it really interesting to be able to take part in a real scientific project, they had a good day talking to people about their careers, including people who work as conservation officers, and had a chance to see what important projects are happening on their doorstep.”
She said it had also been fantastic for the students to meet the project officer – Samantha Haddock – who is leading the small blue capture, mark recapture study as she studied the same animal management course as our Furness Students.
Back On Our Map (BOOM) is a pioneering project supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and hosted by the University of Cumbria. The project works with communities to reintroduce a suite of locally threatened or extinct species to South Cumbria.
Gracie Fisher, who is in the second year of the animal management course, said: “Back on our Map has helped me learn how important each individual living organism to conserving an ecosystem and the important role humans play. I enjoyed capturing and recording numbers of small blue butterflies and getting to see them up close.”
The students will follow up their field work day by giving a presentation at the BOOM conference at University of Cumbria on the 6th July. They each hope to gain their John Muir Award for their part in this conservation work.
Furness College works in partnership with Myerscough College to offer the animal management course at sixth form. The students travel to Myerscough one day a week on a bus with travel paid for by college and enjoy field work and work experience in Furness and the South Lakes. It can lead to employment or university qualifications in animal care and management.