Hayling Island Beach Warden Project
The Hayling Island Beach Wardens carry out a range of practical conservation volunteering projects, coastal monitoring and other activities, on the Sinah Common Site of Special Scientific Interest on Hayling Island in Hampshire. The project aims to involve local people in learning about and helping to protect the wildlife and coastal habitats on Hayling Island, in particular Sinah Common. Practical projects generally take place on a Thursday, but events also take place on other days of the week too. The programme of activities is shown below.
Sinah Common is a beautiful coastal site with a number of important habitats, including maritime shingle grassland, dry acid grassland, lichen rich acid grassland, mobile dunes, semi-fixed dunes, dune heath and saltmarsh. Because of its unusual and valuable mixture of interesting habitats and scarce plants, the Common was designated a Site of Special Scientific interest (SSSI) in 2000. It is nearly 250Ha in size and contains the largest area of sand dunes and shingle beach in Hampshire. It's open to everyone at all times and crossed by a number of footpaths.
BTCV is working with Havant Borough Council (the site’s owner) to set up a new Beach Wardens group for the site. By Summer 2012, it’s expected that the group will be able to function independently of BTCV support on a day to day basis. It will continue to work with Havant Borough Council in the longer term, to ensure the future care of the site and its extended family of plants and animals.
The group carries out a range of projects, including scrub felling and clearance from the precious saltmarsh and heathland areas, path improvements, biodiversity monitoring, beach cleans and litter surveys.
BTCV provides all the tools and equipment needed and arranges for insurance cover and refreshments for tea breaks etc. All projects are run by fully trained Project Leaders and most are suitable for anyone over the age of 16 to attend independently.
You don't need any special skills to join our work on Hayling Island, other than a willingness to get involved and a basic level of physical fitness. There isn't an interview process and we don't ask for a commitment from anyone for more than one day at a time. We provide on-site, informal training and guidance as part of our delivery of projects, to ensure that everyone can make a personal contribution to their delivery and learn through this process too.
All Hayling Island Beach Warden projects are free and run in a professional but fun, friendly and positive way. New members are always very welcome.
