Education and publicity

Esso Treewatch

The ESSO Living tree Campaign Trees are at the top of our Fox Club and Wildlife Watch agenda this autumn as our junior clubs throw their weight behind Esso Treewatch. This latest Watch project is part of the larger Esso Living Tree Campaign, supported by a partnership of organ isations which includes anyone who's anyone in the world of conservation.

Esso Treewatch packs are now available from the Trust at £10 - a bargain in view of all that the boxed set contains. A number of exciting Treewatch events - which don't, incidentally, revolve around watching trees for long periods - have been arranged by Junior Events Co-ordinator Sandra Richardson, and woodland management is also the theme of our latest Pawprint magazine - now being produced by Debbie Schorab.



School nature showpiece

The grounds of Rosemellin Primary School in Camborne are about to be transformed, with help from the Trust and Whitbread, into a nature showpiece which will be the envy - and hopefully inspiration - of the county. Whitbread'~ funding of the recent Nature's Classroom project included £1 000 for the Trust to spend on whichever school submitted the best report.
Training days and advisory visits on school grounds and other potential nature areas are high priorities in the Trust's educational work. One recent training session was booked by Alona Coulson for her fellow student teachers - Alona is a former Fox Club member, so education really does work! Of course, the benefits of enlightening our children won't been seen for some time, so we must also inform the decision makers of today. Training days for grounds maintenance staff and people involved in churchyard management, adult education courses (see Terry Geater's in the diary) and a multitude of educational outings and events contribute to this, but we could do so much more if only we had the resources.

Communication

The education section's lob within the Trust extends far beyond teaching through schools and other groups. It's about communicating the Trust's conservation messages to es'ervone in every way we can. That includes preparing Wild Cornwall magazine, answering enquiries from the public, issuing regular press releases and producing interpretive leaflets and boards for ourselves and other organisations. Look out for the new display at Looe Voluntary Marine Conservation Area, designed and lavishly illustrated by Sarah McCartney, which is an excellent example of how to deliver information.
For a county-based organisation, we have a surprisingly high national profil~ Our work on dolphins, porpoises, amphibians, reptiles, seals and CuIm grassland, for example, has caught the attention of the national media in recent months. Do let us know if you have something we can publicise locally or nationally - it all helps to make the public more aware of our existence and our aims.

Mark Nicholson

[No Photo]
Tune in to trees - and the life they support - with Treewatch Photo supplied by The Wildlife Trusts
Rosemellin C.P. School presentation. Camborne
Teacher Clare Rule (left) and pupils from Rosemellin Primary School in Camborne receive their Whitbread Nature's Classroom award from Mrs Barbara Spring, Chair of Cornwall County Council's Community and Countryside Committee. Photo: Stuart Hutchings

Branch news | Contents | How to ... plant a tree