The first couple of weeks has given us an interesting and diverse introduction to the internship. The start of our time on the internship began with a warm welcome from the Head of Conservation, Tammy Smalley, and a tour of our new office, Banovallum House. During this tour, we had the pleasure of meeting the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust (LWT) team, learning about their careers and the exciting projects they are working on. We also received an informative lecture from Tammy about the history of the LWT and the organisation's key priorities. During our lunch break we explored the town of Horncastle and found a lovely riverside spot to enjoy our meal.

Day two consisted of a trip to Wrendale, a pioneering site that has reintroduced beavers to the county for the first time in over 400 years. The purpose of this visit, though, was to shadow a stakeholder meeting about a new wetland creation project. There were a number of important stakeholders present who were all very friendly and happy to discuss their role in the project. It was fascinating to learn how they are planning to redirect water flow, and improve water quality using reedbeds. We found this experience very beneficial for understanding how stakeholders collaborate on ecological restoration projects.

Days three and four presented a fantastic opportunity to engage with local communities at the Lincolnshire Show. Working alongside Wilder Humber team members Imogen Bentley and James Horan, our task was to introduce the Wilder Humber project to members of the public. Our stall offered a choice of activities excellent for all ages. The bird beak identification game, where participants matched beaks to various saltmarsh birds, was a clear favourite. Likewise, our oyster painting activity proved to be a hit amongst the children at the event. It was a joy to connect younger generations with nature and witness the creativity they brought to their designs. 

Week two was more office based than week one, but we still had a lot to keep us busy. We started Monday by finishing off our office training. Next, we began a deep dive into North Sea policy and legislation that impacts the many different marine activities on the UK’s East Coast. The North Sea has a high variety and density of marine resources and is a hotspot for future offshore sustainable development. This means it is important to understand the broad spectrum of policies and legislation that govern the different industries within the marine environment e.g. offshore renewables, fisheries etc. It was particularly interesting to see how policy and legislation can be tuned from UK-wide to regional. An example of this is the East Inshore and Offshore Plans that were the first regional action plans in the UK born from the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009.  

Even though we were working from the office for most of the week, we had an exciting opportunity to assist with a National Grid corporate day. The event was held at Sea View Farm. This site is being created as a Kew grade saltmarsh and sand dune seed bank. Our activity consisted of helping weed the picnic site whilst other activities consisted of tours of the site and shed painting. This was a great opportunity for us to talk to employees of the National Grid about their career routes and roles. At the end of the day, we went on a walk to the nearby saltmarsh and sand dune system which was a really great opportunity to see these important habitats found along the North East Coast.

We were also excited to have our first meeting with our supervisor at Ørsted. This meeting gave us an introduction to Ørsted and their activity within the North Sea. We both found it extremely interesting learning about how Ørsted are building offshore windfarms to meet net zero. These developments also must have a positive net gain for nature and so it’s intriguing learning how Ørsted are managing this. 

Overall, these first two weeks have been a really interesting introduction to the internship. We both can't wait to get stuck into the next few weeks as they involve a trip down to London as well as the ReMeMaRe conference which should both be amazing. 

Josh