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Meet Beds Reserves Officer Matt Purkis

Matt Purkis is Reserves Officer for the Bedfordshire team. Here he writes about his time at the Trust so far managing wildlife habitats, working with animals and helping people explore the nature of Bedfordshire.
Matt Purkis

After graduating from my Bachelor degree of Animal Biology and Conservation at Oxford Brookes I went on to the Masters course, Conservation Ecology, also at Oxford Brookes. Alongside this I volunteered as a warden with the RSPB at Otmoor, this internship trained me in tractor driving, chainsaw use, herbicide application, and habitat management of reedbed, grassland, and hedgerows, and leading volunteer work parties. 

We also conducted nest counts of Lapwing and recorded nesting activity of cranes and bitterns. I carried out my Masters dissertation on lowland nesting curlew in the upper Thames catchment, a project I was introduced to through volunteering with the RSPB. This experience put me in good stead for my next role with Wildscapes CIC, a subsidiary of Sheffield and Rotheram Wildlife Trust that carries out land management and ecology contracts. 

I helped complete tree planting and moorland restoration as part of funded projects in the peak district, an area I was already fond of due to its proximity to Nottingham where I grew up. We spread heather brash to stabilise bare peat and inoculated bogs with sphagnum mosses, these mosses act like a sponge to retain water and contributed to peat formation. I was very proud to have been a part of a something with great benefits for climate change, habitat restoration, and flood risk mitigation. I also helped with bat and newt surveys, including eDNA water sampling, to inform developments and building modifications. Throughout this time, I was looking for full time work that would allow me to move to Knebworth with my girlfriend who I met at university. I was offered a position with Lee Valley regional park based at the waterworks nature reserve in Walthamstow helping to carry out habitat management on meadows, woodlands, and reedbeds including the former water filtration beds at Lea Bridge. Over lockdown these sites became very popular being so close to lots of people who couldn’t travel too far from home. This brought challenges with grills, fires and littering, visitors swimming in polluted water, and clearing up after raves on our greenspaces.

Matt Purkis, Matt Sutcliffe and James Fitton

Matt with colleagues Matt Sutcliffe and James Fitton

Image left: Matt with colleagues Matt Sutcliffe and James Fitton

Lee Valley has a few rare plants, and I was always surprised by the presence of some species just 5km from Central London; kestrels, little owls, and stock doves (often considered a “farmland bird”) but I wanted an opportunity to help protect regionally and nationally scarce species. After building my confidence and experience in this role I was happy to move to the Beds reserve team at BCN, the role offered a shorter commute, less frequent site misuse and sites with more precious wildlife including many orchids and butterflies. I was grateful to be part of a real conservation organisation instead of a leisure organisation that also managed greenspaces. 

I’m grateful to be part of this trust especially at such an exciting time with Strawberry Hill, beavers, and expansion of the Great Fen, so It has definitely felt like a positive career move.

Before taking on the Luton role at the start of this year my main focus was Totternhoe. It was great to get my teeth stuck into a site with such an interesting history, both geologically and anthropologically, and with such a diverse flora and fauna. It has really helped develop my understanding for the desirable and undesirable species that occur on our chalk grassland sites and the management challenges that we face. But there is always more to learn about the obscure diminutive plants that grace our downs.

Getting to work closely with livestock has also been a perk of my time with the trust, a friendly sheep known as Spot was often amenable to head scratch while at Totternhoe, and checking on the highland cattle at Ravensburgh bank offered a tranquil end to the day on occasion. It’s impressive just how much vital grazing even a few sheep can do to arrest the growth of dominant plants and the cattle even more so.

new kissing gate

Blow’s Downs: A kissing gate that needed spoil at the base retaining with boards, 

Image left: Blow’s Downs - A kissing gate that needed spoil at the base retaining with boards.

Since taking on the role managing Blow’s Downs and the Luton Borough Council sites it has been interesting to see the differences in site needs and management despite being the same type of habitat, different pressures from people and different dominant/undesirable species mean the approach can vary even though the overall goal of maintaining diverse calcareous flora is the same.

With much in the way of site structures, gates, benches, etc. these need replacing and repairing on a regular basis. Our volunteers always take up the challenge of helping us refresh these constructions and I’ve had the satisfaction to oversee and help carry out these works. We have made kissing gates safer to use, put in steps where bare chalk gets slippery and made sites secure for livestock. It is always satisfying to finish this work to a high standard and know it will last and be used by many people enjoying the reserves. We always say that building something makes a pleasant change from always cutting things down! 

New steps

Blows Downs: A renewed short flight of steps that had rotten away.

Image right: Blows Downs, A renewed short flight of steps that had rotten away.

In a similar vein, mitigation for work at Luton and Dunstable Hospital meant we were given around 30 bird and bat boxes of various sizes to install at Blow’s Downs and Cottage Bottom Fields. With Aidan’s bat expertise and subsequent help from David Room, a volunteer local to the downs, they have all been installed. We are yet to go back to check occupancy but due to the lack of mature tree features, they are likely to greatly increase nest availability for hole-nesting birds.

Now I have become more familiar with the sites I’m looking forward to making a difference on what needs to be done, creeping thistle and bramble are a key problem on blow’s downs but with funding from the national grid new equipment and herbicides will help us to knock these plants back allowing the cattle to graze harder and more thoroughly to restore botanical diversity.

Nest box installed

A nest box at Cottage Bottom Fields for cavity nesting birds such as tits, starlings and sparrows out of the reach of cats, foxes, and those who might tamper with it.

Image left: A nest box at Cottage Bottom Fields for cavity nesting birds such as tits, starlings and sparrows out of the reach of cats, foxes, and those who might tamper with it.

Galley and Warden Hills are well covered with woody scrub that will shade out the precious wildflowers if the canopy is allowed to close up here, we are all itching to get back out with clearing saws come autumn/winter to open up these areas once more.

There’s certainly no shortage of things to be done!

New gate

A field gate at Bradgers Hill that needed the hang post and strainer replacing, the old posts were completely rotten but they were concreted in, our new DeWalt hammer drill really came into it’s own here allowing to us dig out the old concrete to make room for the new posts. Massive thanks to James for coming out in the heat twice to help with this after an unsuccessful attempt last year.

Image: A field gate at Bradgers Hill that needed the hang post and strainer replacing, the old posts were completely rotten but they were concreted in, our new DeWalt hammer drill really came into it’s own here allowing to us dig out the old concrete to make room for the new posts. Massive thanks to James for coming out in the heat twice to help with this after an unsuccessful attempt last year.

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