A Great Day Out Visit Kent Wildlife Trust’s sites

When the Kent Wildflife Trust advertised for a pair of ‘bison rangers’, it received 1,200 applications. Doug Kempster takes up the story and examines the work of the influential charity…

But these European cousins of the legendary North American bison are about to set up home in woods near Canterbury.

In a ground-breaking project costing more than £1million, conservationists are on the verge of releasing four of the mighty mammals - the Continent’s largest - into the wild.

And, if all goes to plan, they hope the bull and three females will establish a herd to settle in 500 of the 2,500 acres of Blean woodland owned by Kent Wildlife Trust (KWT). The charity says the bison are 'peaceful animals' despite growing up to three metres in length, weighing 300 to 1,000 kilos and being capable of reaching speeds of up to 35mph.

The species has boosted wildlife diversity in North European forests by clearing spaces for a wide variety of plants and animals when it grazes, forages and tramples through the undergrowth.

KWT and its project partner, The Wildwood Trust, are confident the bison’s introduction will do the same in Kent.

In addition, the two charities hope the new arrivals will be crowd-pullers as the project fires the public’s imagination.

Certainly, when a job vacancy for two bison rangers to look after the beasts was advertised last year, it attracted 1,200 applicants from around the world.

And public awareness, says KWT, is crucial in its mission to conserve wildlife through action and education. Today the trust, which has its roots in the 1950s, has tens of thousands of members and a thousand volunteers. It manages over 9,000 acres of the county across more than 80 different sites and nature reserves.

It also runs three, free-to-enter visitor centres in Maidstone, Romney Marsh and Sevenoaks, which stage activity and education days, teaching skills as diverse as making seed bombs and building hedgehog houses to organising wildlife safaris.

The bison, which will literally be the trust’s biggest attraction, are due to arrive in April.

They will be quarantined in a special enclosure in Blean Woods before being released into their permanent habitat around a month later.

The animals aren't native to this country but are closely related to the now-extinct forest bison that roamed parts of Britain during the Pleistocene period more than 11,700 years ago.

The newcomers will share an environment already inhabited by nightingales, a variety of bat species and rare Konik ponies.

And KWT believes members of the public lucky enough to see the bison, could also be spotting calves in the ancient woodland as early as next year.

If monster cattle aren’t your thing, the trust has plenty of other habitats to guarantee a great day out. Here are a few:

About: Kent Wildlife Trust’s largest reserve. It’s of international importance for its bird population. Flora/fauna: Nightingales and cuckoos in the spring, ringed plover in the summer, seals in the winter. Size: 615 hectares. Facilities: Toilets, picnic site, outdoor play area. Open: All year round.

About: The site contains the county’s last four valley bogs and one of its few remaining fragments of open heath. Flora/fauna: Yellowhammers, white throats and willow warblers, green tiger beetles, round leaved sundew and heath spotted orchids. Size: 86 hectares. Facilities: Four waymarked paths. Open: All year round.

About: Grassland slopes of the edge of Dover. Flora/fauna: May to August for butterflies like the Adonis blue and silver-spotted skipper. Also home to the wart-biter cricket. Size: 90 hectares. Facilities: Car park behind the old George and Dragon pub. Open: All year round.

Kent Wildlife Trust (KWT) is the leading conservation charity covering Kent and Medway, established in 1958. KWT runs more than 60 nature reserves covering approximately 7,500 acres of land as well as 55 miles of roadside nature reserve ground. It also has visitor centres at Tyland Barn (near Maidstone), Romney Marsh, and the Jeffery Harrison Centre in Sevenoaks. The influential conservation body KWT boasts over 31,000 members and supporters, provide a flourishing education programme, an active network of local groups and a thousand volunteers.

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