What do you love about where you live?

As part of the preparations for the commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Falkland Islands, the Infant and Junior School and Camp Education will be holding a theme week of linked lessons and activities. The Week begins on 5th March and will focus on both the past and the future, gathering memories and eye- witness accounts of the conflict, looking at how the islands have changed in the last 30 years, and thinking about what we love about our home now.

We camped in the valley - it was a great place to wake up.  It was great here.  It was a bit windy the day before and rainy in the night but in the morning it was calm, it was awesome just like a mirror lake. (Jack Cartwright)

The Protected Areas Strategy Project is helping to sponsor and organise the week, and we plan to involve local artists in workshops to help the children turn their ideas about Falklands landscapes into art using different media. This is an important first step in encouraging children, families and the wider community to think about what they value about our natural heritage.

Some children have already sent some photos; they will be laminated and used as a resource bank for the theme week. We still need more photos, and a few words about them makes them even more special. Email them to me at protectedareas@conservation.org.fk

Barnaby Bear's trip to Kidney Island

Stanley recedes rapidly into the distance. The launch was very fast!

Arriving at the island.

Kidney Island is home to breeding shags and rockhopper penguins.

We saw plenty of Cobb's wrens and tussac birds on our way along the beach.

The sea lions said goodbye.

Barnaby arrived in the islands last week and was able to join the Year 2 children fron the Infant Junior School and Camp Education on their trip to Kidney Island, a small nature reserve not too far from Stanley.

The island is home to an amazing variety and quantity of wildlife, being free from introduced mammals.

I took lots of photos and hope to turn them into a book for children, once the necessary permissions have been sought from the parents.

The trip was funded, as it is each year, by the Falkland Islands Government through the Environmental Studies budget, and we were all very grateful to them, as well as to our helpers and guides Ken Passfield, Sonia Felton and Maggie Battersby, for this amazing opportunity.

Barnaby Bear Heads South

Barnaby Bear posed for a picture in his birthplace, Apley Woods, before heading south to take up his new position as official Barnaby Bear of the Falkland Islands Protected Areas Strategy. Barnaby has been given permission from the Geographical Association to travel to the protected areas of the Falklands to find out what makes them special and how they are looked after and to feature in books which will help children in school learn all about them.

''I'm not much looking forward to spending the next two weeks inside a mail bag," commented Barnaby, "but I am looking forward to visiting Kidney Island with the Year 2 children of the Infant Junior School when I get to the Falklands. It's a great opportunity for a bear and I feel very lucky."
Barnaby Bear is also hoping to travel to Steeple Jason Island later in the year. He'll let us know how he gets on.

Homage to Andy Goldsworthy

This has little to do with Protected Areas, beyond helping children to appreciate their surroundings and respond to them through art. It's mainly just something to do on a beach on a nice day, in this case the Sound at Hill Cove. If you do it with children, you can specify the number of items, the shape the sculpture has to make, whether the items were once alive or never alive (always a hard idea for little children to grasp).....endless possibilities.

California Club- rush Update

Went up to Port North just before Christmas to collect a lamb for our Christmas feast (sorry, vegetarians!) and was happy to hear that the rush is doing well, and has grown and set seed.
It's a small beginning, but the hope is that a stand of California club- rush will develop which will provide a habitat for birds. Landowners Roy and Jodie McGhie are particularly hopeful that black- necked swans will return to the pond.

Marc Block dons the waders again, whilst landowner Roy McGhie offers advice.

It's looking a bit lonely!