Walking and mountain leaders enjoy opportunities to lead groups within outdoor areas of great landscape beauty, natural and cultural heritage importance. Leaders need to be able to interpret the interest of these valuable landscapes to their groups, both to enrich their enjoyment and to encourage responsible use of these often fragile environments. This two-day cpd workshop series has been developed to help lowland, hill and mountain leaders expand their environmental knowledge and consolidate their environmental interpretation skills.
These are outdoor workshops that take place within the White Peak and Dark Peak areas. Through a combination of direct instruction from qualified and experienced tutors and group discussion the workshop will cover a wide range of environmental topics and issues of relevance to lowland, hill and mountain leaders. At the end of the workshops participants will:
- Be able to confidently identify characteristic plant species of British upland calcareous grassland, ancient semi-natural Ash woodland, heathland and heather moorland vegetation;
- Gain an understanding of the main ecological characteristics of Britain’s farmed landscapes and of heathland, heather moorlands and upland landscapes;
- Develop a wide understanding of key environmental conservation and land use issues within Britain’s lowland and upland landscapes;
- Acquire a working knowledge of key recreational management issues in Britain’s undeveloped and upland landscapes;
- Gain experience of group management strategies that help to enable effective interpretation of environmental information.
You should come equipped for a day on the hill, with adequate food and drink. The proposed itinerary on both dates will mainly use existing paths and involves no strenuous walking. Some information will be provided on the day, but a notebook and camera would be useful. Both workshops start at locations with toilet facilities.
Workshop provider: David Broom - expert ecologist and works on Mountain Leader training and assessment courses.