Young Rangers on the Coast

Young Rangers on the Coast are a group of young people aged between 13 and 20 who undertake practical tasks to help us and our partners to conserve and enhance the AONB.

The Young Rangers on the Coast project is a joint initiative of the AONB Partnership and the Seahouses Youth Project.

Young Rangers receive LOVE Northumberland Award

The Young Rangers on the Coast have recently received two awards, a LOVE Northumberland from Northumberland County Council and a Pride of Northumberland Award.

Love Northumberland Award

Follow the links below to find out more about the Young Rangers:

Task Days

Quarryfields Project

John Muir Awards

Europarc Junior Rangers Network

Join the Young Rangers on the Coast

Task Days

The Young Rangers task days are usually on a Saturday between September and May and they normally meet about twice per month. The tasks are usually practical conservation tasks though sometimes there are training and learning session, monitoring work or planning days.

Here are some of the tasks we have carried out in recent months

Gorse Control on whin grasslands

With the National Trust, the Young Rangers have helped to control gorse on whin grassland sites in the AONB. This involves cutting down mature gorse that has become too old and leggy to encourage new growth. The cut stems of old gorse are burnt on a fire which is also very useful for cooking lunch!

Pond Clearance Task

Pond maintenance

A few sessions have been undertaken at Newton Pool with the National Trust to clear areas of the pond which have become choked with reed mace Typha latifolia. This involves pulling up the giant stems before they produce their millions of tiny seeds. Hard work but great fun!

Bird Reserve maintenance

The Young Rangers have worked with both RSPB on Coquet Island and the National Trust on the Farne Islands to undertake various tasks to help get the Islands ready for the arrival of thousands of breeding seabirds.

Hedge Planting

The group helped the National Trust to plant a new hedge alongside Dunstanburgh Golf Course.

Boardwalk Construction

The Young Rangers have assisted Natural England staff to construct boardwalks at two of the National Nature Reserves (NNRs) – Lindisfarne and Newham Bog to allow access by the public without damaging the habitat.

Stile construction

The group helped Northumberland Wildlife Trust to build a new stile at their Annstead Dunes nature reserve.

Learning and training

Over the last three years the group has learned all sorts of new skills including tree felling, first aid, manual handling, species identification, use of a GPS, search and rescue techniques with the Coastguard and more,

Having fun

It’s not all hard work. We’ve also been climbing and abseiling, wild cooking on the beach, team building games, geocaching, creating works of art on the beach and written some weird and wonderful stories.

Quarryfields Project

Recently the group has had a new focus - the Quarryfields site in Seahouses. This former limestone quarry on the edge of the village was filled in and had houses built on it. The southern edge was restored by Northumberland County Council to an area of woodland and open grassland.

The Young Rangers have taken over the management of this site and have some exciting ideas about how to improve it for wildlife, improve access to it for visitors and local people and interpret the history of the quarry ... watch this space.

John Muir Awards

Since the very beginning of the Young Rangers project, participants have worked towards attaining the John Muir Award.

The John Muir Award is an environmental award scheme focused on wild places. It encourages awareness and responsibility for the natural environment, in a spirit of fun, adventure and exploration.

Four Challenges are at the heart of each John Muir Award. To achieve an Award each participant must:

Discover a wild place
Explore its wildness
Conserve - take personal responsibility
Share experiences

Participants should show enthusiasm and commitment, and have an awareness about John Muir.

There are 3 levels of the Award, encouraging a progressive involvement. The same four challenges above are repeated for each level, with increased involvement in time, activity and ownership.

Discovery Award (introductory level) minimum 4 days (or equivalent)
Explorer Award (intermediate level) minimum 8 days (or equivalent)
Conserver Award (advanced level) minimum 20 days (or equivalent) over 6 months

See the John Muir Award Website for further information

Europarc Junior Rangers Network

Young Rangers on the Coast are members of the Europarc Junior Rangers Network. The network is an umbrella organisation for Junior Ranger groups from across Europe.

Junior Rnager Camp In 2009 and 2011, members of the Young Rangers on the Coast attended the International Junior Ranger camps in Spain (2009) and Netherlands (2011).