Sarah McKenzie

In June 2004, 30 students from 15 different countries met in Holland for a 6-day intensive Master Class on “Integrative Research in Landscape Ecology” and I was one of the lucky ones. The tutors were ten professors, all leaders in Landscape Ecology. I had read many of their papers and here was an opportunity to actually talk to them about their work (and get them to explain the bits I didn’t understand!)

We were based in a remote part of northern Holland, surrounded by woods and heathland and which is described as “higher ground” i.e. it was 6m above sea level as opposed to 5-10m below. The aims of the Master Class were to allow students to present a summary of their own research, be questioned by two specifically allocated tutors and a student “opponent”. The latter was a new concept to me and was actually very beneficial. Not only did you have to prepare your own presentation, but also critically review the work of a fellow student. It made me think about my own approach to research and I learnt a lot from the process.

The research topics included The role of water quality modelling in land planning (Australia), Culture and the Forested Landscapes (Canada), Organic farming in Danish rural landscapes and my own research, GIS as a countryside management tool for creating a forest habitat network in West Sussex. Between presentations, the tutors talked about their own areas of research and later each student had a tutorial with their allocated tutors. Invaluable help and advice was given in these sessions, even if some of them continued until nearly midnight!

It was not all work, however and on day 3 we went on a 15 km walk through the woods and heathland. The whole area is a nature reserve, managed by low-intensity grazing using Scottish Highland cattle and Exmoor ponies! Such grazing is helping to restore the heathland communities on land that had been heavily exploited for peat 100 years ago. In one place there has been a spectacular resurgence of the carnivorous plant, the sundew. The outcomes of the Master Class are:

• A book of student and tutor papers to be published in January 2005
• A world-wide network of contacts
• A lot of new friends!