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The Jurassic Coast Trust
What does your organisation do?
We look after the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, protecting its globally unique status and engaging people with its incredible stories of rocks, fossils and landforms.
Why is the Jurassic Coast important?
It’s the only place in the world where you can see a complete record of the Mesozoic era – the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods – displayed continuously across a single coastline. It is literally a walk through time. The Coast is also globally important for its fossils and landforms, and for being the birthplace of palaeontology.
Who volunteers for you?
All sorts of people! Our volunteers are all ages and come from all walks of life and backgrounds. The majority aren’t academics, rather enthusiastic amateurs who love the Jurassic Coast and everything it offers.
What sort of work do they do?
We don’t have mandated tasks to complete (such as conservation work); the sea does the best job at looking after the Jurassic Coast by eroding it. Therefore our volunteer work is more creative and interpretive – leading guided walks, delivering talks, assisting at familyfocused events, writing articles and taking photos for our website.
What’s a recent achievement?
We were the winning charity at the Exmouth Kite Festival 2017. Our volunteers put on a brilliant Jurassic Coast display with fossils, dinosaurs and more, earning us £1,700.
What are they working on now?
Dippy on Tour, a project with the Natural History Museum. Dippy is currently on show at Dorset County Museum and will be until the beginning of May. We have a whole programme of events going on to celebrate his visit, such as dinosaur-footprint walks and boat trips.