In a partnership with sister organisation UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) launched in 2017, our team is supporting an extensive conservation programme of Britain’s heritage across multiple sites on the Antarctic Peninsula.
In 2016 our Programme Manager, Al Fastier, travelled to the UK to participate in a planning and health and safety training workshop with UKAHT. The workshop laid the foundation for the conservation work, which was undertaken in 2017 on the Antarctic Peninsula. This collaboration follows reciprocal visits over the 2014-2015 season, first by UKAHT Chief Executive Camilla Nichol to the Trust’s Ross Sea Island sites to view the conservation work achieved, followed by our Executive Director, Nigel Watson, viewing the Peninsula sites under UKAHT’s care.
This initiative was another step towards conserving the huts in a remote and remarkable region and the Trust is delighted to share with UKAHT its extensive knowledge around cold-climate conservation. The Trust’s experience conserving the early explorer bases at Ross Island involved staff developing innovative and detailed methodologies for treating artefacts in the world’s most extreme environment.
This project is part of the developing relationship between the two trusts, and follows on from a previous initiative in 2017, when Al assisted the UKAHT to complete a building survey of Hut Y, at Horseshoe Island on the Antarctic Peninsula. The team look forward to continuing this work with UKAHT in the coming seasons.
