Since moving to the Yorkshire Dales in 2023, I have become deeply involved in nature conservation. I am especially interested in issues facing upland environments, and have undertaken a range of training in conservation-related skills including: 
  • L2 in Forestry with the Horticultural Correspondence College (ongoing) 
  • L3 Cross-cutting and Chainsaw Maintenance
  • L3 Felling Small Trees  
  • L3 Tree climbing and aerial rescue
  • L3 Forest Leader (ongoing)
  • Hedgelaying (upcoming) 
  • ATV training (upcoming) 
  • PA1/PA6 (upcoming) 
  • Soil assessment training 
  • Introduction to Dry Stone Walling
  • Introduction to Scything
  • LANTRA Tree health inspection
  • Ground flora and grasses ID training 
  • Lichen ID training 
  • AIM L2 Woodland Management 
  • Landscape Design training 
  • Woodland Resilience training
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Employment

I previously worked in woodland conservation for the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.
The bulk of my work focused on woodland conservation, which includes completing constraints checks for woodland creation sites, organising trees and materials for the planting season, tree planting, organising woodland maintenance days (such as guard removal and stake straightening), developing woodland management plans, setting up community tree nurseries and running tree nursery events such as box building, seed collecting and potting on. I also worked on a joint project with Natural England to restore rare willow species in the Yorkshire Dales, developed baseline surveys to measure biodiversity improvements on woodland creation sites and set up a regional Monitoring & Evaluation group to develop a cohesive approach to woodland monitoring for greater impact.

Volunteering

I first became involved in conservation through volunteering in dry stone walling with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust on the Wild Ingleborough project, a large scale restoration project on Ingleborough in the western Dales. 

I am worked with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to develop objectives for the new Management Plan for the national park (2025 - 2030), which will provide an outline of priorities and objectives for organisations working in the national park over the next 5 years.