An exciting journey

New trainee Sam explains why he's having an amazing time in his new role...

Hi, my name is Sam and I am delighted to be a part of this year's group of conservation trainees for Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

When I found out I had a good shot at getting one of the trainee positions over a telephone call, I had just completed one of the most challenging and incredible trips of my life: climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. A few months later and here I am, involved on a very different but no less exciting journey - embarking upon the traineeship that I had dreamt about doing ever since I started volunteering with the Trust's roving volunteer team back in August last year.

A person wearing a safety helmet and harness is using a piece of machinery called a brushcutter to remove vegetation at the side of a path in a woodland

As someone who has always appreciated the great outdoors, a spark of interest for pursuing a career in wildlife conservation came after I completed half a month in South Africa through International Volunteer HQ. The work out there involved exciting transect drives across the Balule Game Reserve, camera trapping to monitor animal behaviour, practical reserve management and data analysis. After such an enriching opportunity, I knew I wanted to bring home the skills and knowledge I gained to help with conservation on a more local scale. I'm three months into this immersive traineeship and I’m so grateful to be working in beautiful nature reserves all over the county with an amazing team, acquiring useful skills and information in the field of conservation as I go.

Several people standing around a pond in the dark - there's a torch shining into the pond

Three months - that's a quarter of the way through the traineeship; time really does fly by when you’re having fun! So far, I’ve been involved with a whole array of tasks from using the petrol post-driver for the first time at The Knapp and Papermill or helping to install a cattle trough at Dropping Well Farm to having an induction to drive the white Land Rover, which was nerve-racking at first but a lot of fun, and conducting a great crested newt survey to determine both what species were present and whether the environmental conditions were adequate enough to fulfil their needs.

Tasks in particular that we have dedicated a few sessions to recently were rebuilding more convenient handrails and steps at the entrance to The Flashes at Upton Warren as well as repairing the boardwalks. Before even beginning this task, I spent an extra Friday afternoon with Ellie, one of the reserve officers, doing some brushcutting alongside a long stretch of boardwalk that leads up to the Hen Brook hide. At this stage, I became aware that sections of boards were decaying along the walkway and that hemlock, an important plant for pollinators and a foodplant for a number of moths, was present on site. This meant that when us trainees came to dismantle and repair the boardwalk, we were vigilant about the flowering plant as it can generate a painful rash if made contact with.

Two people kneeling on a boardwalk, one is looking at what the other is doing

Mending the boardwalk involved carefully wedging and stripping away the marked boards before removing any crooked, rusty nails with the crowbar and clawhammers. Although relatively straightforward, this task aggravated a huge colony of ants that didn’t leave us alone for the rest of our time there. However, once we stripped away the sections that posed a trip-hazard for the public, we installed durable replacement boards, complete with anti-slip strips. Albeit a somewhat tedious task in the fierce heatwave that we’ve endured recently, we were all left feeling satisfied that people can now safely walk across to use the nearby bird hides that overlook the brook running through the reserve, whilst enjoying spectacular views of a valuable inland saltmarsh.

So far so brilliant and I’m looking forward to the next set of challenges and tasks that await us trainees! I hope to see you in my next blog.