By Jasmine Canham, GWCT Wildlife Recovery placement student
When I first started my degree in Environmental Conservation at Bangor University, I hadn’t actually planned to do a placement year. I didn’t know much about them so I decided I would take the ‘normal route’ and go straight into my third year of study, rather than taking a year out of my course to work in industry. However, a casual career chat with a member of university staff soon piqued my interest and she signposted me to a series of adverts for student placements at a charity I wasn’t very familiar with at the time – the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.
The more I researched into the GWCT, the more impressed I was with their work, both their reputable scientific research and their rapport with farmers and landowners. I was also very keen on the variety of work involved in each placement. Because of this, I decided to change my plans and apply for a placement with the Wildlife Recovery department, and the rest is history!
From handling insect samples to inputting data, visiting farms to receiving first aid training, I’ve undergone quite a variety of tasks so far. To my pleasant surprise I’ve even been taught to fly a drone (much to the local buzzards’ dismay), and managed to narrowly avoid the treeline on my first attempt! However, one of the main highlights for me so far was attending a 4x4 driving training course.
As a part of my role as a placement student I have to be able to drive 4x4 vehicles for surveys and field visits, something that is very new to me. I went into the training expecting to be gently cruising down some slightly bumpy farm tracks and fields, like I would for work. You probably can imagine my surprise when I found myself driving a Land Rover down steep hills, across inclines with the vehicle at a 30° angle to the ground, and through water deep enough to reach the doors! I did really enjoy the day, but I was quite relieved to be back on tarmac once more on the drive home.
A slightly less adrenaline-inducing, but nonetheless very important job I have enjoyed, was tubing some insect samples in the lab. This required removing excess vegetation from the samples (it gets all mixed up when they are collected), before putting the contents into a small pot with alcohol to be identified at a later date. The samples I was sorting had come from a German demonstration site from the PARTRIDGE project, an Interreg North Sea Region (NSR) project demonstrating how biodiversity and ecosystem services can be improved on farmland sites. The GWCT has been leading this seven-year project, and these samples will go on to show the effects of PARTRIDGE habitat measures, such as wildflower blocks.
Alongside work, I’ve also been making the most of the local area around Hampshire and Wiltshire. Situated on the edge of the New Forest, there are endless places to visit and explore. A group of us have already been to see Stonehenge, as well as Old Sarum and Salisbury. I’ve also joined a local ringing group, which involves lots of very early (5:30am!) starts, but has been well worth it to get close to bird species I’m used to admiring from a distance.
A very wet visit to Stonehenge with my fellow placement students.
(Left to right: Lydia, Jasmine, Imogen and Matt)
All the staff and other placement students have been incredibly welcoming so far, and I’m excited to learn from them as the year progresses. I might have only been here for a month, but I’ve already gained a wealth of knowledge and experience and I can’t wait to find out what is next in store for me.