I’m Sam Rawlinson, one of the newly started graduate interns with the Uplands Research team, working in the North Pennines.
I studied biology (with a focus on evolutionary biology) at university and spent the last two years involved in outdoor education, largely teaching ecology fieldwork skills to school students.
I decided that it was a lot more fun to do fieldwork rather than teach other people how to do it, so am excited to get the opportunity to get involved in the practical research that the Trust is involved in here in the Pennines.
I’m still figuring out exactly where my interests lie within the big umbrella of ecology but do have a soft spot for birds and plants. I’m hoping that working with the Trust will give me a better idea of how research can feed into on-the-ground land management strategies which benefit nature.
In the upland’s context, I’m particularly interested in how conservation strategies and private interests can be aligned or balanced to make the uplands a better place for nature.