Meet Tom

“I recently secured a full-time conservation role, which represents the first step in my environment sector career. My Citizen Ranger role with Northern Roots was absolutely fundamental in making me stand out and secure that role.” Tom, Citizen Ranger

 I did an undergraduate degree in ecology and wildlife conservation, but a lot of the course was theoretical, so I learned survey skills but didn’t have an opportunity to apply them to actual conservation management.

One of the main things I’ve done as a Citizen Ranger at Northern Roots is work on baseline ecological surveys. We have limited data on what kind of species, plants and animals exist on the site, so we’ve done a range of different surveys, including bats, invertebrates and botanical surveys to build a better picture of what’s here.

Our Citizen Ranger team has also done a lot of public engagement events, including pond dipping during the summer holidays with kids, and teaching them how to do botanical surveys. We’ve also done more practical stuff like making and putting up bat boxes.

Working at Northern Roots has allowed me to develop my skills in species surveying, and to understand how theory operates in practice. It’s great to know that the data we collect is having a really practical and significant impact on how we then manage the site, and it will do for many years to come. The ongoing impact of the work that I’ve been involved in makes me feel a lot of pride.

It also helps to connect people who visit this site to the site in a much deeper way. It tells them the type of species that are here, the type of habitats that are here, and hopefully we can share that in an engaging way.

I’ve learned a huge array of things from working alongside the team here at Northern Roots, especially the Ranger team. They have different expertise in the team, whether that’s bat expertise or beetle and invertebrate expertise or forestry expertise.

For example, one of my colleagues has a background as a forest schoolteacher. When we’ve done public engagement events, watching how she makes things such as surveys – which might be kind of boring – really interesting to the kids, has helped me learn a lot about how I can communicate better and make things engaging and interesting to try and inspire people, especially young people.

“Northern Roots is a community. Whatever role you’re doing here, you’re not going to be isolated in that role doing one thing. You’re going to get to contribute across the organisation, because it’s interdependent and interconnected. Everyone feels like a key component of the growth of the organisation and moving towards its expansion. That fills people with a lot of pride in the organisation.”  Tom, Citizen Ranger

I’ve had conservation and environment sector roles before, but what’s really set this role apart is the level of responsibility that I’ve been given. In other roles that I’ve had, it’s been me as an assistant Ranger, shadowing a team leader. Whereas in this role, when we’ve done public engagement events, for example, we’ve had to design and run those events, and it’s been our responsibility to make sure that those work smoothly. When we’ve collected survey data, that’s been on us to organise that data and make sure that it’s well represented and everything’s accounted for.  And it’s really that responsibility that has then allowed me to take steps forward in my career and in securing my first full-time role.

So for anyone who’s interested in an opportunity with Northern Roots, it might sound a bit cliched, but I would just say just go for it. Because if you do have a role here, they will play to whatever your skills and strengths and experiences are. And that’ll make you feel like a very useful part of this organisation, and you will contribute and therefore grow from that experience.

The Citizen Ranger roles have been made possible thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.