Sarah's Story: Ice Age Ponds Trainee

I was looking to move from a career in finance to a role in conservation but with no previous experience I needed a chance to gain that experience. The Ice Age Ponds trainee project assistant role is particularly interesting because of its breadth, there is an opportunity to get involved in everything from practical survey work to writing social media posts to helping with WildPlay days. For me it is the ideal role to understand the variety of work Herefordshire Wildlife Trust do.

I joined at the start of December 2020 and have been able to get involved in a wide range of activities. I am working with one of the long-term volunteers to develop the Ice Age Ponds geocache trail which has involved exploring potential sites around the county and getting a good background in the geology and ecology of the landscape. Also, I have had the chance to analyse the data that volunteers had already collected on a number of ponds, looking at what factors impact quality of the pond for wildlife. We are hoping to get out to survey more ponds in the coming months (Covid permitting) so I will be helping to train the volunteers (following my own training first!).

One part of the project is to find and restore a ghost pond (a pond that has dried out and been filled in) so myself, David (the project manager) and Beth (the project officer) spent a day out on a local farm looking for signs of peat and we successfully found a potential ghost pond site.

For me this is all new so I am learning about pond ecology, about ice age geology in Hereford and also about the impacts of land management on habitats like ponds and how organisation like the Wildlife trust can work with farmers and landowners to reduce the negative impacts of land management. I have had the chance to be involved in meetings with the lottery and see how the project is managed from the timescales to the budgets to the recruitment of volunteers.

This role is giving me an understanding of all the different roles in the conservation sector and there are great opportunities for training and to learn from people who have worked in the sector for years. I hope that it will help me develop the skills and experience I need in pursuing this career in the future.

The role has such a variety, some weeks it is mostly behind a computer looking at documents or data and other weeks it is being out on the reserves. I imagine over the coming months there will be even more variety as the weather improves and (fingers crossed) restrictions ease. I am looking forward to getting stuck into survey work and working with the volunteers. It has also been great to meet the other members of staff at Herefordshire Wildlife trust (even if mostly virtually), everyone is very friendly and helpful, and to feel that you are a part of the wider organisation and see all the great work that is being done.