How long have you worked at Clarkson & Woods?
I joined Clarkson & Woods in spring 2023 when I was glad to be offered a role as an Assistant Ecologist. Before my interview here I was planting trees for a Bristol-based arboriculture team and before that, on an internship with Avon Wildlife Trust, I learnt to survey botany and invertebrates in rewilded amenity grassland around North Somerset.
Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Science at UWE, a programme peppered with practical coursework and field trips rooted in key ecological survey techniques, let my interest in the natural world take off in an upward spiral.
My favourite bit about working here
Clarkson & Woods offers experience of such a diverse range of work to assistants from the get-go. It’s invaluable experience as an early career ecologist, to be learning the ins and outs of a wide range of survey and reporting types. Facilitating the varied workstyle, I appreciate the support from the team, who are always busy but are simultaneously always available to help.
My favourite surveys currently are any that involve botany, there is an inordinate amount of information about plants readily available and I like that I could be standing on a plant species that I’ve never seen before, on any survey.
In my spare time
In my spare time, I’m mostly camping, climbing, or bobbing around at the back of a Bristolian music venue.
However, in 2019/2020 as part of my degree, I visited the Indonesian island of Java and the Malaysian part of Borneo, each for 3-month paid volunteering internship placements. In Borneo, I worked at Tungog Rainforest Eco Camp, isolated from the nearest village by the Kinabatangan River. We surveyed parts of the secondary rainforest around the camp, planted young trees and mapped the progression of forest regrowth. I’ll never forget the wildlife I saw while staying out in the forest, particularly seeing a wild orangutan mother and baby, while hammock camping a short boat ride from camp.