I work as Head of Land Management and Estates in the National Forest, UK. It is a 200 square mile landscape regeneration programme in the Midlands. Transforming a post-industrial landscape through planting trees.
It started with some committed visionaries over 30 years ago seeing the opportunity to change a desperately polluted and scared landscape area. It was a place though with a proud local heritage within communities from past mining, yet with the loss of industries and direction the mining collapsed with a loss of jobs and opportunities.
The Forest was a concept to change the landscape, and it has changed – from an area of only 6% tree cover to now a place with over 26%. My small part, nowadays, is I am responsible for grant support offered to landowners to help them plant and manage trees across the Forest area, whilst also being responsible for managing our own organisation’s land.
Where, as a charity, we have used our own estate to create a diverse range of habitats to demonstrate landscape change possibilities, in support of nature, people and the environment.
I have been incredibly fortunate in my career with a diverse portfolio of roles from starting out as a cartographic surveyor, then serving 23 years as a Royal Air Force Logistics Officer working in many different countries, environments and roles across the globe.
My travels gave me insight in the vast changes and detrimental impacts across so many environmental habitats. So, I decided to study environmental policy and then in defence related environmental security.
On choosing to leave the military I wanted to follow my passion for the environment, sustainability and tackling climate issues and set a ten-year plan to work across a number of areas. It has now actually been over sixteen years since I left the military and I have worked in business, the public sector and charity sectors. Including roles with architects and designers on green infrastructure, the waste industry, through to forestry, land management and integrated land use, food production, conservation, innovation, fundraising to a Commercial Director in the energy efficiency sector.
Whilst my original plan did not quite go as expected and had to adjust accordingly, due to health reasons and then cancer, I came through it.
With now simply doing things I love and feel incredibly privileged to be involved in. For no matter how small things can feel in the big scheme of things where I work so is positive and offers hope for the future.
