Share

Introducing Josie

Piper's Hill and Dodderhill Commons - Justin Heath

Meet Josie, our newest conservation trainee...
Josie stood in a woodland

Hi, I'm Josie, the newest conservation trainee at Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. I've been with the Trust for two months now and I am loving every minute; whether it’s getting my hands dirty with Andy and the trainees, completing work with the amazing roving team or learning new skills like barbed wire fence tensioning.

As long as I can remember, I've loved the outdoors. My childhood was full of visits to National Trust sites with my family; holidays featuring beaches and woodlands and spending time climbing the trees in my garden. This interest extended into my teenage years, completing my Bronze, Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards. This led me to pursue a career in conservation and why, after finishing sixth form, I moved to Bangor University, North Wales, to study conservation with forestry. Three years of field trips to forests and thousands of words worth of essays later, I graduated with a wider knowledge about the natural world and its practical management. Now onto the practical experience…

Before joining the Trust, I had worked with Hopwood Tree Services (tree surgeons) since 2020 but hadn’t had any experience working in conservation other than volunteering with The Heart of England Forest. To gain more practical skills and knowledge, I decided to apply for the conservation traineeship at the Trust.

One of my first milestones as a trainee was completing a two-day brushcutter course with our helpful guide Pete Hewitt. We covered important health and safety regulations, learnt how to maintain our brushcutter blades (bi, tri and nilon) and what each blade was suitable for and finally on our second day, how to use them ergonomically.

The next week I was then able to put my memory to the test by using a brushcutter with a bi-blade on a roving day at Ipsley Alders Marsh. The task was to clear some bramble next to a cattle fence and reduce a smaller section in the fields. Whilst this went ok, my second attempt at Droitwich Community Woods didn’t go quite so smoothly; accidentally brushcutting into a wasps nest and sprinting to get away was not a good way of impressing the rovers!

Josie practicing with her chainsaw

Josie practicing with her chainsaw

Next up on the courses and skills to acquire was crosscutting and chainsaw maintenance (CCM). Having worked with tree surgeons for a few years, I had some experience using chainsaws and crosscutting. However, some of the finer detail needed to be addressed. Andy led us through a few hands-on sessions at Blackhouse Wood and Lower Smite Farm, where we covered the basics of saw maintenance and cutting techniques.

We then met Pete Hewitt again for a two-day course ahead of our assessment on the following Monday. Before starting, we chose our saws, mine being a Stihl MS 162, aka Andy's brand new saw that had never cut wood before. A lot of pressure to not immediately blunt it!

On the first day, we went through essential chainsaw maintenance including sharpening, cleaning and checking chain tension. We also went through half of the syllabus that was on our CCM assessment as around 75% of it is theory-based. By the end of the day I had named my chainsaw 'Blue Eye Samurai', after a show about a female Samurai warrior.

Trainees practicing chainsaw cuts on spare logs

On day two, we got the chance to practice using the saws on some old timber we brought back to Lower Smite Farm and some bigger cherry logs. The cuts we have to perform on our assessment include no tension/compression, tension and compression, extreme tension and compression, cuts above the guidebar length and a boring cut. While I’d had experience cutting logs before, I’d never even heard of a boring cut before, so it was great to learn something new.

On the Monday, we had our CCM Assessment and I'm pleased to say that all the trainees passed! Time to use our skills on site and begin practicing our small felling…

With a degree in forestry and conservation, Josie hopes to pursue a career in the sector. She joined the Trust as a trainee to further develop her practical skills.

Related blog posts