Volunteering for wildlife

Andrew is incredibly dedicated to the Trust and to Emsworthy Mire. He spends hours involved in practical conservation activity, monitoring (dormice, pied fly catchers), gives tours to staff and to donors, sends us amazing photos and stories for our social media and is generally a fabulous ambassador for the Trust. Andrew does work as a fundraising contractor for Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT), but his voluntary activity and hours put in outside his paid role are exceptional.

Andrew takes ownership in this role. He doesn’t wait to be told what is needed, he just gets on with what is best for the site and for the Trust, but with full involvement and support of the Nature Reserves team, who he has a great relationship with. The images he shares for social media are outstanding, he is always ready to offer help and advice. He even fields ecology enquiries from our membership recruiters via WhatsApp when they are in the field!  If you cut him in half, like the proverbial stick of rock, Andrew would have DWT running right through him.

Some of our best social media content has come via Andrew, driving excellent engagement with our digital supporters. Because he is involved in the Trust in multiple ways and has been for many years, he has strong relationships with staff and volunteers alike as well as with various local or specialist groups (e.g. Devon Mammal Group). He picks up on concerns or issues early and shares them, champions what we do to a whole range of audiences as part of his day to day life (so not just in volunteering or work time!). In many ways he acts as a linking thread and social glue between DWT teams and functions. He lives our work – that is probably the best way to describe his contribution.

Dick and Elaine are incredibly organized, efficient and enthusiastic volunteers. They are dedicated to the task of weekly checks of our beaver enclosure and spend an amazing amount of time reviewing the camera trap footage, reporting on findings and doing basic routine maintenance. They have saved considerable staff time for travel and monitoring of the site, they communicate well through Whats App and have become experts in beaver ecology and movements!

They are brilliantly autonomous within the boundaries agreed with the Beaver Project and set the time they will visit, update us on when it will be and coordinate themselves to do the checks together. They undertake routine maintenance efficiently but if there is a bigger challenge then will contact us immediately to make us aware. Their approach makes the lives of the Beaver Team so much easier and enables us to focus efforts on wild beavers elsewhere in the county.

They have kept the enclosed beaver project going! Reporting fallen trees, removing any blockages from the small drainage culverts and checking the fencing. They monitor the health and welfare of the beavers and check for signs of breeding. They are our eyes and ears on the ground when it comes to beaver activity on the site!

They are certainly above and beyond volunteers! To aid with monitoring, Dick Green has developed expert camera trap monitoring skills, cutting together important bits of film using software he has downloaded for this purpose. They have come to record all manner of other species on the site as well as the beavers, advancing our knowledge of wildlife on the site! Elaine takes excess vegetables from their veggie garden, for the beavers to bait the camera traps and ensure we get the best possible monitoring of the body condition of the beavers and their interactions! These have been aspects of their volunteering that have come from their research and ideas alone and have been of significant benefit to the project.

Eleanor has only been with us since 2022, which might seem like a short time compared to some other volunteers at Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT), but she’s made a really big impact in that short space of time. Eleanor was first met when she was interviewed for one of our paid, seasonal assistant roles, which she narrowly missed out on. Unusually, Eleanor took us up on the offer to get more experience through volunteering. If she were to apply for the role again, just a few years later, we’d give her the role in a heartbeat.

Eleanor has brought such enthusiasm and passion to the role of volunteering, and has also brought benefit to volunteering at Wembury as a whole. She’s the first to say yes to social events, adds value to them by helping with them (such as doing a pub quiz for our Christmas event). She’s very thoughtful, passionate and dedicated and eager to learn more. She loves to take photos of things and takes excellent photos of species during snorkel safaris. She excites everyone with the work that she does. Even though she now has a full time job with Natural England, she is still one of our most regular volunteers

Her progress in the last few years is just immense; from being really interested in conservation and marine life, but not having a huge amount of ID skills or knowledge to go with that, she's now one of our top expert volunteers, as well as in terms of how much she volunteers. As Eleanor now works full time, she can only volunteer probably on a handful of occasions per month at weekends when we have events going on. But before that, she was volunteering really, really regularly. And volunteering with us, no doubt helped her into the job that she's now in with Natural England, which is just fab and shows how perfectly our volunteer role is a two-way process. She's always so happy when she comes along. She puts a smile on our faces. And she's just so excited. She is probably as excited as the year one children that we're taking rock pooling for the first time. She approaches every event as if it's the first time she's seen the underwater world or seen a rock pool and it's totally contagious. The effect that she has not only on people, but on us as a team.

Eleanor goes above and beyond in the effect that she has on the rest of the Wembury team and that she's managed to bring the team closer together, not only through the social events, but through this shared learning, particularly with our SureSearch surveys as well as our general public engagement events. She's improved the ID knowledge of lots of the volunteers, and even some staff, because she really pays attention to the smaller things. She's incredibly generous with her time.

Fred is immensely generous in sharing his knowledge of, and love for, lichens with others to help them learn. Fred is always cheerful and enthusiastic and willing to travel to various venues, even though he lives in far east Devon, so journeys can be quite lengthy. Fred can be relied on to turn up on dates that have been agreed over a month in advance and is always on time. He often goes the extra mile, visiting the sites in advance of our events to look at the best areas for our groups and to familiarise himself with the lichens at that location.

Having Fred do what he does for Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) as a volunteer is unique. Fred’s commitment to volunteering with us has enabled us to expand our citizen science offer on lichens. We now run introductory lichen events (for complete beginners) throughout the year (previously we had run 4, during winter months only). Most significantly, Fred’s high level of lichen knowledge and identification prowess has enabled us to run monthly events at which those who have already attended the introductory event can continue to learn and improve their own identification skills. This is completely new.

Fred’s involvement has been instrumental to the success of our lichen species monitoring. His supervision and mentoring of our ‘improvers’ at the monthly events have helped create a committed and engaged group of citizen scientists who are growing their skills together, forming bonds, and gaining confidence in lichen identification and recording. With one more year of species recording to go in Saving Devon’s Treescapes, it is already clear that Fred’s involvement is leading to a great legacy for the project as what he is doing for us is filling a gap left by a virtually defunct British Lichen Society Devon Lichen Group.

Both beginners and improvers events are regularly well attended, and feedback indicates attendees enjoy the events and the improvers are extremely grateful for Fred’s guidance and tutoring in the field.

As mentioned above, Fred lives in the far east of the county, so travel to some of our event locations is not very convenient for him, yet he is always willing.

Fred has been trained as an Outdoor First Aider for his volunteering role – which wasn’t compulsory but is immensely helpful to us to have another First Aider on hand. It was not something he expected to be doing when he started volunteering, but his willingness to spend another 2 (long) days of his time to attend the training is another example of his dedication and commitment to DWT and the group of citizen scientists he is working with.

Gordon is dedicated, reliable and the most kind and welcoming person. He is super knowledgeable, has a love for Andrews Wood and has been involved for many years. The messages we receive from him are showing so much love for the site and every single person and species we found on site. Gordon is well known for being able to tell you what everything is at Andrews Wood, or if he doesn't, you can bet he can find the person who will. He is inspiring and motivates the Reserves team to go the extra mile too.

He is motivating others to do more, to learn and to be kind. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what it something is, he makes everyone feel welcome, and appreciate and protect all the flora and fauna on site.

His attitude and work makes the Reserves team go the extra mile and motivates them even more, to do more, to learn and to be more like Gordon every single day, not just during work!

Even if he has been going through a difficult time, he has been able to come out and volunteer for half a day. He brings people together and is very motivated to protect all the flora and fauna on site. Gordon has so much knowledge and is an absolute star (as well as being fondly known for his brilliant hat!)

Nicky is always one of the volunteers that responds when we need extra help. She took early retirement as a primary science teacher, during which she'd already met some of our staff through her school. As soon as she retired, she came and signed up as a volunteer. She was always passionate about the outdoors and outdoor learning, and hence the relationship developed from there.

Nicky goes above and beyond. Not only does she support the events, she supports us with things like the Yealmpton show, where we attend all day. These are really tiring events which require lots of focus and engagement. But it's especially with our school's work that she's been really valuable. She's helping us to develop resources for school sessions. She's been part of the Primary Science Trust, developing resources, developing a Seashore pack for children. Not only is she passionate about outdoor learning, but she's really passionate about ocean literacy and teaching kids about our local marine environment which obviously fits in perfectly with what we're trying to do here.

Nicky is fantastic with children and adults alike, and is obviously dedicated to the cause. What makes her different is the amount of time that she has given over the years, during which she's been really consistent. Other volunteers might have come and done a season and been really involved and then gone away, but Nicky's been here year after year, consistently helping us. And her expertise that she brings in to the team is really valuable. Our staff regularly take her expertise as a teacher on board with lots of the things that they do, which has really benefited our work.

Even with a tough couple of years, Nicky's volunteering hasn't been affected. She always manages to fit us in no matter what else is going on in her life and is a really happy person when she comes along. It's great to have her in the team.

The Youth Rangers are a fabulous group of young people wanting to make a difference to wildlife on their doorstep. We have had over 20 young people become a part of the group, and with a regular group attending each month, dedicating their Saturday mornings to the cause. They are not just a youth group – they are brilliant volunteers working hard for nature.

These young people have busy lives – school, college, exams, DofE expectations and other life commitments. Yet they find time to voluntarily come together once a month to help DWT’s mission in helping wildlife in their local greenspaces.

They have achieved so much in a year! They have litter picked, created hedgehog ladders, planted an orchard (hard work!) learnt how to care for an orchard and provide tree maintenance and much more. They get stuck in each time.

Their supervisor, Emily Bacon, is so proud of the Youth Ranger group. They have come so far. Not many of the young people knew each other and now they get along really well. She has seen individual’s confidence grow, and seen them become more and more involved with the group as well as talking more openly to the leaders.

Some of the activities have been steered by the young people in what they would like to do or learn about, so they have had a voice in helping wildlife too. Furthermore, we have had some young people from the group go onto volunteer in other aspects for the trust too, so it has been a gateway for more involvement with the trust.

Gordon Waterhouse has been dedicated to Andrews Wood since 1974 – 50 years!  Gordon’s love for Andrews Wood is well known across the Reserves Team and volunteers.  He knows every nook and cranny and has introduced many children and adults to its delights through Wildlife Watch clubs and guided walks, as well as caring for it through many practical conservation tasks. Gordon is also an accomplished botanist, which he has used to help identify key species at the site. Gordon is truly a part of DWT and Andrews Wood, and we would be adrift without him. His kindness and encouragement has been an incredible inspiration to staff and volunteers. For all of this, and much more, we have given him a special award to recognise his 50 years, with our thanks.