Catrin's story so far as Nature's Recovery and Climate Change Trainee

One of our Nature's Recovery and Climate Change Trainee - Catrin reflects on why she decided to take on a traineeship and what the role has brought so far

It’s been a lifechanging three months, and I can’t wait for the next three.

My name is Catrin and I’m one of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s two Nature’s Recovery & Climate Change trainees. Before this traineeship, I didn’t have much of a background in conservation – I’ve been interested in wildlife all my life, but never really thought to do much with it. I’ve spent a fair part of my life in the great outdoors with my hobbies – rock climbing, scrambling, and walking in the hills, which provides a healthy dose of appreciation for nature.

Before applying for the traineeship I was more than a little lost, even if I hated to admit it at the time. I’d finished my undergraduate degree during summer of 2020 – wrote my dissertation alone in my childhood bedroom and missed out on all the fun my final term at uni had promised. So I decided to stay on for a year and study for a masters in Bioarchaeology.

And lockdowns continued. I moved home in the summer again. I wrote my thesis alone in my childhood bedroom…again. And then I started to apply for jobs without much idea of what I wanted.
I started working for a local organic farm that is involved in Radnorshire Wildlife Trust’s Green Connections project, writing online blogs about their summer events programme – completely by accident, but an accident that I’m eternally thankful for – Which led to me joining a Stand for Nature poetry workshop, where I learnt about the traineeship. I applied, and the rest is history.

The main takeaway from this is that you don’t have to have any idea what you want to do to be part of this: The only things important to have are curiosity and enthusiasm.

We’re now three months into a six-month traineeship and I am learning every single day.

No two days are the same – in the past three months, we’ve spent time learning practical skills like coppicing and scything, organized school visits to local primary schools, checking trail cameras, learnt about wildlife recording and the importance of record-keeping, searched for fungi and trapped moths, and on top of that learnt valuable personal skills through working as a member of a team, attended first aid and safeguarding courses, and spent time designing media for the Trust.

We’ve worked on the Wales-wide youth manifesto that went all the way to COP15, demanding change on behalf of Wales, wildlife, and the world.

My favourite thing over the past three months has to have been looking at trail camera footage from Pentwyn, identifying Muntjac and Roe deer, otters, and foxes. We also went for a walk around Pentwyn in the snow and ice to collect the footage, which was a really exciting walk around the reserve. As far as my best wildlife experience, it’s a tie between spotting a chilly slowworm in September curled up next to a Penny Bun mushroom in Gilfach, which soon livened up in the warmth of our hands; and counting waxcaps during the autumn and finally seeing my first ballerina waxcap the day before the frost arrived.

Over the course of the next three months, I’m hoping to learn how to use mapping software to complete our project to map the nest boxes on RWT reserves, and learn how to set up and complete breeding bird surveys. Beyond the steep learning curve, I’ve also really enjoyed my time in this traineeship and working with a really amazing team. It’s been a lifechanging three months, and I can’t wait for the next three.