Joey interviews Steve Wiltshire, ecologist at Protect Earth
TMD’s Marketing & Research Officer Joey interviews Steve Wiltshire about his life in conservation. Steve is an ecologist at Protect Earth, a charity dedicated to mitigating the effects of climate change by planting trees across the UK.
Who are you and what’s your role at Protect Earth?
I’m Steve Wiltshire and I’m an ecologist at Protect Earth. My job is to advise landowners on what trees they should be plant and how to manage habitat in order to maximize their site’s usefulness for wildlife.
How did you come to be interested in conservation?
I was lucky enough to grow up in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere. My parents, particularly my dad, got me into wildlife and the natural world, birds etc.
That's why I'm keen on things like Forest School. What kids get inspired by at that young age sticks with them for the rest of their life, and so getting kids out into the countryside and engaging with wildlife early on is really important.
Is that something you bring into your role at Protect Earth? Do you work with schools and youth groups?
Yes. Protect Earth own a woodland in Cornwall called Highwood. We’re in the process of restoring the site to native broadleaf woodland, and as we do, we can use it for school visits, Forest School, community groups and things like that.
Did you study ecology when you left school?
I've always wanted to work in conservation, so basically spent my whole life going in that direction. I went to university, and then following my degree went on to volunteer for a long time with the RSPB. I worked for free for a long time, just to learn the trade and the skills that you need.
Eventually someone gave me my first job. Once you get a foot in the door you can work your way up. Over the last 15 years I’ve worked for the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts and Natural England. But a lot of people want to work in nature conservation – it's quite hard to get started.
What kind of skills do you need to work in conservation?
Firstly, learn how to identify different plants, birds and animals. Then understand how to manage habitat to get the best out of it for wildlife – be that with machinery and tools or using livestock to graze different habitats.
Much of my volunteering was learning things like: how to use a chainsaw; drive a tractor; look after cows and sheep… It’s a huge spectrum of knowledge you need.
And presumably the knowledge you draw on changes depending on where you are in the country?
Exactly. Different types of habitat need to be looked after in very different ways. I’ve spent time working in East Anglia on large reedbeds and areas of wet grassland. Then on heathland projects in southern England and woodland work elsewhere – there’s always more to learn.
So, yeah, it just depends. Some conservationists and ecologists specialize in particular habitats and others perhaps have a broad knowledge of various habitats.
What are you most proud of in your working life?
Working in nature conservation, you would think that the best part of the job is protecting the habitat that we've got left. In actual fact, what I'm most proud of is habitat creation.
For example, if you drive through the English countryside, you'll see lots of green fields. Perhaps surprisingly, these fields are not particularly biodiverse and not very good for wildlife. Those fields might contain just two or three grass species, for example.
Taking nature depleted land like that and turning it into really good habitat for wildlife – something like a wildflower meadow, woodland, wet grassland or reedbed – is the aspect of nature conservation I’m most proud of.
Have you seen any wildlife in habitat you’ve created that wouldn’t have been there otherwise?
Of course! I worked on a nature reserve in East Anglia which used to be a carrot field, essentially. Over the course of 10 years, it was turned into a reedbed and we saw all sorts of wildlife move in – cranes, bitterns and bearded tits. It was fantastic.
Is there any single issue within conservation that you think deserves more attention?
No question about it, it's climate change. It's the one thing that will affect all of our lives, affects all wildlife, and which we're doing nowhere near enough about as a society.
We've been having a lot of extreme heat in the UK this summer. How has the heat been affecting the work of Protect Earth?
It's been a big problem in terms of trees dying. You expect to lose a certain number of trees in a typical year, but the dry conditions have meant that more of the trees that we planted last year have died.
We've even had to actively water some of the most vulnerable trees, which is a heck of a job – thousands and thousands of trees, and in some cases using buckets to try to get some water on them.
Going forward, we're going to have to start planting tree species that can tolerate long periods of drought. The trees we plant today need to be able to cope with the conditions in 50 years, 100 years, 150 years’ time, when the summers will be much hotter and drier.
And I’m assuming a changed habitat has a knock-on effect on the kind of wildlife that can thrive?
Yes. For example, there are birds more typically associated with the Mediterranean, called bee-eaters, nesting in Norfolk this year. And it seems more and more Mediterranean bird species are shifting north as the climate becomes uninhabitable for them in southern Europe.
Some conservationists have started to advocate that we plant tree species of the kind currently found in Portugal and Spain, in preparation for the arrival of birds from places like Iberia.
But it is not necessarily good news, because although we gain new species, we will also begin to lose others that cannot adapt to Britain’s rapidly changing climate.
That’s interesting – to me, conservation is about removing human interference from the natural world, however this suggests that you can’t really remove humans from the equation. How do you think conservation works best?
There are kind of two main schools of thought within conservation.
One school is rewilding, which says that humans should take a backseat and leave nature to do what it wants. At most, this camp might want to reintroduce species that have gone extinct – such as large herbivores and predators – because they drive habitats and ecosystems. But basically, leave it alone.
I come from a more conventional school of thought which is more species driven. For example, I was talking about reedbeds earlier – we created and managed our reedbed to make it the best possible habitat for bitterns, those fascinating and rare herons. If we hadn’t have actively managed the habitat – cut the scrub and manipulated the water levels – we would’ve had no bitterns.
The answer for me is there’s a place for both. We need to be rewilding, and we need to be managing habitats, too.
Does Protect Earth have any exciting upcoming projects?
Loads. We’re moving into planting season, which runs October through to March. We've got dozens of projects right across the country, and we’ll be planting thousands of trees.
An individual project that I'm most excited about is Highwood in Cornwall. It is Protect Earth’s own woodland that we can improve and manage to make it the best possible place for wildlife. Right now, it’s an old commercial conifer plantation. We’re going to begin the process of felling some of those trees over a number of years, and then replacing them with native woodland – which is much, much better for wildlife.
And finally, do you have a favourite bird?
If I had to pick, I’d choose a bird called a hobby. It’s a small migratory falcon which spends the winter in Botswana and Zimbabwe, and then in the spring it migrates all the way back to Britain. It preys on swifts and swallows and house martins, so it’s really fast in flight. I just think they're absolutely spectacular.
Have you seen any at Highwood?
Yes, I've seen a hobby down in Highwood. I've also seen red kites, buzzards and sparrowhawks too. It’s a great place for all sorts of wildlife – and it’s only going to get better.
This piece originally appeared on Protect Earth’s website, to introduce Steve to the charity’s wider stakeholder base. To discuss how we can help you improve your communications, get in touch.
