Both my parents were very interested in the natural environment and as such were a great influence on me. My father retired from a career as an agricultural adviser working for the Ministry of Agriculture in the late 1970’s and almost immediately took on a role with the Suffolk Trust for Nature Conservation which later morphed into the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. He had an involvement in the purchase of some of the Trusts reserves such as Landguard Point, Bradfield Woods, Lackford Lakes, Groton Wood and the Fox Fritillary Meadow etc. I went with him to view these and to take photographs for him to use in his work. Picking up this interest in the natural environment I joined the Trust in the early 1980’s and have been a member ever since.

Whilst I was still at work and heavily involved in a local photographic society and the Royal Photographic Society, my time for the Trust was very limited. Upon retirement in late 2017 this all changed, and I contacted the Trust with a view to a volunteering role and was put in contact with Claire Rowan who asked me to co-host some of the Adult Learning Courses. This is a role that I particularly enjoy as I get to learn a lot and to meet a range and mixture of interesting people, including Hawk Honey, Giles Cawston and Paddy Shaw amongst others in some of Suffolk’s most beautiful locations.

In 2019 I was asked by Michael Strand to help in a small way with the Annual Photographic Competition where I identify the species represented in the photographs entered. In 2020 I was one of the judges for the competition. It is a privilege to view some excellent photographs of the natural world of Suffolk and the wider area.

One of the major highlights of my involvement with the Trust was meeting former Director Derek Moore OBE, a truly inspirational person.

During lockdown, my inability to get out into wild spaces was seriously, incredibly frustrating. I simply couldn’t wait to get out and about again. Since relaxation at the end of March, I have been out walking one or two Trust reserves a week, always documenting my visits with photographs. A walk in a wild space is wonderfully therapeutic, where I can lose myself in the wonder and beauty of the natural world and try and figure out some of the mysteries, such as: what is the evolutionary drive that creates a creature that can start life as one form in one environment and finish as a completely different form in a completely different environment?

The Trusts vision for a wilder Suffolk and connecting wild areas together with “wildlife corridors” is something I fully support. But I am seriously concerned about the hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land being swallowed up by housing, which is also catastrophically destroying even further the sustainability of our country. 

To find out more about volunteering with Suffolk Wildlife Trust, head to our volunteering page to browse the different opportunities available.

Volunteer with Suffolk Wildlife Trust