Eilish Rothney, Warden 

 Chloe Gordon, County Wildlife Site Advisor 

Anne Simpson-Large, Deputy Reserves Manager  

Holly Nichols, Nature Reserves Monitoring Officer  

Eilish Rothney, Warden at Trinity Broads  

I grew up with scuffed knees and dirt in my hair captivated by contact with nature in the countryside around my home. When I was young there weren't many opportunities to work in conservation but the eureka moment for me was an ecology course as part of my A-level Biology at Flatford FSC (Field Studies Council). I was blown away by the beautiful interconnections between living (and non-living) things and I knew I had to find out more! 

Can you share a bit about your educational or professional background and how it prepared you for this role? Or anything else that helped you move into conservation? 

I chose Environmental Science at the University of Bradford, with a special option in Ecology. During my time there, I became particularly interested in sustainable agriculture, specifically pest control using natural predators and land management to promote natural systems. I then went on to do an MSc in Applied Entomology at the University of Newcastle.

Opportunities for work in this field were slim, so I ended up doing a variety of contracts for different organisations all involving wildlife and engagement. These included RSPB on protection of breeding black throated divers in Scotland and Development Officer for Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust. I worked for 6 years in Epping Forest as a Conservation Officer managing sites with inner city young people, I then moved to Norfolk in 1995 working as a Countryside Officer with the Broads Authority. The role for NWT in the Trinity Broads is my ideal job! 

What does your day-to-day work at NWT involve? 

Summer is a mixture of working with wonderful volunteers doing conservation management or out surveying aquatic plants, breeding birds and rare snails! Autumn is intense with meadow and reedbed management. Winter is spent more on scrub management, while in spring we limit the conservation activities to avoid disturbance to breeding wildlife and concentrate more on infrastructure repairs and improvements.  

As a woman in conservation, have you faced any unique challenges in your field? How did you overcome them? 

It has been rewarding watching changes in attitudes over the years to women working in conservation, but it has been painfully slow at times. Women can be considered less able and more vulnerable than their male counterparts. Things are better now, but I think there is still a long way to go to ensure there are no unfair assumptions made subconsciously.  

I always try to encourage my female volunteers to have a go at all tasks and have shown them how capable they are. We are just like biodiversity — our strength and sustainability as a society will be better the more diverse it is. 

What advice would you give to other women interested in pursuing a career in conservation? 

GO FOR IT! You have so much to offer and that includes bringing a different perspective and skill set. Get as much experience as you can with different roles and don’t be afraid of embracing the mechanical/machinery aspects of conservation management. We have some incredible competent young women in the Trust, and I am so proud of them. 

Chloe Gordon, County Wildlife Site Advisor 

I have always enjoyed spending time outdoors, been interested in nature and cared strongly about the environment. When I was younger I thought about becoming a vet but quickly ruled it out after shadowing a vet for a few days! It was probably during my time at university that I learnt more about conservation. 

Can you share a bit about your educational or professional background and how it prepared you for this role? Or anything else that helped you move into conservation? 

I studied biology and chose a number of conservation-related modules. I really enjoyed joining the local bat group and taking up random opportunities, such as a nightjar survey or slug identification workshop! After I graduated, I started volunteering regularly with my local Wildlife Trust whilst working part-time. I got the chance to survey dormice, bats, plants and birds and input survey data in the office. This helped me secure a 9-month lottery-funded traineeship on a nature reserve where I spent time with the reserve and education teams and completed three units of a Level 2 Diploma in Environmental Conservation. Once this finished, I went travelling for a couple of months and then returned to part-time work, volunteering and going out with the local flora group.  

Two years after graduating, I was offered my first job in conservation as an Adviser with Natural England working on agri-environment schemes and protected sites casework across Norfolk and Suffolk. I got lots of opportunities to learn and develop my skills including assisting with a variety of vegetation surveys, briefly managing a lottery funded project and learning about Catchment Sensitive Farming.  

In 2020, I moved to Derbyshire to take on a job as Nature Recovery Adviser with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. My main role involved monitoring Local/County Wildlife Sites and providing advice to landowners. This enabled me to improve my identification skills and knowledge of habitat management. 

In 2023, I returned to Norfolk to take up my current role as County Wildlife Sites Adviser with Norfolk Wildlife Trust. My degree provided a good foundation for my career but I think I gained the most useful experience by volunteering and being active in the local nature community. I was able to demonstrate my passion for conservation and eventually get my foot in the door! 

What does your day-to-day work at NWT involve? 

My job is to help monitor County Wildlife Sites. These are areas which are of county-level importance for the habitats and/or species they support. Advising landowners on how to manage their land to benefit nature is key to my role. I do a mixture of field work, visiting and surveying sites, and desk work, following up site visits and maintaining our records.  

Do you see a connection between empowering women and creating more sustainable environmental solutions? 

There is certainly a connection between empowering women and creating more sustainable environmental solutions. If more people feel they can make a difference, then there is a larger and more diverse pool of people from which to create and drive through environmental solutions.

What advice would you give to other women interested in pursuing a career in conservation? 

If you are interested in the conservation of nature and want to work with lots of nice people then I would recommend a career in this field! There are a whole variety of roles to choose from to match your skill set. It may take a while to get your first paid job in conservation but once you’re there it’s worth it! 

Anne Simpson-Large, Deputy Reserves Manager for West Norfolk 

My headteacher at Fakenham Junior School was David Stapleford, who is well known locally for his conservation work with red squirrels.  We learnt a lot about natural history at school, and I was in the winning inter-school Nature Quiz team when I was 8!

Can you share a bit about your educational or professional background and how it prepared you for this role? Or anything else that helped you move into conservation? 

I studied Geography at the University of Manchester, which is such a broad subject with so many career paths you can wander along.  In my final year I focused on ecology and the interactions between people and nature.  Sometimes I find information buried in my brain that is relevant to my job! 

For my work experience when I was 17, I went on a working holiday with the National Trust, which was my first experience of hands-on conservation work.  I volunteered during my university vacations and then undertook a series of full-time volunteer placements after I graduated – in Northern Ireland, Spain, Iceland, and Suffolk, so I got to travel as well.  I received formal training on chainsaws, brushcutters, tractors, quad bikes etc as part of this, which gave me the skills to get into paid work in conservation. 

What does your day-to-day work at NWT involve? 

I lead the West Norfolk team in delivering conservation work on our reserves. There’s a lot of repetitive hard, physical work in often challenging weather, but we get rewarded by some magical encounters with wildlife. I monitor a variety of our key species so we can keep a track of how they are doing and how our management work is affecting them. I also work with volunteers and engage with the public about our work.  

As a woman in conservation, have you faced any unique challenges in your field? How did you overcome them? 

I have encountered the perception that women are not capable of hard physical labour, which has led to missed opportunities in the past. However, I found that this attitude shifted quickly when people worked alongside me — and struggled to keep up!  It’s great to see more women are now working in conservation, but it has been a lot slower to happen than I would have expected. Until recently, I had only worked directly with two other women — in 20 years.  

What advice would you give to other women interested in pursuing a career in conservation? 

Don’t give up.  Conservation is difficult for anyone to get into, as you need to develop technical knowledge and skills in such contrasting areas, from the flowering parts of a sedge to the mechanics of a tractor.  It is one of those careers where you have to start with short term contracts that are sort-of-related to what you want to do, but that will give you the foundations to doing the job you dream of.  Volunteering is a great way to start getting the experience you need and can lead you towards more training and learning opportunities. 

Holly Nichols, Nature Reserves Monitoring Officer  

It seems cliché, but I have always been animal-mad! When I was a child, we had an allotment, and I was fascinated by the frogs. We regularly went to Rollesby Broad to see the birds, and I loved watching the bees and butterflies mooch around my parents' modest but spectacularly crafted, nature-centric garden! I would never miss a David Attenborough documentary, either, and tigers were my absolute favourite animal!  

It wasn’t until much later that I pursued a conservation career. I’d been unhappy in a former managerial role in hospitality, and I had taken some time away to travel in Asia. The exploitation of animals I’d witnessed really affected me but also inspired me to do some research and explore some options to retrain. I went back to college as a mature student and did an Access to Science Course at Lowestoft College with the end goal of getting to university. I booked onto a UEA Open Day to see what their BSc Ecology undergraduate degree was all about. I attended a bird-ringing taster session, heard all about the amazing overseas Field Courses they ran and learned that conservation is so much more than what I understood it to be. I was sold and I have never looked back!   

Can you share a bit about your educational or professional background and how it prepared you for this role? Or anything else that helped you move into conservation? 

During my undergraduate degree, I spent a lot of my free time volunteering for the RSPB and working as an Assistant Ecologist for a local Ecological Consultancy company. I used that time to improve my surveying skills for various species and worked towards my Level 2 Bat Class Licence. The experience I gained during this time has been invaluable in enabling me to develop and implement various parts of the Monitoring Programme so far. My academic work, especially time spent working with data, has prepared me for working with the many datasets we already have and are beginning to generate now.

During my time spent in hospitality, I developed many transferable skills that I am still able to draw upon in my current role at NWT. I think the convoluted and unconventional route I took to get where I am today has given me a huge amount of life experience and has given me the skills to be adaptable.  

What does your day-to-day work at NWT involve? 

My day-to-day role at NWT is varied! Currently, the focus is implementing the monitoring programme which involves a mixture of desk-based work and being out in the field with the reserves teams collecting data. I am developing new ways to digitise the way we collect information. I also spend time analysing data using coding software, which is a huge passion of mine.  

Recently, we trialled a new method of surveying fen orchids with the Broads South team supported by Plantlife and an expert botanist. Monitoring fen orchid currently takes many hours of work from the team and volunteers. I aim to reduce the amount of resources needed without compromising the quality of the data.  

As a woman in conservation, have you faced any unique challenges in your field? How did you overcome them? 

I feel lucky to have not faced any challenges due to my gender. During my academic career, I was surrounded by many talented and successful conservationists and felt hugely supported — as I still do at NWT.  

Do you see a connection between empowering women and creating more sustainable environmental solutions? 

The more women, and people in general, that we can inspire to act for nature is a positive. To quote Whitney Houston: ‘the children are our future’! The sooner we engage people, especially the new tech generation, the better.  

What advice would you give to other women interested in pursuing a career in conservation? 

Do it! It is never too late! Volunteer as much as possible anywhere you can – it's not only a potential foot in the door but you can learn a lot. Sometimes it can be overwhelming when it seems like we are faced with such a huge job of preserving nature and that a lot of what is happening is going against us, but we are on the right side of history fighting for something incredibly valuable.