Ahoy there!
I’m Catherine and I’m the new Natural Networks trainee based in Edinburgh. I’ll be working on the Living Landscape project with the City of Edinburgh Council. The Living Landscape programme involves a wide variety of organisations and projects and is a new way of undertaking land management which connects and improves green spaces. Edinburgh has 142 parks across the city, a large proportion of which are currently standard amenity grass (i.e. very boring short green grass!) and part of this project aims to make them a little bit more interesting for people and wildlife. The focus of my role as the Living Landscape Officer is to communicate the principles and practices of the living landscape to basically everyone and to engage and support local communities to get involved in their local green space.
Out and about
And so, how did I find myself a Natural Networks trainee? I have fond memories of tramping around the Kent countryside as a child, and a love for the landscapes of Scotland led to a relocation north, degrees in geography and environmental management and an intention never to leave. When I finally graduated I hadn’t a clue what to do next so I started volunteering with the National Trust for Scotland as a ranger. This swiftly led to a seasonal position and I spent two happy summers stomping around Culzean Country Park in deepest, darkest Ayrshire. As the saying goes ‘a ranger does a range of things’, so I spent my time taking kids rock pooling, leading volunteers in a spot of rhodie bashing, cleaning toilets, rescuing hedgehogs, surveying warblers at 6:30am, escaping a group of rampant zombies at Halloween…and that’s just the abridged version. It was a truly brilliant experience and I absolutely loved teaching kids (and some adults too!) about everything from how a tree grows to why birds sing.
So now I move onwards and upwards to a new and exciting challenge. Over the next year I am looking forward to working with lots of organisations and community groups and getting people using, maintaining and loving their local park. Edinburgh is incredibly lucky to have such a diverse range of spaces (including 6 LNRs and an extinct volcano or two) and I am really keen to help make them more attractive and get people using them and appreciating them for the brilliant resource that they are. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of visits – getting to know the green spaces of the city and the people who manage them and now I am itching to get stuck in. First stop: planting wildflower meadows with school children and then who knows where the year will take me!
Unique topiary in Saughton Park