A most interesting piece, Ruth. Thank you for thinking of sharing your thoughts on conservation volunteering’s early days and on where it may be nowadays. Having just been at the CNP conference, I am following up a few leads, including your valuable policy contributions. My chosen return train ticket allowed ample time in Haywards Heath Waitrose cafe... ro read diligently the 'National Parks Health Check Report Nature Recovery Executive Summary', to give its full title. Very welll done. I wonder will it have been closely read by a new Government minister? Personally, I am also concerned about what Sarah Hardy told me was a structural hole in governance: Defra’s land management scheme and the ‘countryside’ work of local authorities throughout England, especially outside the protected landscapes, are independent of one another. My first dive into conservation volunteering was theoretical, having chosen to work in Gwynedd CC, where I wrote a brief guide to volunteering, and made a couple of short films to encourage volunteering, one for the agents, one for volunteers. They accompanied a talk I gave to the 1976 AGM of CPRW, chaired by the veteran radio broadcaster Wynford Vaughan-Thomas! In summer 1977, I passed a week’s holiday leading a National Trust young volunteers project in a woodland on he borders of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire. They averaged 19, I 33. Your article title and its cover photograph both resonated with me. They would, having attempted to manage the Gwyned countryside service - foolishly slipping away before moving to the post of DNPO, and similarly for Peak Park. Eagar (sic) means form, structure, organisation in the Irish language. Having discovered these Stories of Coexistence, I shall certainly read more of yours. Do you know about the climate play I wrote, back in 2006? Not performed, and yet...
Very interesting potted history of conservation volunteering in the UK! My first experience of conservation volunteering was, like yours, on a National Trust working holiday in the 1980s, I was helping build a footpath in the north of England at Styal Woods.
A most interesting piece, Ruth. Thank you for thinking of sharing your thoughts on conservation volunteering’s early days and on where it may be nowadays. Having just been at the CNP conference, I am following up a few leads, including your valuable policy contributions. My chosen return train ticket allowed ample time in Haywards Heath Waitrose cafe... ro read diligently the 'National Parks Health Check Report Nature Recovery Executive Summary', to give its full title. Very welll done. I wonder will it have been closely read by a new Government minister? Personally, I am also concerned about what Sarah Hardy told me was a structural hole in governance: Defra’s land management scheme and the ‘countryside’ work of local authorities throughout England, especially outside the protected landscapes, are independent of one another. My first dive into conservation volunteering was theoretical, having chosen to work in Gwynedd CC, where I wrote a brief guide to volunteering, and made a couple of short films to encourage volunteering, one for the agents, one for volunteers. They accompanied a talk I gave to the 1976 AGM of CPRW, chaired by the veteran radio broadcaster Wynford Vaughan-Thomas! In summer 1977, I passed a week’s holiday leading a National Trust young volunteers project in a woodland on he borders of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire. They averaged 19, I 33. Your article title and its cover photograph both resonated with me. They would, having attempted to manage the Gwyned countryside service - foolishly slipping away before moving to the post of DNPO, and similarly for Peak Park. Eagar (sic) means form, structure, organisation in the Irish language. Having discovered these Stories of Coexistence, I shall certainly read more of yours. Do you know about the climate play I wrote, back in 2006? Not performed, and yet...
Very interesting potted history of conservation volunteering in the UK! My first experience of conservation volunteering was, like yours, on a National Trust working holiday in the 1980s, I was helping build a footpath in the north of England at Styal Woods.
Those NT working holidays were great. It's such a shame that neither they nor TCV run anything similar now.
Great piece. It was read out loud to the volunteers today 😀
Wow! That's good to hear. Hope they enjoyed it.