Hi, I am Emily, the latest University of Lincoln funded Assistant Conservation Officer placement student based in the Conservation Department of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust! Quite a mouthful, I know! I am so grateful to be carrying out this 3-month placement with the Trust and had a very busy couple of weeks already.

I have just finished my degree at the University of Lincoln in Ecology and Conservation, ready to graduate in September. I found out about this placement role through the university’s careers and employability team, and I am so I glad I did. After endless applications to jobs that required experience, it was so refreshing to come across a role that was created for the sole purpose of learning on the job from very skilled professionals, applying the knowledge and skills you learnt in your degree to real life conservation and gaining the experience that every other graduate role expects. 

I have always loved nature, animals and the general outdoors. Growing up in a household with a well-looked after garden (thanks to my family) made all the difference. Being able to look out the window and see hedgehogs on the grass, pipistrelle bats in and around the apple tree, birds in the bird bath and the massive variety of invertebrates buzzing around made me feel so calm, connected and at one with nature and wildlife. This is where my passion began, I realised that I never wanted to see the loss of this smorgasbord of life on earth and it became my mission to find a way to make a difference. I feel that this placement is opening the door for me to be able to do that.

I started on Monday 15 June 2026, with the two marine futures interns, for an induction day with Tammy Smalley, the Trust's Head of Conservation. On the Tuesday we went to do a site visit where we did a walkover of a beck and spotted a kingfisher! Then the highlight of the first week – The Lincolnshire Show. On the Wednesday and Thursday, myself and colleagues from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust manned a stand at the show that was celebrating 50 years of the shorebird sanctuary at Gibraltar point. I learnt lots about ringed plovers, little terns and oyster catchers all of whom nest on the reserve. The best part for me though was manning the infamous poo quiz! It was amazing to interact with the public of all different ages and testing them on how well they know their animal poo!

I, very cheekily, then had a week off where I explored the mountains of the Lake District (Helvellyn was very cold at the top) but came right back to the Trust's Headquarters, Banovallum House, the Monday after. This was a week of brushing up on plant identification skills in the gorgeous garden at Banovallum House, visiting an impressive woodland ran by Boston Woods Trust and learning what all the abbreviations used in the office are! (BNG, LNRS, HMMP etc…). 

The week of writing this blog extract began with scrambling along a VERY steep bank in Lincolnshire looking for the elusive Deptford Pink flowers. Unfortunately, only one was found so no e-DNA collection could be carried out. I got stung by an obscene number of nettles, but you know what? I wouldn’t change it for the world. 

I am so excited to see what I get up to in the coming days, weeks and months of my placement and I am so thankful to the lovely people at the Trust for welcoming me (and all of my questions) into their team.