Working in the woods – what it’s like to be a woodland trainee
February 20, 2023
In 2021 we recruited our first woodland trainee at Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust to help address the shortage of young people coming into the forestry sector. Now we’re helping new trainee Chloe follow her dream of becoming an arborist.
As part of our #YouthTakeover Chloe shared some highlights of working with the woodland team at YDMT.
YDMT are helping me to follow my dreams of becoming an Arborist! As part of the woodland trainee role YDMT are providing me with the opportunity to study a level 3 certificate in arboriculture, with a hope to secure practical chainsaw training certificates by the middle of next year.
Chloe has recently completed a tree climbing course and next will be aerial rescue
One of the best days I’ve had at YDMT so far was veteran tree identification training with Venessa from the Woodland Trust. Learning how to identify and record ancient and veteran trees. Anyone can add records to the database and we definitely need more people to record these precious trees.
Go to the Woodland Trust website https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ and follow the instructions there to add to the database. It’s very important that we start to record these trees, so we can help protect them and the species that rely on them in the future.
Community Tree Nurseries
Here at YDMT we are in the process of starting a community tree nursery. As the woodland trainee I have had the opportunity to help create and run community seed collection walks and germination tray building workshops.
With support from local climate action groups, we successfully collected and started to stratify locally sourced tree seed. We have chosen to source local seed so we can help support the DNA in this area, along with securing and supporting a strong range of bio-diverse plants and animals.
This project will run for the next 2 years, so keep your eyes peeled next autumn for our workshops.
Plastic free woodlands
As part of my woodland trainee role, I’ve been helping the team to remove and recycle old plastic tree guards!
During my first 8 weeks at YDMT I was involved in surveying the 10 plastic free sites we are trialling. On these sites we are trialling a combination of no-guard and stock fencing, cardboard and bio-plastic guards.
Alongside this – I had the opportunity to be a part of the ‘Plastics – Trees and Woodlands’ conference in Leeds in November. YDMT created the Forest Plastics Working Group, and we feel incredibly grateful to help pave the way to reducing plastic waste in the Yorkshire dales national park.
As someone who had no previous experience in the environmental sector, I encourage anyone thinking of applying for a job to just go for it – even if you don’t think you’ve got enough experience. You’ll never know unless you try!
Find out more about our woodland work here.
