The value of volunteering to both the recipient organisation and the individual really can’t be underestimated and this is particularly true in conservation. I can say this with confidence having been volunteering for over three years now for the RSPB, BTO and now Curlew Action.
The benefits can be enormous. For example the RSPB enjoys the support of 13,000 volunteers who undertake 18,000 roles across the RSPB and make up 83% of their workforce. These volunteers give them the gift of time equivalent to more than a million hours annually and without whom their crucial conservation work would be financially and logistically nigh on impossible. The benefits can be even greater for the volunteer. The right match can help you to find friends, connect with the community, learn new skills, and even advance your career. Giving to others can also help protect your mental and physical health. It can reduce stress, combat depression, keep you mentally stimulated, and provide a sense of purpose. In the conservation sector there are a whole raft of volunteering opportunities, from the simple hour long Big Garden Bird Watch, to hands on habitat restoration, all the way to residential volunteering internships for those looking at a more full-on experience and thinking about a career in conservation. There are opportunities in every sector and the following just highlights a few. Volunteering opportunities in marine conservation include beach cleans, surveying marine wildlife such as seabirds and many projects protecting coastal habitats. Helping plant seagrass meadows, is one example of this. Citizen science volunteering for wildlife surveys involves data collection and monitoring projects and they provide vital resources for measuring species
population trends. There are so many of these ongoing all across the UK and can include bird, reptile and amphibian, butterfly, moth and bat counts. They are great fun to do and you get a real sense of satisfaction knowing that you are helping to monitor your local wildlife.
This citizen science not only provides the organisations with data collection on a scale that would be impossible to fund annually, the volunteers benefit too by developing an understanding of UK wildlife and ecosystems while at the same time increasing their species identification skills. I have learnt so much doing these and have spent many hours counting and monitoring breeding birds, wetland birds and waders, including of course curlews and over wintering visitors like Brent geese.
As a Curlew Action ambassador it’s so important for me to be able to help monitor these threatened birds as well of course as the many others that are struggling to survive. Habitat management volunteering is another vital area and involves hands on practical work such as tree planting, invasive species removal and habitat restoration and is absolutely critical for improving biodiversity and maintaining the health of ecosystems. Volunteers work in woodlands, heathlands, wetlands, or coastal areas and can provide much larger work parties than any charitable organisation could afford to employ at any one time, whilst at the same time learning how to manage different habitats for wildlife. Again I have first hand experience of this having recently done two shifts of habitat restoration on an important island nesting site in the middle of a coastal nature reserve. It’s hard work but hugely rewarding, and you get to spend time with a group of lovely like minded people, so there’s definitely a social element to it too.
Many conservation organisations in the UK offer volunteering roles that focus on environmental education. These roles involve working with schools, youth groups, and the public to raise awareness of wildlife, environmental issues and sustainability. This is an area where Curlew Action excels. Members of the Curlew Action team regularly give talks about Curlew conservation and wider natural history education. You can watch their conservation webinar series, ‘Conservation: lessons from the Curlew’. All recordings and summaries can be found here.
If you would like a Curlew Action team member to give a talk to a school, group or organisation please get in touch! Likewise, if you are looking to give your own Curlew talk and would like some resources. As a Curlew Action ambassador I also volunteer my time to help raise awareness of the plight of the curlew through social media, highlight the work that Curlew Action is doing, attending and helping out at events, providing marketing material, images for the website and writing blog posts like this. Just another example of the
many different forms that volunteering can take.
So for me volunteering is an absolute joy. To be able to give some of my time, in what ever way I can and feel as though I am making a difference however small or large, is just heart warming. If you’ve ever thought about giving it a go I can’t recommend it enough, it will definitely make you feel warm and fuzzy inside and I guarantee you will get hooked. I started as a volunteer site ranger, doing a weekly patrol at RSPB Pagham Harbour. My role is engaging with the public, making sure they enjoy their time at the reserve by chatting about the wildlife and raising awareness about how we are trying to protect it at sensitive breeding times and over wintering times.
Before I knew it, I was helping out with bird surveys, winter wader counts and breeding bird surveys in the spring and early summer. I then signed up for a wetland bird survey for the BTO where I monitor over wintering birds on a designated patch local to me. This I do between October and March. Like I said, once you start, you will want to do more. When you spend time doing this it raises your awareness about the perilous position of much of our wildlife, you learn so much and in particular I got hooked on curlews. Sitting watching the sun go down listening to curlews over a salt marsh, well it just doesn’t get any better than that for me. The call of a curlew is one of natures greatest sounds and that is how my journey to becoming a Curlew Action ambassador began and it’s a privilege to be able to help this brilliant organisation try to save this brilliant bird.
So, yeah, volunteering…I love it!
About the Steve Woodard:
As an amateur photographer I am passionate about bird photography. I’m also passionate about conservation, in particular the protection of threatened species and their habitats.
I am a volunteer RSPB Species Protection ranger, a volunteer BTO surveyor and I am now so excited to be an ambassador for Curlew Action. For me there is no better sound in nature than the call of a curlew. To have the opportunity to work with Curlew Action to help save these stunning, iconic birds is an absolute joy.