Profile

I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to travel across the world with my bike, going bike packing across Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Arizona and Jordan, along with mountain biking in the Peak District. I love all things technic Lego and recreating forestry machines I see at work. I grew up in the Fens in Cambridgeshire before moving to North Wales to study forestry.

I help to manage a team of 16 foresters, tree surgeons, machine operators and workers. I oversee the firewood business which splits and dries timber into firewood. This is then delivered to customers across the Peak District and in nearby cities. I help to write the management plans for the woodlands on the Estate. These show which areas will be felled and what they will be replanted with, as well as identifying any areas with high biodiversity value or historic features.

I manage the tree planting across the Estate with around 100,000 trees being planted each year. These replace any trees we have felled, as well as areas where we are creating new woodlands.

I get to help on the tree surgery team on jobs, chipping waste timber and setting up traffic lights for roadside jobs.

I also do work in the office, applying for grants, and working with GIS to create maps and apps for the team to use.

Everyday in my job is different, which makes things really interesting! Sometimes I am based in the office, where I do admin work like filling in grant application forms, or help write management plans.

During the summer, I’m usually out and about completing tree surveys which involves visiting all the young trees (1-3 years old) and counting how many are alive and if any have died.

During the autumn and winter, I spend a lot of time planting trees and helping at the firewood yard, working on the firewood processor to create firewood.