As a result, I had unconventional holidays—like six weeks in the rainforest near a logging camp in Indonesia, where I played with a rescued baby orangutan, and Christmas on a three‑day train journey from Kenya to Sudan. My mum, Amanda (who a few of you know), worked as a teacher to fit in with holidays and school hours, but she also remained very active in conservation and has submitted many butterfly, bird, and wildflower survey records from the 1980s through to today. She passed her love of nature on to me, which was enhanced by my exposure to Asian and African wildlife through my dad. Other than that, I had a typical English village childhood.

In early adulthood, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I worked in shops, supermarkets, and warehouses. I eventually got very bored of British life and decided to go to Australia for a two‑year working holiday, backpacking around the country. While there, I met my Japanese wife, who was also on a working holiday. We got married at a backpackers’ hostel in Victoria, Australia, and when our visas ran out, we moved to Japan. I worked in Japan as an English teacher for seven years, during which time my son, Hanku, and daughter, Lily, were born. It took nine years out of the UK for me to get homesick, so in 2016 we moved back. Throughout my life, I had worked in various roles, but in Japan I realised that the one passion that had remained constant was my love of nature.

On returning to the UK, I started volunteering with BRCC and BCN Wildlife Trust. I then applied for the Volunteer Officer role, which I was lucky enough to get. I spent eight months of the nine‑month role learning from two exceptional Reserves Officers before getting a job as a Park Ranger at Ampthill Park, working for a local conservation charity, the Greensand Trust. The idea was for it to be a foot in the door to working in conservation. As many of you know, it can be hard to find work in the sector, and not many positions come up in your area. As a result, I ended up working at Ampthill Park for four years. I learned a lot there and gained many certifications, all of which are useful in the conservation sector.

After four years, my two colleagues moved on and I became the longest‑serving Ranger there, so I decided to be more serious about finding another job. As fate would have it, the Greensand Trust’s Eastern Ranger decided to move on at that same point, and I was offered his role. So, I spent the last four and a half years working solo, or with volunteers, managing Sandy Smith Nature Reserve, Maulden Heath and Duck End Nature Reserve, and getting Clophill Lakes set up for public opening. During that time, I organised and ran hedgelaying courses and tasks, laying over a kilometre of hedge in crop‑and‑pleach and South of England styles; installed around 3 km of stock fencing at Clophill Lakes; and planned and ran around 200 volunteer tasks, along with all the other standard site management and maintenance.

I’d always kept an eye out for WTBCN positions and had applied for several RO roles over the years, but I was lacking experience in reserve and livestock management—experience that I now have. So, finally—eight and a half years later—I achieved my employment goal of returning to BCN Wildlife Trust! I’m very glad to be back, and I am enjoying it immensely.

Outside of work, I enjoy carpentry and DIY, and for the last six years I’ve been volunteering at a parkour school in Bedford, Spiral Freerun, as their general maintenance and carpentry guy. I do things like replacing all the lighting with LEDs and designing and building multifunctional equipment for them. I was into gymnastics and martial arts as a kid, and I used to train in parkour, but lately my age—and the risk of injury—has made me stop training and focus on building things for them instead.

I’m autistic (Asperger’s) but wasn’t diagnosed until I was 38, so I grew up masking heavily. Generally, I’m the type who seems “normal” until you get to know me; then it becomes more obvious. ASD has helped me with creative problem‑solving, learning new things, and hyperfocusing at work, but overall it can be a pain.

I hope to have a long and illustrious career with The Wildlife Trusts and to leave my mark by preserving the habitats in our care—not just for future generations, but because they deserve to survive for their own sake. I look forward to working with you all, and learning from you.

Yours,
Jamie

Jamie will be providing regular blog updates about his work in Bedfordshire.