toby-wilson_1_02-15-2024_101138

The speaker has worked for the RSPB for 17 years and always wanted to work for them. They started in conservation groups in school and did environmental management at university. They worked in policy and environmental policy before finally getting a job as a conservation officer with the RSPB. They currently manage a small team and are involved in planning casework, major projects, and overseeing nature reserves. They also work on partnerships and manage invasive species on seabird islands. They are passionate about their job and feel lucky to be doing it. Breathing. Try. Try. Breathe. Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you. Yeah, that was great. Of course. That was great. No, that sounds good. That sounds good. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Well, I... So, I've worked for the RSPB for 17 years, so I've done a fair innings in it, and actually, by and large, people stay with the RSPB. I'm certainly not the only one. I had pretty much, probably actually from the age of six or seven, wants to work for the RSPB. So, you know, very young, always had this idea. I used to go to RSPB reserves, and I had my godfather as a great inspiration for me. So, I kind of... Which made it kind of easier, because it was my career, because I always had this goal of, you know, where I wanted to end up. And so, when I was at school, I was in conservation groups, and then at university. I did environmental management at university, but I did a lot around the conservation side. I volunteered as well during that period. Then I... As you probably know, conservation jobs are quite hard to get into. So, I... You know, almost you have to go for the job, and then build your way, build your kind of experience. So, I went for... I worked with English Nature, which is... Was the equivalent of NatureScot down in England. So, it's now English Nature, now Natural England. So, that was my first job out of university. That was on the kind of policy side. And then I worked... Moved up to Scotland, and worked for a local authority as their... Again, their environmental policy officer. And I don't... Which I enjoyed, and I thought it was really important. Clearly, environmental policy is good, but it was quite detached from the delivery side of it. So, you know, you have to be aware that you're changing words, and hoping that further down the line, that will have a difference on the ground. Whereas, I wanted to get a bit closer to the action, in a way. And I'd always wanted to work for the RSPB. So, conservation officer job came up with the RSPB. And, yeah, and it's, you know, ever since. And then I kind of got promoted to a senior conservation officer. And that's what I do. So, yeah, it's been a kind of long career in it. And, I mean, I'll kind of go on to say what I do currently, but it's been very much a kind of a dream job. And it still feels like that. I feel very lucky in that respect. I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. Looking forward, I hope he would feel that this was where he wanted to go. So that's good. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And we lived on, we were very lucky growing up. We lived on the, literally on the edge of this common, almost like a big park called the Westwood. And that was wonderful. You know, it was very idyllic. We were kind of running around there. And it was almost like an extension of our garden. But, so that was lovely. And then, yes, we'd go out. My dad and, as I say, my godfather were very kind of encouraging us. And we'd go out to nature reserves and walk around with my pair of boots, binoculars. I think they were my first pair of binoculars. So, yeah, it was great. And then there's a couple of lovely RSPB reserves fairly near where I lived, in a place called Beverley, down in Yorkshire. One of them being, absolutely, if you ever get a chance, I mean, just, you don't, it's one of these places you don't have to be into birding to enjoy. It's called Benton Cliffs, which is these wonderful chalk cliffs, you know, huge, just towering chalk cliffs. And they're stunning from a landscape perspective. But during the breeding season, so come April, May, they get huge colonies of seabirds, including a massive gannet tree. So, you know, these amazing gannets, the biggest inland or land-based gannet tree in the UK. And it's just a spectacular sight. So, yeah, awe-inspiring. Yeah, well, I'm really lucky in that it covers a wide range of RSPB's work. So, I'm based in our Central Scotland team, but my work involves everything. I wear kind of a lot of different hats in some respects from RSPB. I manage a small team, but kind of some of the work I'm involved in ranges from planning casework. So, you know, if there's major developments that might have an impact on priority habitats or species, RSPB will respond and try and steer that development to avoid some of the worst impacts and sometimes even, you know, deliver benefits. So, we're currently involved in some fairly big projects like the Grangemouth Flood Protection Scheme. You know, we're involved in looking at that and, I suppose, trying to influence it to, as I say, avoid some of the most damaging elements of it. That's part of my job. I work on – lead on some of our major projects in the area. So, a couple we've looked at. You know, one big one that I've been working on recently is a big managed realignment where we're – and a managed realignment just, you know, I suppose a snapshot is where essentially you're breaching an existing flood embankment to allow an estuary or the sea to flood an area. We're delivering it for habitat reasons in a way, but it's a climate adaptation. So, that's at Inchburyton, which is a site just next to Clackmannan, and we'll be looking to create, I suppose, anything from 75 hectares to 150 hectares of new intertidal habitat. So, really, it's kind of nationally important. Another part of my work is I work on partnerships like this and kind of influencing partners or working with other partners on projects. And then a final part is I essentially kind of have oversight of six of our nature reserves, which we have our – one of Barron's Wharves is near Motherwell, but we have what we call our fourth reserves, and four of them are kind of on the fourth itself. Our reserve at Skinflats, which is largely intertidal, that's just next to, I suppose, Aire, would be the nearest village to that, or Skinflats itself. Black Devon Wetlands, which is just next to Allowa, and that's a wetland site. It's just next to the fourth, but separated by a big kind of seawall or a flood embankment, and that's, as I say, a wetland site, very much a site we promote for visitors in the area. That's where we kind of steer visitors to see wildlife, and it's got a viewing screen and so on, and nice footpaths and dipping platforms and so on. And then we also have two seabird islands within the fourth of Inchmickery, which is just next to the fourth rail bridge. I'm saying you can see it from the rail bridge, and we get to that from Port Edgar Marina. And we have another, and it's also amazing as well, because as well as being a seabird island, it has this fantastic World War I and World War II gun emplacement. I don't know if you've seen this, but it's just amazing kind of from its historical perspective as well. And then we have another island called Fidra, which is out near North Berwick and kind of just a bit further out on kind of more outer fourth, and that's on the kind of chain of islands linked from Bass Rock being the biggest kind of iconic one, and then there's a number of smaller islands, and that's again a seabird island. So I have, again, I have management of that as well. I manage wardens who do a lot of the day-to-day stuff, but I'll be involved in getting funding for projects. We're just organising tomorrow, we've got Stirling University coming out to do some fish monitoring. On Monday, we're going and taking a trip out to remove invasive species on Inchmickery. So that's Elder that could potentially take over the islands and make it hard for ground nesters to move. So things like that. Yeah, it's a very varied portfolio, I suppose, I cover, but all the more exciting with that in mind. It's just Elder as in kind of the Elder, the shrub, really. And the two on both Fidra and Inchmickery have some of an issue with something called treemallow, which is this, we would class as more of an invasive plant, which is brought onto the islands and it grows very densely and it's quite tall kind of plant. It's not a tree, but it's a kind of, but what happens is it takes over, and normally the seabirds would kind of nest on these islands, they would essentially nest on the ground in open habitat. And the troglodytes with treemallow, it just swamps it and kind of covers up all those areas and puffin burrows, it covers them up and makes it very difficult for the puffins to kind of fly in. And so some of our time, particularly on the islands, our main, I suppose, management work would be removing treemallow, which unfortunately has a lot, it seeds very easily, so you have to keep at it to kind of reduce that. When we're getting there, you know, it's been a long time, but we're seeing it significantly reduced and the birds bouncing back. So that's one of the things. And then elder, you know, is in a way a kind of native plant, but the troglodyte has the same effect as well as if unchecked, it will then grow up and spread again across, this is in Ijmiquiri particularly, and will spread into these open areas and make it, again, it's harder, swamp them and make it harder for the seabirds to kind of get and nest on the island. So it's really a kind of ongoing thing. And the other thing we have on both islands, and really indeed in any island, invasive is always an issue is we check for invasive species, invasive predatory species, particularly the risky on both these islands is rats, but it could be mink, it could be a number of things. And that's obviously, if they get onto the islands, they'll eat, you know, chicks and eggs and have really significant impacts as well. So that's, again, we have what we call bait stations put around the islands. So when we go out there, largely when we go and do the habitat work, we'll also then do a check to see, and the bait stations allow us to see whether essentially they're little blocks of cocoa, wax with cocoa, and the rats come along. And if there's a rat there, you know, we can check for signs of rats. And then if there are signs, we can look at doing more eradication. So we haven't had any recently. So, but yeah, it's a big issue if they do get on. Historically, yes. Sometimes it's people come along. Sometimes it's, I mean, across the whole island suite, it can be a range of things. Sometimes it's wrecks, you know, where say a yacht has wrecked on the ship and it's got mice or rats that kind of swim off from that. Sometimes, as I say, people just bring them on and they don't realise it. It tends to be on both those islands, you know, rats it's less likely to be a kind of an intact vessel because they just don't have the anchorage to take, you know, something that would hold a rat, possibly amphidra. But yes, and they can swim, rats can swim some distance as well. So even if it's not a boat visiting Fidra or Inchmickery, specifically, if they land nearby and they can kind of within swimming distance, then that can be an issue as well. So we're always, and that's just, I mean, that's just kind of rats. And I mean, rats predominantly, it's probably mink as well can be an issue. But, you know, there's a range of species we really don't want, would be bad news if they get on all islands. Yeah, that's a good question. I suppose three things, I suppose, particularly, one of them is adapting to climate change and potential sea level rise, which could have an issue. The key habitat for us, particularly on the Inner Forth is, and for what it's actually designated. So we have the Firth and Forth SPA, the Special Protection Area, which is essentially designation for its internationally important wintering wildfowl and waders. And they use the mudflats really, mudflats and saltmarsh, this kind of intertidal habitat. And the issue with climate change from that perspective is kind of fairly well known, is as with sea level rise, potentially could cause coastal squeeze. So whereby, essentially, the mudflats and the saltmarsh get covered up as the sea level rises, and there's nowhere for them to go up the way. They're hitting hard engineering and embankments, and there's not an area where they can move to. So that habitat is lost, essentially. So that's the kind of issue for us. Again, climate change potentially having some significant impacts and really kind of worrying impacts on our seabird colonies. And that's particularly to do with sand eels, movements of sand eels, and warming waters potentially could move, sand eels being a major prey of many of our seabirds, a real kind of staple, particularly things like puffins, you'll see them with their beaks full of sand eels. And as the sea temperatures warm, essentially the sand eels, which are so part of that kind of marine ecosystem, then move with that. And if that gets out of kilter with things like breeding seasons and food availability, that can potentially have really devastating impacts. And there's signs that potentially it is on, particularly Kittiwake numbers. It's a wonderful, beautiful little seabird. That's already having impacts on now. So really concerned in terms of that kind of climate change impact. So I would say probably that's, you know, that's a crucial one on the fourth. Another thing that is increasingly we're seeing, and we talked about dogs earlier, is disturbance. So every bird needs to an extent an undisturbed time to feed, kind of low rest up and to breed. And again, on some of our estuary sites increasingly, particularly kind of our urban estuary sites like the fourth, where there's lots of people around it, we're seeing increased recreation, which is brilliant, you know, in many respects that's what's to be encouraged. But if we have these areas where people are walking their dogs and walking their dogs off the lead at important times a year, that disturbance to our, you know, the wildlife, all species in a way, you know, we're talking about birds, I suppose, specifically, but that could be seals or anything. If they kind of constantly get flushed and constantly get moved off, those sites will be lost to them essentially functionally. And that's a real issue, something where there's areas where that's become a real problem. And we're looking at how we can manage it. It's difficult to manage it. You know, it's, again, whilst granting people access and, you know, and to enjoy our environment. So that's probably the kind of second one. And I think really the third one, I suppose, is to do with our, it's kind of linked to the second one, but it's to do with our kind of development of the fourth, how we major developments that might have an impact on it and on the fourth. And sometimes that can be risks of pollution, risks of habitat loss, actual kind of loss of mudflats. Sometimes it can be those developments are kind of, again, focusing disturbance. Sometimes it can be, particularly on the outer fourth, you'll be well aware of some of the issues we have with wind farms, huge wind farms coming on. And if they're in sensitive areas, and particularly it tends to be areas where birds are moving from big seabird colonies to areas where they fish or where the feeding areas, and you get wind farm in the middle of that, and there's that risk of the birds loss. So I suppose that's the kind of third one would be, you know, the various development pressures on the fourth. And that's kind of running from the inner fourth all the way out to the kind of far estuary, sorry, far end of the fourth itself. I think so, yes, definitely. I think, you know, one of the ways that partnership work is, there's two things that I think are really of value. Firstly, as a forum, just to talk, to find out who's doing what, and make those connections and, you know, know who to speak to, a semi-friendly face where you can say, oh, you know, we chatted in the fourth estuary forum. We're looking at this piece of work. Would you be interested in joining us? Or can you give us access to this? Or, you know, all those things. And I think that is at a very basic level, just absolutely core, knowing who's who, knowing kind of what everyone's up to. So you can then go and use those contacts and hopefully, you know, make something that works collectively. I think the other thing is where, and it moves on, kind of extends that really into another level, is where you actually have joint projects that are overseen by, say, the forum as an entity, and they're bought into. So, you know, it's run by the forum. Everyone is contributing either in time or money into a wider project that is, again, kind of stronger by being, having its parts, this whole is stronger than the individual parts. And I think that it works well, you know, something like the fourth estuary forum. I think one of the strengths I see in it is not just having conservation organisations there, you know, it's kind of breaking that echo chamber a little bit. We kind of know by and large who to speak to in the other conservation organisations, but having members like the fourth ports there, or, you know, the Yossing Association. And I think it enables us to then say, okay, you know, let's have something that takes into account everyone's collective, I mean, you know, collective remits in a way, or industries. And I think if you can get a project that really takes that into account, it's hard, obviously, because it's easier to have a project just as focused on one sector, I suppose. But if you have a multi-sector one, it's all the stronger. And I think from a perspective of funders or, you know, legislators, decision makers, having a body that says we're not speaking just for conservation, we're speaking for, you know, a collective that represents all of the fourth interests. I think that makes it a really strong voice. So I think, yeah, that would probably be the two things I think that the forum would be really, and then, yeah, yeah. I mean, then, obviously, kind of information sharing and publicity is always good for that. But they kind of stem, I think, from those two things, I would think. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And it's great, and I'm very lucky to be able to kind of do my passion as part of my job, you know, which is extremely, I kind of often will be sitting there kind of thinking, this is my work where I would be doing this happily from a kind of recreational perspective. So, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I live over in near Glasgow in Bears Den, so it's not my obvious local stocking patch, but it's, you know, an hour, well, 50 minutes to get to the fourth. And it's brilliant. I mean, it's a, and the fourth, interesting, particularly the inner fourth is really, from a bird watching or naturalist perspective, is really underused or underpromoted. I would say we've got, it's an amazing site, literally thousands of wintering wildfowl and waders. And we've got probably one, well, we've got one viewing screen in the whole of the inner fourth in terms of getting people to see this. Well, two, sorry, we've actually put up one at Skinnyflats now, so two viewing screens, but, you know, that's really limited. And so in terms of getting people out to do what we were talking about and what I do is, it's really not promoted. Whereas if you compare it to some of the other estuaries, I always think when you look at somewhere like the Solway and that's got a number of very much visitor-focused reserves, and we just don't have that in the inner fourth. I think that's kind of, we're missing it. And as we also know is if people don't see it and aren't involved in it, they don't necessarily appreciate or protect it. So I think the two have to go hand in hand. No, I think, I mean, I think it's great. One of the things I think it would be really useful, I see, we've talked about this in the past is inevitably there's lots of different projects and lots of different kind of initiatives going on. And sometimes we all as organizations find it difficult to get a sense of, you know, gosh, what's, are we missing something? You know, is there a really useful partnership or a piece of work that we just hear about in the last minute or we don't know how to access it. And so there's, you know, things like, you know, shoreline management plans or all these things. I think there's a lot of things going around, you know, the grains from app investment and how we access those or kind of getting almost a sense of like, you know, these are the dates or this is the consultation or this is how you enter in. I think it would be really useful. And again, something that I think the forum would be well set up to do is to give us that opportunity to say, okay, you know, this is going live at the moment or we're going for a big consultation on this. We think it might be relevant to you or this element of it. We'd really like thoughts on from, say, RSPB or, you know, RSPB equally is doing this thing. We'd like thoughts on from, you know, let's say the fourth port. And somehow having that, I think, would be, again, a really useful and kind of strong mechanism. Well, yes, yes, we have thought about it. And I think hopefully, yeah, he saw that as there would be a value to that as well.