Calum McLennan

Hi, I’m Calum, an Ecology and Conservation Graduate with endless enthusiasm for wildlife and more.

 

Raised in Lancashire, I’ve enjoyed time with my family taking me on adventures to beautiful places, including mountain climbing in the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales with my Grandma from a young age, and numerous trips to RSPB Leighton Moss with my parents, along many other locations. I’m not sure if my love of nature grew from this, or if these trips were catered to my nagging childhood self already fascinated by the natural world. Whatever the case, my passion for natural sciences, and also local history, grew from these adventures. Hiking, rockpooling, ghyll scrambling, wild swimming, tree climbing, fossil hunting, and more. In particular, the coasts of Anglesey and Yorkshire, and mountains and woodlands of Cwm Idwal in Cymru (Wales) and the Lake District struck my imagination, though I always saw myself as a secret Scotsman.

 

By early Secondary School at St Augustine’s I gained a reputation as 'Moth Boy' because of my avid defence of moths not being just drab brown butterfly knock-offs, often citing the presence of elephant hawkmoths locally in my arguments. In moving to Stonyhurst College I became 'Plantman' for my interests. During my time at school I would also learn the trombone which I continued through school and college orchestras and brass bands until I went to university.

 

At Stonyhurst I sat my GCSE exams. 10 of them, where I achieved 9 in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, English Language, English Literature and 8 in Mathematics and Latin. During my time studying for GCSEs I was also awarded a gold medal for the Royal Society Biology’s British Biology Challenge, and, in my free time, continued my mountain climbing and other outdoor activities, which helped with completion of my Bronze DofE Award in the Forest of Bowland. I continued my interest in wildlife, with particular favour for small species such as those of the alpine peaks, with unique adaptations, along with a fascination in early diverging lineages such as clubmosses and lampreys, along with the marsupials and monotremes of Australia.

 

During the summer I volunteered with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust where I checked bird boxes, clearing out empty ones and recording chick numbers in occupied ones. I recorded plant species and coverage with quadrats, helping to give some identification tips to my supervisor, and I removed overgrowths of wall cotoneaster while climbing limestone cliffs.

 

Continuing into 6th form at Stonyhurst, I began A-levels in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Maths, along with an Extended Project Qualification. I came out of this during Covid with five A*s. During this time, I also gained gold medals in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge and in the British Biology Olympiad, after the latter of which I got invited to London to meet with other high-scorers (which I took as an opportunity to finally visit Kew Gardens after the event). I also utilised Stonyhurst’s extensive grounds during this period, making a retreat for myself in the adjacent woodland.

 

Following my first year of study for A-levels, over the summer I gained a volunteering role in the Old Chapel Museum at Stonyhurst where I was tasked with beginning documentation of the herbarium collection in storage there collected by botanist James Ward. I used my identification knowledge at this point to order what was present taxonomically. Following this, I was given the opportunity to attend a residential trip with the Field Studies council as one of their Young Darwin Scholars, where I met with a number of other young naturalists from all over the country, with various interests and specialisations. Here, along with learning many skills, I was introduced to iNaturalist, which became a large part of my learning from then on, and I have even used the site to set up an iNaturalist project of Spring Wood for Dr Sarah Robinson, lead officer in farming and protected landscapes at Forest of Bowland AONB.

 

Over the summer during 6th form, I also undertook my Gold DofE expedition, where I tasked myself to record and attempt to identify every species I could find en-route around Ullswater in the Lake District. I had designed the group’s route myself and also did the navigation during the expedition (along with a lot of cart-horsing luggage that the others struggled with) and attempted to keep up morale in the harsh conditions with singing. The species recording aim, with the help of iNaturalist users and the hand-lens I bought following the Young Darwin Scholar’s residential finally allowed me to start learning to identify the tiny species I had always been so fascinated with. Most notably, bryophytes, which I would spend much of my free time in my final year of college attempting to learn the taxonomy and identification of. Before this, I was limited to a small wildlife identification book which sold itself as a ‘Complete Guide’, leading to a few occasions where young me was convinced he had found a new species after coming across less frequently documented creatures such as Carabus nitens. 

In learning bryophyte identification on iNaturalist, I moved on from practicing with my own observation to attempting to help identify the observations of others, with the help of a top identifier on the site: George Greiff, who became something of my bryophyte mentor. I eventually made the 'Bryophytes of Europe' iNaturalist project, and began learning about bryophilous fungi from George.

 

During my final year of college I kept in touch with the curators of the Chapel Museum whom I had volunteered for, and learnt a lot from them about the local history of the grounds I was exploring for wildlife recording around Stonyhurst. I found a fascinating connection between people and the environment that heavily impacted the landscape on a local scale and much more widely. A Victorian naturalist’s documents from the museum revealed to me how much things had changed due to agricultural practices, and a 100 year-old forestry document revealed the industrial origins of even the broadleaf forests I previously saw as natural. It also revealed a change in how people saw nature. No longer just utility and vermin as it was then, many of us see nature in a much more Romantic light than our ancestors.

 

I continued to learn bryophyte identification, along with learning as much ecology as I could in the background of my A-level study, with a temporary focus on plant parasites for a short time. I aimed to be as generalist as possible, learning about freshwater rhodophytes, bird conservation, carnivorous plant evolution, and more, and I disliked the idea of preferred taxonomic groups and specialisation. For my EPQ, I wrote the entire project on the evolution of feathers, undertaking two online courses about dinosaurs to aid with this, along with teaching myself the basics of online research and referencing from published scientific papers. After finishing this EPQ, I found myself unsatisfied with the subject, and instead used my extensive recordings from around the grounds, and year of learning, to write an entirely new essay on the diversity and ecology of the bryophytes around Stonyhurst’s grounds, with notes on habitat, abundance, and taxonomy; even utilising a microscope for species identification at a cellular scale where necessary.

 

Throughout my time at Stonyhurst I competed in interschool athletics competitions, largely competing in many events from discus and shot-put to sprints, though my main focus was long and triple jump. I also competed in within-school competitions for swimming, and also was given the opportunity to join Outdoor Pursuits, taking me bouldering, sailing, and dry-slope skiing. I also spent time with the Cross Country group there.

 

However, my college life was cut short early by the advent of Covid-19. A-level exams were cancelled and we were sent home before Easter, never to return. Some online classes were continued with the understanding that university prep was more important than exams in these times, so I was taught the nitrogen cycle that was not on our specification. I was also awarded Stonyhurst’s Paradise Bowl (environmental) prize before finishing. I spent most of lockdown exploring local areas, coming to know my local area and all of its secrets better than anyone. Sites where species clung on that would once have been more abundant, now stuck on steep grassy slopes where fertilisation couldn’t change the ecosystem. Large banks of nesting mining bees, with parasites and predators lying in wait for their moment to strike. I found petrifying springs with unique habitats and species locally endemic to the tiny patches. Badger sets, polyploid hybrid wildflowers, epiphytes, native carnivorous plants, poisonous species, invasives, and many more finds whose biology and ecology fuelled evenings of research. I even made a first VC record of endangered Monotropa hypopitys.

 

My University life began at King’s College, Cambridge University, where I had been accepted to study Biological Natural Sciences. The course was brilliantly designed, and exploring a new environment was great fun, though I longed for the rugged terrain of home, and easy access to adventure. I learnt statistics on R, and did a whole year-long module on Mathematical Biology, along with Biology of Cells, Evolution and Behaviour, and Earth Sciences. Earth Sciences in particular piqued my interest in geology and palaeontology, with the tectonic and evolutionary history of the UK fuelling my fascination.

 

By second term, with Covid still going strong, I made the choice to study remotely for the rest of first year, staying in Lancashire. I continued online lessons with Cambridge University, submitting my numerous weekly assignments as before. However, I was now home again, free to continue learning about my local area in my free time. Along with continuing recording local wildlife and learning the geological history of the area, I decided to set up a Facebook account aimed at presenting my findings and research about my home parish’s history. Long essays would be published, utilising meetings I had with locals and the curators of the Old Chapel Museum, along with old photos from online and photos of what could still be seen today as found on my own outings. While now unused, this Facebook account still attracts the interest of locals to my area even today.

 

By this point in my life I had overcome many social challenges, helped by Stonyhurst’s friendly atmosphere, meeting new people in the Young Darwin Scholarship, and the range of strong personalities at Cambridge. I was starting to understand academia for what it meant in the working world, along with understanding more about where my personal interests and skills fit into it all. The summer after my first year left me in a position with a lot to think about, and a lot of adventuring to do as well.

 

The summer started with a life-changing trip to Mallaig in the Scottish Highlands. Even just upon arriving, I headed straight down to a rocky outcrop near the harbour we had passed on the way, and made my first ever observation of a gorgeous Cylista elegans sea anemone while enjoying views to the suspiciously volcano-shaped Isle of Rum. After an evening of researching the local area’s geological, natural, and human history I was ready the next day to set off on what would become a life-changing hike. 

 

Heading to the mountains, I noticed lesser clubmoss and then quickly encountered a keeled skimmer dragonfly. The highlight was discovering carnivorous great sundews, the UK’s largest sundew species, whose sticky leaves trap insects. In fact I found seven native carnivorous plant species on this hike. Finding Britain's smallest orchid, the bog orchid, was fascinating due to its unique resupination, where its flowers twist 360 degrees before opening. A golden eagle close encounter added a sense of awe; it circled really close twice in the mist before vanishing, a truly mystical moment. Seeing a white-tailed sea eagle later was equally thrilling. The day also included spotting striped millipedes, red deer fawns, and drinker moths, along with finding my first antler.

 

My further trips on this holiday included the much higher mountains near Glenfinnan, finding species such as trailing azalea, alpine meadow-rue, and bog bilberry. I also spent time at the coast, spotting a minke whale, manx shearwaters, porpoises, sea sticklebacks, and ascidian tunicates. Overall, I was completely enthralled in finding and experiencing wildlife in all its forms, and I found additional interest in sharing what I saw and learned on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, on which I had already begun posting for the past year.

 

After Mallaig it was back to Cambridge for me, with a summer internship. This focussed on the King’s College Wildflower Meadow. I recorded species casually along with utilising professional field techniques using quadrats and percentage coverage estimates. I partook in bat and small mammal surveys, and set up a nightly moth trap at King’s College along with joining morning moth recording and trap emptying at King’s College, Cambridge Botanical Gardens, and Jesus College. At Jesus College, I also had the privalage of walking and talking with Rhona Watson of the Council for the Cambridge Natural History Society, who showed me some fascinating entomology including my first ever wild cockroaches, a number of gall mite species that were new to me, and the beetle Bruchidius siliquastri which has very few records in the UK. I also did pollinator surveys, curated the King’s College moth trap species record on excel for submission to the county recorder, and created and curated the King’s College overall species list excel document.

 

I met many older ecologists during this internship and learnt a lot from them while also doing my own research, largely on invertebrate identification this time. In my downtime, I also headed down to unique habitats that were new to me. Beech forests closer to their ancient native distribution, such as Beechwoods Nature Reserve, were so different to the beech plantations back home, with species such as white helleborine and beech feather-moss, specialised to the habitat. The Cherry Hinton Chalk Quarry was a favourite of mine, where I found my first glow worm and saw rare moon carrot in flower. It was also Cherry Hinton where I got the opportunity to do live moth recording with a bright light and white sheet along with a number of other local recorders.

 

Trips to the arid yet mountainous southern coast of Spain, and the subtropical Laurissilva forests of Madeira later in the summer, along with a great adventure in Nidderdale, only served to fuel my learning of ecology as I adored learning through observation and linking evolutionary and other biological concepts to organisms and systems I had actually seen. This culminated in my final trip away for that most eventful summer – the British Bryological Society Autumn Meeting field trip near Abermaw (Barmouth) in Eryri (Snowdonia).

 

During this trip, I was accompanied by George Greiff, a researcher from Oxford Uni who had become something of my bryological identification and ecology mentor via iNaturalist. I also met with many other bryologists and people of other botanical backgrounds, appreciating their wisdom and guidance. This trip also gave me my second opportunity to explore the temperate rainforest habitat following my first encounter near Mallaig. I came away from this with a fresh sense of my place among naturalists in the UK.

 

Before term started again in Cambridge I made a crucial decision. The modules there were fantastic, and I had learnt so much. I still have and use my notebooks from first year Natural Sciences at Cambridge to this day. However, it was clear that I needed more freedom to be me. That meant being in the environments I love and having the free time to pursue my own learning. I decided to move on from Cambridge and, in a spontaneous leap, applied to Lancaster University, for the Ecology and Conservation course.

 

My first term at Lancaster was slow. Getting used to the new way of things, and new people. With my free time, I found I could easily travel by public transport to amazing places. My first outing was to Silverdale, not for the famous Leighton Moss, but to observe fungi on the limestone grassland there. By second term, I joined the Lancaster University Hiking club, and within two months had become the Publicity Officer for their Executive team. My job was simple: advertise hikes on Instagram, Facebook, and Discord, and manage other matters of social media for the club. As a general exec member, I also collected equipment from stores, took and submitted registers for trips, and attended weekly meetings. However, I put a lot of additional effort into providing information to those who may be interested, both in meetings, and through social media.

 

I spent many hours researching each hiking location we visited, ready to provide a full run-down of what might be experienced on each hike. What wildlife were we likely to see, why each species was fascinating, what the local history of the area was and where different historical monuments were to be spotted; and the etymology, mythology, topography, geology, and more. I soon developed an extensive information map to draw from, with notes on every site along hikes that may be encountered. During hikes, I spent my time photographing the places I had researched, along with continuing my species recording, even making a new species record for England of Bryochiton microscopicus, a parasitic fungus that only infects one genus of mountain liverworts. Even after my year-long time as official exec for the club I was welcomed at weekly executive meetings due to my knowledge of routes and sightseeing, with interesting knowledge on the environment and local history, helping to plan trips and suggest locations, along with routes of varying difficulty levels to allow for more inclusive trips.

 

During my time with the hiking club we camped in heavy rain and frost, summited Ben Nevis in blizzard conditions, undertook precarious scrambles such as Aonach Eagach, and swam in high alpine tarns. We had a navigation course, and also completed the Lakes First Aid: Emergency Outdoor First Aid 8-hour course, allowing us to safely lead hikes. I learned to communicate both with the exec team and with others on hikes, knowing when to bring a struggling member back down the mountain, and trying to show people the fascinating features I knew of from my research like a tour. At over half the Wainwrights completed, and a number of Munros, I have hiked with the club in the Lake District, Forest of Bowland, Yorkshire Dales, Scotland, Eryri (Snowdonia), and more.

 

I was also a member of the Lancaster University Speleological Society, where I attended a number of caving trips in the Yorkshire Dales. During this, I found and learned not only about cave geological features, including more fossils, but I also spent a lot of time researching about the UK’s subterranean ecology, with particular focus on the lichen-like bacterial colonies found in our caves, eventually making a small guide to deep cave ecology in the Yorkshire Dales.

 

I brought along a 365nm UV light to one caving trip, discovering an incredible ray of fluorescence displayed by these colonies. This UV fluorescing is something I have been learning about since I got the UV torch, finding UV fluorescence in many organisms I find, such as the unusual blue fluorescence seen in some liverworts, a contrast to the typical red of chlorophyll fluorescence which may be due to high concentrations of protective and blue UV-fluorescing phenolic compounds .

 

When I had a longer span of free time, like durin the holidays, I would travel be train and bus to sites such as the seabird colony at Bempton Cliffs, the Caledonian forests of the Cairngorms (where I made another important record of Monotropa hypopitys), and alpine boulder fields at Cwm Idwal. In the summer, I once again managed to head abroad, this time for an alpine trip high in the Tatras Carpathian mountains of Slovakia, including traversing the precarious Satan ridge. I once again spent my time adventuring and learning the local wildlife, from marmots to nutcracker birds to firebellied toads and willow gentian.

 

While at University, I competed in the Botanical University Challenge 3 times, including having an article about the killarney fern written by me published in their newsletter The Thymes, and later an online interview with me. Through this I have come into contact with a number of interesting botanists, and during time participating I designed and shared a Discord server for participants and others interested in botany. I also continued my recording on iNaturalist, and set myself the task of checking over and confirming or correcting the identification of all European Hymenophyllales  (filmy fern) sporophyte records on the site, as my experience with identifying the three European species from this order (excluding polyploid hybrids) due to my fascination with them and their oceanic distribution, I felt, put me in a unique position to help out in their recording - a task I continue to this day. 

 

All along, I was attending my Ecology and Conservation course at Lancaster Uni, learning various skills, particularly in essay writing. Eventually, this culminated in my dissertation project: With the title ‘Decreased canopy cover in oak woodlands negatively impacts epiphytic bryophyte cover and diversity’ I identified bryophyte species and their cover within 10cm quadrats at three heights on each cardinal face of oak tree trunks in 18 25mx25m areas of woodland distributed across three different woodlands on the south end of Borrowdale in the Lake District. In each woodland, half of the areas chosen were classed as low canopy cover, the other half as high. This was motivated by my discovery of how canopy cover needs to be just 20% in order to be considered a woodland, as it seemed to me that in such calculations we grossly overestimate how much functional woodland we have left, particularly when considering the conservation importance of Atlantic Oakwood habitats whose important bryophyte assemblages require high humidity helped by dense canopies. Using NMDS and other statistical tests on R, I presented my data and described its significance in my final essay.

 

Lancaster University provided a number of field biology modules. From trips out locally, to Cornwall, the Isle of Mull, and Kenya, I was constantly learning in the field. Taking in the lecturer’s information during the day, and spending dawn and evenings (or even after dark) with my own learning and exploration. I helped lecturer’s learn new species and their ecology, such as oblong-leaved sundew and the carnivorous purple spoonwort liverwort on Mull, and enjoyed showcasing the invertebrates I found in Kenya, describing ant nuptial flights and the difference between true ants and velvet ants to my peers there. I also enjoyed describing the natural history of clubmosses to my coursemates on Mull, while in Kenya I spent time talking with a local botanist who taught me some tropical botany species identification and ecology, which I have since found to apply to some of our native flora – such as the presence of extrafloral nectaries and their relationship with predators such as ants. By the end of my course, I was awarded Lancaster University’s Environment Centre Andrew Malloch Memorial Prize for the one who has demonstrated the greatest enthusiasm and skill in field ecology.

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I wasn't done with field biology with Lancaster University just from my course trips, and I applied to be a demonstrator for the NVC-classification module for Masters students, a job which is not advertised to undergraduate students, but shown to me by someone who it was advertised to. In this roll under Carly Stephens I was tasked initially with collecting example species for the students' identification learning, but I made extra effort to help with useful identification tips in class, along with presentation of rust fungi and other ecological features on the plants they were tasked to identify. Following this, I led half the class around campus to attempt ukhab classification, where I continued to test their species identification, which I continued in another day of demonstrating out in Roeburn Woods.

Through Carly I was introduced to Raj Whitlock who was undertaking the year's iteration of species recording at the Buxton Climate Project. Through them I got a job over a few days joining Raj in the recording. My role, along with Raj and our two scribes, was to identify and record every vascular plant species within 10cm quadrats placed across the various climate treatments on the site, which Raj will use to publish a paper in the near future regarding the different ways in which climate impacts affect the recovery of different species and populations following drought on calcareous grassland. This job was really fascinating, where I got to utilise my vegetative dicot identification skills, and was taught a number of grass species and how to recognise them. In my evenings, I also took the opportunity to explore unusual habitats around Buxton such as the steep limestone gorge of Lover's Leap and the Tufa Calcite levels of the old quarry seeps, learning of the ecology, geology, and history at each location.

 

At the end of University, I received a first in Ecology and Conservation at the end of my three year course at Lancaster, but that was not the end of my time at Lancaster. In my final weeks at University, after exams, I proposed and led a wildlife identification walk for the Lancaster Environment Centre Society, where I focussed on presenting unique adaptations of overlooked organisms, including describing a number of parasitic interactions we found, and numerous ways in which common orchid species attract pollinators.

 

Towards the end of my time at university I became ever more eager to try and present the nature and learning that I loved. I felt I had so much I wanted to share, and I wanted to inspire and motivate others. I had been giving information for years, but it’s not the same as teaching or presenting. I wanted to try a format or style that would engage people. Along with the in-person wildlife walk, I continued my Instagram and Facebook series of blog-like posts. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland enjoyed my search for purple saxifrage, dubbing my posts as ‘adventure botany’.  However, I found this format unsatisfactory, and eventually made a blog website on which to present longer and more detailed stories in a neater manner. I stopped this format too as it was very time-consuming in the midst of University work, and I instead started to make identification cards to provide to the Lancaster University Hiking Club, revision-note style slides on various species, biological concepts, and local history/mythology, some of which I've posted on social media, along with PowerPoint presentations on myriapod evolution (inspired by seeing the Diplichnites on Arran) and Carboniferous fossils (inspired by my fossil coral finds at Arnside).

Later during summer 2024 II made a Youtube account (called Landlore) and experimented with making educational videos (there are currently 2 videos on the account). I also spent much of my time being present at the Walney Channel seagrass meadows as my girlfriend undertook her Master's dissertation on mapping them. I also started treating my social media differently, creating daily and consistent content for a time, which presented interesting information through my finds, regardless of chronology, with a focus on learning more engaging ways to write.

 

In August 2024 I attended the Botanical University Challenge’s Student Botany Festival, where I'm proud to say I got all but one of the identification section questions right while watching the finale of the competition and challenging myself to the questions as it went on, and got a total of 28 points between all the questions for both finale teams, while they collectively got 34 in two teams of 5. I also got full marks on the mock FISC identification test later during the event. More officially, I won the DSLR Photography competition run by BUC under the theme 'Survivor', using my photo of the rare Saxifraga cespitosa. My other entry on plant fossils of groups that still survive little changed to this day (such as lycophytes) was also shortlisted in the competition. Overall, however, this experience was most incredible to me for bringing together a bunch of other like-minded botanists. I loved meeting other students with botanical interests, even some people who know me through my social media. Along with this, I spent what must have been over an hour chatting botany with an employee at the BSBI stall, and got behind the scenes views of Oxford Botanic Gardens from Chris Thorogood. The Botanical University Challenge’s Student Botany Festival was an incredible experience and something I'll never forget.

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Not long after returning home from the BUC event, I gave my first live talk on botany. A member of the Downham Garden Club had heard of me through Stonyhurst, and asked if I would present them their first talk after the club's decline during Covid. For this, I designed a presentation describing the history of gardening, from humble agricultural beginnings to aesthetic gardening, and the impacts gardening has had, especially in more recent centuries, on ecosystems due to invasive species and collection of rare species from the wild, but also its uses in conservation - using the benefits to pollinators as an example in light of ever more intensive agriculture leading to reduced flower counts outside of gardens, and using wollemi pine as an example of a species whose growth in captivity acts as a keep safe for a species whose wild population is vulnerable to extinction. Following this, I led on to describe my interests, and how the world outside is all one natural garden. I specifically aimed to describe the difference in flora between two nearby sites to Downham - Worsaw Hill and Pendle Hill. Worsaw is a limestone reef knoll, allowing me to describe the ancient environment of the area, crinoid fossils, and the impacts this rock type has on the soil and thereby the plant adaptations most successful on the hill - including high calcium tolerance, low nutrients tolerance, and adaptations to exposed habitats such as small stature, hairy leaves, and in-rolled leaves as in sheep's fescue. Pendle Hill, on the other hand, is formed of sandstone. I used this as an excuse to describe the Carboniferous coal forests nearby, presenting fossils I had found from the time and picked horsetails and ferns to compare against the fossils of these early plant lineages. I then described sandstone's overall lack of impact on soil chemistry and instead how Sphagnum growth led to bogs and peat formation and thereby an acidic, waterlogged, low-nitrogen environment, going on to describe adaptations such as plant carnivory, parasitism, and ericoid mycorrhiza. While describing plants from this habitat I also visited the idea of etymology, describing Narthecium ossifragum and the interesting story of its name. 

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Since returning from this talk, I started attempting to classify and present my fossil finds using Flickr, a way to explore a new form of social media. A lot of research and work has had to go into this project, and I've learnt many a fascinating thing about the anatomy and identification of ancient fossil species. I also been designed social media posts directed at current Lancaster University students studying in the Lancaster Environment Centre. My aim was to present concepts that they will have been, or will be, taught in lectures, and showcase how the ideas presented can be actively observed in species and their interactions in and around campus or during short trips from the area at the weekend. Soon afterwards I also undertook the Field Studies Council's 'Train the Online Trainer' online course. 

In late October 2024 I undertook a Mountain Leader Course with the aim of working to the Mountain Leader Qualification. This was a week away around Langdale and other parts of the Lake District, where I showed my navigation skills to the leader, learnt ropework and team leadership skills, and not only used my environmental knowledge to impress as part of the requirements for the qualification, but also went above an beyond by teaching both the instructor and other students on the course, and was even told afterwards that I inspired some of them to try and learn more even about something as difficult to inspire others about as moss. At the end of the course I was told I showed excellent navigation and environmental knowledge, and just need to take a first aid course before getting assessed as a mountain leader.

Moving into November I continued my research into local fossil sites and past environments, with a break to travel to the Natural History Museum in London for the 2024 Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland Conference. Around this time I also reinforced my interests in ancient history, visiting the Great Orme copper mines, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, Greater Kelcow Cave in Yorkshire, and much more.

Through December the tools I got for fossil preparation, along with some wood carving knives from my family, inspired me to start some crafting projects. I began with restoring an old (likely 19thC) mattock I had found by giving it a new wooden handle. In learning about this I also used Lidar maps online to find evidence for use of the mattock in the woodland I found it in, in the form of clear drainage ditches I hadn't noticed from the ground. Following this, I enjoyed working with my favourite rock types to make jewellery for family members, using Iona marble and lizardite from my trips around the country to make polished necklaces and keychains, shaping the rocks into thin circles or hearts. Motivated by my new crafting abilities, I set out to make replicas and other objects relating to the history I was so interested in. First came a small keychain replica of a Neolithic Langdale Axe using the greenstone from the ancient axe factory, and soon after I visited the Borrowdale graphite mines and began work on my own pencils made from graphite and wood I had found from the world's first graphite mine. Using this, I drew a large pencil drawing of the ancient Borrowdale Yews and wrote a poem in ode to Borrowdale while also trying to evoke aspects of Wordsworth's original poem about these yew trees. 

Early in 2025 I restarted research into the local history of where I grew up. Following up from the old Stonyhurst and Hurst Green History account I used to run, I decided to remake it as a Facebook Group in the hopes that others would add their stories too rather than just relying on my. For beginning this new page I made a few more historical posts about archaeological finds in the area, theories about Saxon battle sites, and more.

It was in February that I began volunteering at the Ribchester Roman Museum, occasionally working the till or tending to work in the grounds, but mostly helping with school groups. To begin with, I tailed the curator giving lessons (usually to year 4s) and then I aided the teachers in providing a post-lesson tour of the museum and Roman granary ruins. I was soon giving my own miniature lecture and question and answer section at the granaries as I loved doing it. After this I was given the opportunity to present a small section during the lessons, where I decided to talk to the children about the resources the Romans wanted to control Britain for, using my own mineral collection to hand out specimens to view as I taught about metal ores, smelting, and the uses of copper, tin, lead, iron, silver, and gold (gold being the only one without a specimen to show), The kids generally enjoyed this section, and would enjoy my comparisons between real-life ore smelting by the Romans and the game Minecraft which they were more familiar with. With lots of my own learning about the Romans from sitting in on lessons, private talks with the curator, learning at home, and visiting a number of other Roman sites during this time, by May the museum curator allowed me to fully give lessons about Romans, which was very daunting but an incredible experience and something I would love to be able to continue wherever I go for any subject I'm interested in in future. 

Alongside my weekly museum volunteering, I had my Mountain Leader Assessment booked and upcoming, and so made preparations for that. To practice more group leadership and also an engaging presentation on Environmental Knowledge I lead a walking group that my Grandma is a part of from Elterwater to Pike o' Stickle in Langdale. I carried Langdale Greenstone from previous visits to the Langdale Neolithic Axe Factory with me, along with a hammerstone, a red deer antler hammer and pressure knapper I had made from antlers I'd found exploring Mull during downtime of my University field module there, and my small replica Langdale Axe. Near the summit as the group had stopped for lunch I presented my finds, discussing the colonisation via the coast of Cumbria after the Younger Dryas Ice Age, use of passes and other routes to eventually come inland, pointing out the nearby Blea Tarn which we could see and pollen studies made from samples there to determine when humans first settled Langdale. I mentioned their beliefs and trade routes with regard to the Eden Valley, Castlerigg Stone Circle, and more, and then pointed out the vast scree slope below us - the Langdale Ae Factory, presenting my specimens and demonstrating knapping technique using the hammerstone and antler hammer to flake some Langdale Greenstone before showing my polished replica and then making a surprise reveal of an actual roughout hand-axe thousands of years old from the Langdale Axe factory which the curator of the Ribchester Roman Museum had lent to me from the museum collections for this purpose. Everyone seemed engaged and even amazed at learning this and I felt very good about it for the rest of the hike.

Around this time, in March, I also headed out to the Peak District, where, after an evening at Stanedge Edge and Robin Hood's Cave, I spent two days undertaking a 16-hour outdoor first aid course with Tor Lea Training, ready for my Mountain Leader Assessment.

In the few weeks leading up to my assessment I continued volunteering at the Ribchester Museum, I joined a detectorist group visiting my local area to understand how they work and benefit our understanding or history more, and I conitnued my interest in crafts, carving and painting a wooden chaffinch, along with moulding a lizard from fimo clay with a head carved from lizardite rock. I also visited and revisited a number of historic sites in my local area, using historic maps, Lidar, and hearsay from older locals to understand the poorly studied corpse roads to the Medieval consecrated churches of Ribchester and Mitton. I also did hikes a little further afield to visit the Bleasdale circle, Kirkby Stephen Loki Stone, Pendragon Castle, and Levens Hall.

My Mountain Leader Assessment came in early April and, if I'm very proud of how I performed. I found the navigation enjoyable and enjoyed chatting with the other assessees. I planned to redo my talk on the Neolithic Langdale axes as I had done during the practice with my Grandma's hiking group, as that is where the assessment was based. This time, along with all the previous material, including the museum specimen again, I also took with me examples of other rock types that were useful to the people of the Neolithic in other locations, including flint, chert, serpentine, and an artificial obsidian, discussing the structural similarities of these rocks and conchoidal fracture. I also independetly gave a talk on lycophytes (clubmosses) when we came across one, talking about lycopodium powder (clubmoss spores) and its use in the world's first combustion engine, conservation of montane plants and the species of clubmoss for which Langdale is its only known extant population in England, and finally describing their significant place in the story of plant evolution and the environment of the Carboniferous period, presenting fossil lycophytes I had previously found on the Cumbrian coast and brought on the hike along with the axe factory stones. As we got views into Borrowdale during the wild camping expedition part of the assessment I also presented raw graphite and a pencil I had made and talked of the history of the Borrowdale graphite mines, and then, inspired by some excellent quartz crystals specimens found along the route, I also gave a talk on the difference between a rock, and mineral, and crystal, and a gem.  

After 5 days in the fells, including 2 days wild camping in a row, I completed the assessment and passed with flying colours, and am therefore now a qualified Mountain Leader. The assessor and his assistant said I had been really interesting and recommended that, because of my expertise, I contact the Mountain Training Association and offer to run environmental knowledge workshops for them, which was really encouraging to hear.

Following becoming a Mountain Leader, I had a meeting with Bowland Ecology and got hired as a part-time seasonal ecologist for them. For this, along with acknowledging my skills in botanical ID, they trained me for bat emergence surveys, teaching me use of bat detectors and how to identify common bat species from their spectrograms, along with other aspects of bat surveying. I was also independently contacted by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust asking if I was available to be hired to undertake a bryophyte survey for them at a local Nature Reserve. I surveyed the site over three days, finding around 70 species of moss and liverwort, and finished with a full report for the survey, including find localities, notes on abundance in the site, habitat notes, and management recommendations.. Both of these have been interesting and invaluable experience for me, along with a day-course I took under the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust on grass identification to reinforce my knowledge ready for a FISC assessment in July.

Back in the world of crafts, along with some small woodwork pieces such as a hanging crow, and trying to improve my flint knapping skills, I have found a bit of a passion for the making of wire trees, of which I have now completed 7 of varying styles and sizes. If I had to pick any one art form to continue into the future above all others, it would be this.

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My next steps are to continue to search for how I can teach, motivate, and inspire people to learn about the natural world and more.