Hello and Sh’mae everyone – particularly the fabulous volunteers of Wales.

I’d like to introduce myself as your new Volunteer Development Officer for Wales – my name is Martha and I’m really looking forward to meeting as many of our volunteers as possible, preferably out and about in the woods. As you can see, I’ve struggled to find sensible photos of me in the woods, as I’m normally messing about! I can be sensible…just no-one has captured it on camera!

My role is to make sure our volunteers and our volunteer network is happy, active and safe – in line with our Volunteer Charter. I know how important this is as an active conservation volunteer myself. If you have any feedback or queries on that front, please feel free to contact me on marthaboalch2@woodlandtrust.org.uk.

To give you a bit of background on me, I’ve spent the last year or so working for the Trust on citizen science projects, mainly the Nature’s Calendar phenology project. This was fascinating for me as I learnt a lot more about the impacts of weather and climate change on the timing of seasonal changes. Before that I have worked in a school as a learning coach, I spent several years in Pembrokeshire teaching at a field centre out in the woods, the hills, in the sand dunes and the rock pools, I did a stint as a fieldwork ecologist and I used to teach dinghy sailing. I studied Biology and Ecology at university in Cardiff.

I look forward to finding out more about all of you in person… in the meantime please bear with my emails and phone calls, as and when they reach you.

Diolch, Martha.