Love of outdoors led to natural career path
A love of the outdoors has blossomed into a career path for a national park ranger.
Hanna Rennie, 28, from Stirling, has always loved the outdoors, but her interest in countryside management and the environment only took root after she moved to Germany and started running bike trips for tourists.
While living in Berlin, she saw the pressures that hundreds of thousands of visitors were putting on the city every year and her concern for environmental matters grew.
At that point, she saw a countryside management course being advertised by SRUC Oatridge, and decided to change careers. After being accepted onto the course, she headed back to Scotland to start a new adventure, managing and protecting wild places.
Hanna said: “I think working in tourism exposes you to the sharp end of environmentalism. When you see firsthand the impact we’re having on the natural world, it’s hard to ignore.
“Working in Germany, I began to think about what was happening back at home and the pressures our natural areas were experiencing. This has been particularly exacerbated during lockdown, as many more people have been going out to the countryside. It’s great that we have the freedom to explore rural areas, but at the same time it has to be managed carefully.”
Two years after returning to Scotland, Hanna had completed an HND in countryside management, learning through course work and practical sessions and covering aspects of countryside management like pond dipping and dead hedging.
She also took up various volunteering roles, including a stint with Muiravonside
Country Park near Falkirk, where she spent time shadowing a countryside ranger.
She said: “Our college tutors always encouraged us to look for volunteering work outside of the course, as it’s really important to put the theory you learn into practice.
“Volunteering also helps you network and build contacts that come in handy further down the line, not to mention building your self-confidence. Shadowing a ranger at Muiravonside was a great experience. I was involved in a wide range of countryside management practices from coppicing, planting trees to river bed restoration and interpretation design. I even had the chance to lead some groups which was a real plus point for me.”
Hanna has now gone on to study for a Masters degree in Wildlife and Conservation Management, while looking for full-time work.
She recently took on a part-time role as a seasonal ranger for Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park focussing on visitor management, and a seasonal role with WYG Ecology, where she undertook a series of conservation surveys on bats.
Hanna said: “For now it’s all about continuing my education and looking for a role that suits my interests and skill set. COVID has had a short-term impact on the availability of roles, but I hope there will be more vacancies by the beginning of next year.
“I’ve also taken an interest in the education side of countryside management.
“We’ve seen an influx of people during the lockdown period and this has put added pressure on rural areas. I’d be interested in exploring opportunities to talk to the public about how we can collectively look after the countryside better.
There has also always been a bit of a social divide about access, so I’d like to help bridge that gap and make wild areas more accessible to more people.”