Five years ago, I decided to start writing a blog. The visits I made to my local wildlife patch were always very important to me and undoubtedly inspired my deep interest in natural history, which is still core to me today. Many of my earliest memories include visiting local nature reserves, long walks through the countryside and spending hours in my garden exploring every crevice and living thing. These moments excited me immensely, so much so I wanted to share them with others. This was when I started to blog.
As my interest and knowledge developed, so did my blog. The posts I wrote began to cover adventures further afield and a range of topics which relate to issues threatening our natural environment. This first began with blogs discussing the badger cull due to my love for filming badgers with trail cameras and after getting involved with my local badger group following illegal activity at a local sett. I began to become more aware of the issues pressuring nature and this evoked my deep drive for campaigning.
Such posts are still key to the theme and aim of my writing and this blog. Especially with the use of education and awareness being the key to tackling those issues which threaten the future of our natural environment. It is not just through my blog that I try to achieve this, but with the use of social media, giving talks to a wide range of groups and shouting about the importance of nature education for children and young people.
The length that I attempt to do this is forever growing, for example last year I visited Cyprus to make films about the illegal mass slaughter of migratory birds there. The videos I presented were aimed at children. This was to present what’s happening in Cyprus and, more importantly, to evoke an interest in conservation issues. More recently, I have visited Number 10, Downing Street to meet with advisors and in prior to this, discussed and expressed my concerns of conservation declines and issues as a young conservationist to other MPs and ministers. On a smaller scale, my passion for education has taken me into schools to engage with children directly through talks and workshops for hands on engagement with nature in the hope of creating that important spark.
In the last few months, I have begun studying at the University of York and moved from where I grew up in Staffordshire to York. Amongst my conservation and campaigning efforts, I always keep my fascination and love of being outside core to who I am and never fail to make time for being surrounded by nature. My favourite location is Spurn Point, where I spend much of my time birding and volunteering for the Spurn Bird Observatory. Last year I was proud to represent Spurn Bird Observatory through an exchange program with Falsterbo Bird Observatory in Sweden. Spurn is also where I discovered my love for my favourite bird, the Swift. It was this inspiration that provoked me to raise over £3000 for the BTO’s work tagging swift’s last year by walking almost 200 miles across the north of England.
In the future, I hope to continue to work hard with my campaigning efforts and one day make a difference through speaking out and doing whatever I can to protect and preserve our natural surrounds.
Georgia Locock: Young conservationist and blogger.
Georgia Locock 