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Five minutes with GWT's master strategist

Lower Woods Ride

To celebrate International Women's Day, Emily checks in with Dr Juliet Hynes, GWT’s Ecological Evidence Manager, and what drives her to take on large scale restoration projects.

I come from a family of naturalists so have had a connection with nature since I was small. My dad was a biology and chemistry teacher as well as running a nature photography business with his brother and my mum. I used to get dragged around to nature reserves as a child which sounds lovely, but because they were photographing things all the time we were constantly stopping - it was really annoying!

I tried to forge a different path by doing physics at A level before realising that biology came more naturally to me, so I leaned into it and changed my plans to study biology at university.

Juliet Hynes

I’ve had a variety of jobs over the years and returned to studying a few times. I started as a science technician in a secondary school before doing a Masters studying research methods. To then bring in an income and learn about something exciting, I did a PhD looking at the functional diversity of decomposer communities in a traditional meadow vs an improved meadow at Gwent Wildlife Trust.

My first introduction to working with environmental organisations at scale was when I became a Secretariat for the Wales Biodiversity Partnership. While I enjoyed this work and found it really interesting, I joined Natural England to help get some large landscape-scale partnership projects off the ground.

I returned to Cardiff University to refresh my scientific skills and work on their otter project, looking at the bioaccumulation of compounds in the otters before joining GWT. 

Partnership is really important to me. We’re all working towards the same goal of supporting natures recovery, so working together instead of separately just makes sense!

I think it’s good to have a masterplan. Site by site work is important but it can’t preserve things long term - habitats needs to be connected and having an overarching ambition of what you want to achieve across a bigger area is key.

I’ve been working for GWT for about four years now, and one of the things that’s been great to watch is how the HabiMap project has taken off. A huge number of people got in touch to volunteer their time; I think because it’s so accessible but such important work. People can do bits and bobs and build their knowledge in terms of survey skills and botanical knowledge, all while mapping the county and contributing to the Nature Recovery Network (NRN).

I’m also really excited about the new Treescapes project. The scale of creating a 60-mile corridor of enhanced tree cover can be a bit daunting but it’s really exciting – I always want to go bigger though! One day I hope to see it connect to the Cotswold Hills, the Black Mountains and even the Shropshire Hills.

I find living in the Wye Valley really inspiring and am always looking for ways to make the connection across the two sides of the river. On a personal level over the winter, I like tinkering in the garden, providing little places for things to hide, and going out to harvest fruit and nuts with my children.

For me, working for a Wildlife Trust or an environmental organisation isn’t all about cute fluffy wildlife, it’s about ensuring a future for my children.

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