BLOG – A Week In The Life Of An Urban Ranger

This month, we caught up with one of our Urban Ranger’s Finn about what he gets up to in a typical week at Groundwork!

What is your role?

I work as an Urban Ranger at Groundwork Greater Manchester! My role mainly consists of delivering environmental projects and nature based solutions for groups and partners (like City of Trees), as well as working to maintain a number of green spaces around Manchester. 

We’re the ‘on the ground’ team that delivers the projects that have already been planned out – the actual work varies a lot though, from things like planting trees and removing INNS, to building bridges and creating accessible paths in woodlands. 

As a Year of Service trainee, I’m constantly learning while working as well, building up my confidence and skills bit by bit. Since we do so many different things, every day is a learning opportunity for me!

What do you get up to in a typical week?

It really depends on the time of year – during the planting season its a comfortable routine of visiting and prepping sites ahead of time, then getting to plant trees all day long! I really enjoy this, since I get to pick up a lot of planning skills as well as learn about ideal tree species mixes for different sites; things like soil type and water availability can completely change which species we take with us to plant.

Outside of planting season though, we have a far more varied schedule, which it allows us to pick up more generalised skills too. A couple examples of what we might get up to in a week involve training sessions to help prepare us for a career in the green sector, planting wildflowers and bulbs in residential areas, and helping put in pathways with sustainable drainage systems! This job keeps me on my toes with the variety of work we do, but I consider myself very fortunate to be able to work outside in nature year-round, and to have so many chances learn different skills.

Tell us about an exciting work day you’ve recently had?

Recently we had the opportunity to learn about how to take care of and restore wet woodlands, and part of that included visiting a nearby woodland to actually do hands-on training!

We began the day by taking a trip around the site to familiarise ourselves with the different species that make up a wet woodland and how they come together to form a balanced ecosystem. I learned about how vital wet woodlands are as a habitat and the importance of protecting and providing space for sphagnum moss growing within them. We worked on preventing succession and loss of the wet woodland by thinning out the overtaking birch and opening up space for the moss to thrive in.

For the rest of the day I learned to weave the larger branches that we thinned out into dead hedging. The hedge would in turn provide food, habitats and hiding places from predators for all manner of small animals, from insects and reptiles to rodents and birds. We then stacked the rest of the thinner saplings into habitat piles on the outskirts of the woodland. 

By the end, looking at all the open space we freed up for the moss, it made me realise what a huge difference even a single day of work makes. It gave me a huge sense of accomplishment in the work I do!

What inspires you/motivates you to do your work?

A whole host of little things add up to motivate me, like the satisfaction that comes from doing physical work out in green spaces or being excited to learn something new every day.

If I had to pick one though, I’d have to say its the pride of looking over a finished job at the end of a project. Being able to see a field of saplings and imagine that in just a few decades there’s going to a be a young forest growing in that spot is really inspiring to me!

Its really heartening to hear about the tangible differences we make too – when we work in residential areas we often have members of the public coming over to talk about the work we do or thank us for tidying up their green spaces, and it feels amazing knowing I’m actually making a change for these people!