After going through school and not knowing what I wanted to do, my Grandad suggested tree surgery, so I went to college to give it a go and never looked back. I studied Arboriculture at Bridgwater college, which involved working within the arboriculture industry as a groundsman and secondary climber for a local tree surgeon, focusing on mostly domestic trees with some small-scale woodland management.

After college I wanted to learn more and gain a greater understanding of forest management which lead me to study Forestry at Bangor University, where I also completed a placement year. For this I decided to go to Costa Rica to experience tropical forestry and conservation, working at a nature reserve for 9 months. I became heavily involved with the Bangor Forestry Student Association at university which provided lots of opportunities allowing me to attend international forestry conferences and student events in Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Italy.

Having recently graduated from university, I came across Oakbank whilst job hunting through the Forestry Roots programme set up by the Royal Forestry Society. The company really appealed to me because the amount of experience the employees have across multiple fields of conservation and land management, meaning I could learn from true experts within their field. 

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