There have been recent changes in
staffing at Moor House –Upper Teesdale NNR over the recent months; you may
already know that Chris and Heather McCarty both retired at the end of September
after over 30 plus years of service between them.
There’s also a new face around - Phil Swaile - who is on part
time loan at present from the Newcastle Office. His help is much needed and appreciated
for day to day running of the NNR and estate tasks.
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| Martin Furness |
I was until recently on temporary promotion as Senior Reserve Manager, but now I have been successful in securing the role full time. This is a great opportunity and it is also a great responsibility to manage one of the UK's best botanical and upland NNRs, along with continuing to manage the other fantastic North Pennine NNRs of Muckle Moss, and Derwent Gorge and Muggleswick Woods.
The job of Senior Site Manager is the job I’ve wanted to do
since I was at school, not just managing an NNR, but specifically managing Moor
House. Way back in the late 1970’s a
family friend, Jim Parkin, was the Nature Conservancy Council Warden for Moor
House and actually lived in the Warden’s house there. So once or twice a year my family and I had
trip up Moor House. It seemed to take ages from Appleby in our Austin 1100
crawling up Hartside Pass eventually getting to Garrigill and then an even slower
crawl along the rough track eventually getting to Moor House itself.
It was a great place. Jim had two daughters, younger than me
and my brother, who would take us off to explore the mini limestone gorges of
Rough Sike and Moss Burn. We even swam in them. We must have been a bit harder
them days.
Jim would show us mist netting birds; some of the special plants; how he recorded the weather data; and many other things. He was a real inspiration to me.
In those days there were some more unusual additions to the staff at Moor House - Mick the pointer dog for work on grouse, and Betty the fell pony to transport materials around the NNR. There were no quad bikes then. It was a busy place with all research being undertaken and the field lab full of people in white lab coats.
Jim eventually moved on to manage other NNRs, but his knowledge and enthusiasm inspired and stayed with me - this was what I wanted to do!
My enjoyment and learning of natural history continued through living and playing in the countryside around Appleby, but by the time I was 16 mopeds and the usual things that young lads get up to took my interest. The careers advisor never quite got what I meant by conservation work and managing nature reserves, so I left school at 16 to do a 6 month YT Scheme working on HGVs and then drifted into the local manufacturing firms in the early days of electronics industry, but I was still out and about in the countryside and local fells learning about natural history.
Eventually in 1992 I was made redundant and it was time for a change of direction to what I really wanted to do. I contacted Terry Wells, the then Warden at Moor House, to do voluntary work and enrolled onto a National Diploma in Land Use and Recreation, a brilliant vocational course with three northern colleges - Newton Rigg, Kirkley Hall and Houghall Colleges, all specializing in agriculture, forestry and other land based industries. Students spent each term at a different college, including a 6 month placement, over the three years of the course. You got a real grounding in conservation, recreation, and practical land management over the whole of the north of England.
This had fired my interest for further study and I got a place at Edge Hill University to undertake a BSc in Field Biology and Habitat Management. Again I had chosen right, another three years of learning more in-depth ecology, field biology skills and principles of habitat management. I undertook my dissertation on the macro-invertebrates of three streams on Moor House and finished up with a first class degree.
Leaving in May 1998 I spent nearly a year applying for jobs
and labouring for a local builder. I
looked forward to Tuesdays after getting home from work for the postal edition
of CJS (Countryside Jobs Service) to look and request another job application
and spend the other evenings applying for them. I thought I was not going to
get anything, then eventually I got the opportunity to work as a Estate worker
for Scottish Natural Heritage at Forvie NNR, about 15 miles north of
Aberdeen. It is a beautiful coastal NNR
– extensive coastal heath, with large dune system and the estuary of the river
Ythan, where I managed tern and eider duck nesting colonies and undertook
estate maintenance duties. It was a short term summer contract of six months, but
they managed to find more work for me and a promotion for another year. Then in the summer of 2000 I saw the advert
for a Reserve Manager at Moor House-Upper Teesdale NNR, I couldn’t believe it, so I
applied, got an interview and the rest is history and I’ve been here ever
since.
Chris and Heather have been constant faces of the NNR and several others have come and gone over the years. Chris has filled me with his passion and knowledge for the habitats and species of the North Pennines and beyond - and sometimes I still think ‘I’ll just run this past him’, but then remember it’s now me making the decisions which sometimes makes me think for a bit longer.
So there’s me, Emma and Phil at present and I hope that
we’ll still do as much as we can for the conservation of the special habitats
and unique species on the NNR. We'll also continue to run the volunteer tasks and events to allow others to appreciate and get
involved with what is special about Moor House - Upper Teesdale
NNR and beyond.
Martin Furness
Senior Reserve Manager
Senior Reserve Manager
