Karen McEvoy, from Hilltown, Newry describes her work placement as part of her Foundation degree (FdSc) in Rural & Countryside Management (RCM) at Greenmount Campus

My name is Karen and I’m currently on work placement as part of my Foundation Degree in Rural and Countryside Management, which I am studying at CAFRE in Antrim. We all have to take a placement break during our course and I decided to do my work placement with the National Trust at Murlough National Nature Reserve. This is a 282 hectare site which has the additional designations of a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI). It has these designations because this site contains 15 percent of the UK dune heathland and has rare and notable wildlife species such as marsh fritillary butterfly.

Part of my work placement involves dealing with the 100,000 visitors who come each year to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the National Trust Murlough site.  I get to work alongside the National Trust staff and volunteers and there is plenty to do and a wide variety of work; everything from litter picking to repairing paths up the Mourne mountains. We were able to take industry-recognised qualifications when we were at college in year 1, such as the LANTRA strimmer certificate and the FEPA pesticide-application certificates, and because of this I have been able to use these on placement to improve my skills in tasks like strimming grass and controlling bracken.

In a similar way to these skills, my work placement has given me the opportunity to undertake a variety of duties that have built on year 1 modules such as Habitat management and Environmental science.  I have been involved in a range of surveys including butterflies and moths, although the weather this year has been against us. My favourite task to date was carrying out seal surveys, which have to be done twice a month during the pupping season. This placement has given me a great insight into the many different areas of possible work that I can do after I complete my course.

Karen undertakes seal survey counts as part of her work placement with the National Trust

(L-R) Karen McEvoy and Malachy Martin (National Trust Area Warden) discuss bracken management on Murlough National Nature Reserve