Amy Eycott is an ecologist at the Forestry Commission, the government department responsible for the protection and expansion of Britain’s forests and woodlands. In this interview, she talks to us about her job, and her career in plant science so far.

”It’s like I wake up in the morning and I’m like, ‘what do I want to learn today? What do I want to find out about? What’s curious today?”

A video from iCould.

As a landscape ecologist for the Forestry Commission, Amy Eycott works with both computers and fieldwork to collect the evidence she needs about the diversity of species in UK forests.

”I had a fairly big impact fairly soon”

Amy says that one of the best things about her job is the opportunity it gives her to have a practical impact on the way that the UK’s environment is managed. She says “One of the first things I did when I came here was a contract which was looking at how the woodlands in Wales are connected, and that’s been taken by CCW, the Countryside Council for Wales, and they’ve turned that into a whole policy about where they’re going to target their woodland creation grants. So I had a fairly big impact fairly soon… I get to do original research same as I would if I was in a university, but I actually get to see what I’ve kind of found out translated directly into action on the ground in a really immediate way.”