How do the changing seasons affect your work?
Our work is completely different between summer and winter.
In winter most of the paths in the gorge are shut. While there are no visitors we check and repair all the handrails, steps and bridges as well as dealing with fallen trees and doing work on other trees to prevent them becoming dangerous. Our winter season runs from November to February and so we usually have lots of work to fit into a short amount of time.
In summer our duties become even more varied. Along with all the jobs to keep the gorge safe and looking smart, we help out with events such as making wild woodland sculptures. For this event we use wood from the gorge which we gather from fallen trees.
We also have strong links with the local primary school, who visit six times a year. In return for helping us out by clearing leaves and creating funny woodland faces for us to use, the children get to spend a day at the gorge with the rangers, doing all sorts of fun activities. Last year they even got to melt pewter over the fire to make their own lucky charms.
Every day is different, and that is what makes my job as a ranger so interesting.