From molecular biology to wildlife conservation – with career switcher Rebecca Porter
“Sometimes it’s important to have a backup plan, in case things don’t go right with your first career.”
Having begun her career in molecular biology, Rebecca Porter, PhD, now works as the Wildlife Officer at Sculpture by the Lakes, a sculpture park and botanic garden in Dorset, UK.
Her journey illustrates that it’s never too late to pursue a career in conservation, offering valuable insights into the challenges and rewards of changing professional paths.
What does your current role at Sculpture by the Lakes entail?
Rebecca with a privet hawkmoth on one of her ‘Wild Wednesdays’.
My role is split between being a Wildlife Officer and being a member of the gardening team.
Initially, I was a volunteer in the kitchen garden, and then I became more of a general gardener around the park.
When we started looking at existing strengths within the staff team, we decided to create the role of Wildlife Officer.
The Dorset Wildlife Trust have been auditing our wildlife, particularly the broad range of insects at Sculpture by the Lakes – but the advantage of having a Wildlife Officer is that I can look at specific things on a more regular basis.
We also engage with the public about our biodiversity. We’ve set up this idea of ‘Wild Wednesday’, where I monitor moths, and our visitors can come and observe what I do. I also lead a guided walk focussing on the dragonflies, which are particularly notable at Sculpture by the Lakes.
What inspired your initial interest in biology?
Nature has always been a passion of mine right from the word go, really. I could have ended up in a career in conservation [much sooner].
However, at the time that I was making decisions of what degree to take, I was encouraged to do biochemistry, and that led on to a molecular biology career.
What I learnt during my degree does apply to what I do now, though. There’s an awful lot of similarities at the cell and molecular level between humans and plants, so my molecular biology knowledge helps me to understand the plant science side of my job.
What degree or degrees do you have?
My first degree was biochemistry, and then I did a PhD in prostate cancer.
As a Postdoctoral Research Assistant, I moved on to colon cancer and then skin diseases. For the majority of my career, I looked at different types of skin disease – that was what I set myself up to do in my own lab. It became my main interest.
How did you make that transition from molecular biology into conservation?
Universities are always refocusing their research interests. There was a change in the Head of the Department, but the new Head wasn’t interested in my kind of research.
The end result was that I left the university and became self-employed. I did some work for a journal as an editor, and I was also lecturing over the internet about skin diseases.
It was difficult being self-employed, and working from home by yourself is lonely. So, I started volunteering.
Initially, I was just thinking that I would learn to grow my own vegetables to keep myself healthy. I decided to start volunteering at Sculpture by the Lakes, which is just six minutes away from where I live. Volunteering here gave me some social interaction as well, which you don’t get when you work from home.
When my self-employed work came to an end, I needed a new job. I already had some experience at Sculpture by the Lakes from my volunteering, and, because of this experience, I was able to secure a job there and thus change my career path.
What were the main challenges of your transition into conservation?
Rebecca with a moth trap on a ‘Wild Wednesday’.
The thing I found, when I went self-employed, was that it’s actually quite difficult to promote yourself when you’ve had a job where everything is set up in the university system. You don’t know how to publicise yourself and how to get clients. I really wasn’t very good as my own manager, and I think that’s part of the reason why I wasn’t very successful while I was self-employed.
With the transition to Sculpture by the Lakes, I found that, at first, it was difficult going from a job that was all about using the brain, to doing a lot of manual work. Physically, it’s quite demanding.
From sitting in front of a computer and doing a lot of writing, to using a lot of garden tools and working from 8 am until 5 pm. It is incredibly demanding. Even simple weeding can leave you exhausted by the end of the day, from all the muscles you have to use.
I also got frustrated that I wasn’t using my brain, so I suppose that’s why we’ve evolved my job at Sculpture by the Lakes. I wanted to learn about the job, and not just do the manual stuff. I have been given a lot of support to develop my job role and there is an intellectual side to my duties now.
What’s the best part of your current job?
Oh, definitely recording wildlife and interacting with the public, showing them the wildlife. It’s very inspiring when you show people things they’ve never seen before and they’re just so excited.
If they’ve never seen a moth trap and have never seen the amazing creatures that fly about at night while we’re asleep, then they’re always so surprised and amazed. It’s wonderful. You can never get over that; just telling people about things that they haven’t actually experienced before.
And what’s the worst part, if there is one?
Well, I sometimes find the gardening tasks can be a bit tedious. They go on and on, but they have to be done. I think it’s important to have that connection with the garden as well.
The way in which a garden works is at the edge of the wildlife, so you’ve got to make sure all the time that what we do as gardeners doesn’t impact the wildlife. If we’re doing anything in the garden, we have to think very carefully – is there a bird nesting nearby? I’m always on the alert.
I go round the garden and I monitor it every week, so I know what’s happening and I can say, “No, you mustn’t do that right now, there’s a moorhen nesting there!”
What is your proudest achievement from your work at Sculpture by the Lakes?
Monitoring the dragonflies over the summer of 2023! It was the first time we had done it for the entire summer, every single week. In the past, Dorset Wildlife Trust would come in and audit, but they come in periodically, like once a month.
By monitoring every week, I was able to actually look at what was really taking place at Sculpture by the Lakes, and not just whether a dragonfly was popping in for a day trip, which they do. You can really assess what creatures are actually breeding, which of course, is what’s important.
I’m doing that again this year (2024), and we’ve had a really exciting visitor, which is a special dragonfly called the Norfolk Hawker that only breeds in a small part of Dorset, UK.
Normally it breeds in Norfolk (UK), but there’s a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve in Dorset where they also breed. One of these Norfolk Hawkers turned up at Sculpture by the Lake, so maybe we’ll have another species breeding in the future.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to switch to a career in conservation?
You hear a lot about the volunteering route, and it does sometimes lead to another career. Although of course, not everybody can afford to do that.
The way I started was by doing just a few hours every week and it led to other things. It wasn’t planned – I just wanted to learn how to grow vegetables!
When I knew that everything was going to slow down with my self-employed work, I knew that I would need another job, to provide security. In this kind of situation, it’s good to have a backup plan and already have connections with another organisation.
Alternatively, you might just feel you need a change. I think as you progress in your first career and you get higher up, it can become more and more pressured, so if you can afford to start another career at a lower salary, it can take the pressure off and also give you a fresh perspective on life.
I was passionate about my first career and I loved it, but it wasn’t me that gave up on it. It was my unfortunate challenges at university with the change of Head of Department that, fortunately, put me on this new life path.
What are your hopes for the future of conservation and the environment?
Climate change is obviously of huge importance. We talk about global warming, but in the UK it feels more like global cooling at the moment. We’re experiencing this very cool summer and it is affecting our butterflies. They are in much reduced numbers.
I actually did a monitoring exercise recently of all the insects at Sculpture by the Lakes, and it really struck me how few bumblebees there were. I was speaking to the Dorset Wildlife Trust auditor about it, and he has also experienced that this year. Eventually we could end up without any pollinators, which would be an absolute disaster.
It’s also not just about climate change; it’s all the other things that we do to the environment. I mean, trying not to use pesticides, like neonicotinoids and glyphosates, that are used in food production and really affect wildlife.
When I go into a garden centre, I’m horrified to see the kind of products that we shouldn’t be using on the shelves.
So I hope that we can think about these things and keep raising awareness about what we should, and shouldn’t, be doing in our own gardens as well.
It’s not just about farming. It’s about what every individual decides to do.
Learn more
Find out more about the work of Sculpture by the Lakes and the Dorset Wildlife Trust by visiting their websites. If you’re interested in hands-on roles like Rebecca’s, you might like our Conservation Land Manager role profile. And if you’re planning on switching careers yourself (or just curious about what’s possible!), check out our Top Conservation Careers Advice for Career Switchers.
Main image: A Norfolk Hawker dragonfly.
Author Profile | Jasmine Santilhano
Jasmine Santilhano is an Ecology student at the University of York, UK, and a volunteer Conservation Careers Blogger. She plans to work in wildlife conservation after she graduates.