The Life of a Freelance Entomologist

By Dr. Gerard Cheshire

In the world of ecological consultancy there is a trade-off between being a generalist and being a specialist in terms of offering something useful for hire. In my case, I started off as an all-rounder and then honed my expertise as an entomologist and invertebrate ecologist. This was a natural progression as the whole point of ecology is to understand the bigger environmental picture, so that the site in question is understood in terms of its available habitats and its overall flora and fauna profile. Therefore, gaining expertise entails years of experience in the field to acquire comprehensive understanding of the relationships between the many and various factors at play. In turn, this enables the specialist to make a genuine ecological assessment of the quality, condition and composition of a site for the purposes of evaluation, mitigation, remediation, management and so on. For example, if a particular butterfly species is recorded on site, it is necessary also to know whether the site or its environs contains its food source and any other specific habitat requirements to support a viable population.

Thus, by assembling the components of information it becomes possible to apprehend whether the butterfly species is a resident and not simply passing through. The same goes for other insects and invertebrates, along with soils, botany and vertebrates, so that layers of complexity emerge to provide as full a portfolio as possible for appraising the ecological potential of a site. It is also useful to understand the context of the site in relation to the surrounding area, as it may be a link in a chain of habitats that collectively form a meta-habitat as part of a green corridor. It follows that all of this information plays a vital role in determining the fate of a site, by explaining to those without such expertise, how their decisions will affect and impact the ecological health and wellbeing of the site and its environs over time.

I was raised in Dorset, west of the New Forest, at a time when much of Hampshire and Dorset was still relatively untouched and wild. It was the perfect place for exploring the countryside and absorbing information by simply watching species going about their business in their natural habitats. So, from the age of around eleven I would venture through woodland, grassland, heathland and marshland acquiring the wealth of early knowledge that became the basis for my career in adulthood. Along the way, I acquired my degree, masters and doctorate as I became increasingly specialised academically, but I have continued to work freelance because I enjoy being hands-on in the field as that is where I feel most comfortable and at home. There is no substitute for learning on the job because observing behaviour and noticing trace evidence is really the key to knowing species intimately enough to earn a living as an ecologist and naturalist. So, I recommend spending as much time as possible entirely alone in the great outdoors, using your senses and your brain to connect with wildlife. Think of it as the foundation and touchstone you need to be good at what you do, in whichever field of ecology you prefer to work.

Clearly it is of great advantage to have a childhood grounding in natural history in order to become a specialist ecologist, simply because of the amount of required knowledge and the necessary instincts for the job. However, it is feasible for someone with an urban upbringing to succeed if they have the necessary interest and enthusiasm, as well as a willingness to invest a sufficient amount of time and effort into learning in the field and into reading relevant textbooks. It is also beneficial to do voluntary ecological work and to involve oneself with breeding and rearing native species, in order to gain insight into their lifecycles and behaviours.

There are various sectors related to hiring the services of freelance ecological consultants and naturalists, including commercial, housing, industrial, civil, conservation, private, urban planning, environmental management and rewilding. Some industrial sectors have become legally regulated due to the modern culture of litigation that has emerged with business contracts, requiring liability and indemnity insurances. The result is the curious notion that it is possible to fully ecologically profile an evolving site based on limited and cursory data. This has been accompanied by the invention of memberships and licences to accommodate the impression of professional aptitude, thereby completing the legal circle of affirmation for the industrial sector.

Other sectors are more accommodating of genuine academic aptitude and accreditation, where the clients have real interest in natural environments and actively welcome news of ecological value because they have either a vested or innate interest. So, it is necessary to choose sectors and clients according to the professional milieu in which one would prefer to work as an ecologist. As a scientist my sector preference is to have the freedom to take a properly empirical approach with the recognition that every habitat and its biodiversity evolves year-on-year, so that an ecological assessment can only ever be part of an ongoing process of evaluation and education because nature never remains in stasis.

Significant tracts of pristine habitat in Hampshire and Dorset have been lost to housing developments, industrial estates, shopping centres and road networks since I was a boy in the 1970s, precisely because governments and councils have prioritised human requirements and fiscal profits over the protection of nature. It is the same story all over Britain. The sectors involved now make hollow ecological gestures because they have a legal requirement to do so, but the reality is that it does little or nothing to prevent valuable habitats from being permanently and irreversibly damaged or erased from the landscape. After all, the only way to genuinely protect nature is to prevent its encroachment all together and to manage habitats accordingly. So, in my view, it is far better to work for sectors that genuinely conserve, save, restore and rebuild our natural habitats, as a matter of conscience, integrity and ethical duty as an ecologist, naturalist and environmental scientist.

As early as 1921, the Dorset based novelist Thomas Hardy wrote apathetically about the effects of modernisation: "The homelier features of the country are nearly all gone - pushed out of sight by the urbanizing influence of the motor-car... the country is no longer a world of its own, but a backyard to the town." If he thought that in 1921, goodness only knows what he would make of the wanton razing of natural habitats since then. The trouble is that those ignorant of nature cannot see the habitat and see only a plot of land with potential for gain.

Dr. Gerard Cheshire.
Freelance Entomologist and Invertebrate Ecologist.
Mobile: 0746 0736 897.
Contact via Email here

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