Jodi Thomas
Wild Swimmer & Ecologist
Growing up in Essex, Jodi reflects on how her affinity for the natural world has developed. Her appreciation for the outdoors seems to have found its way into every aspect of her life. She explains her discovery of the pleasure drawn from being outside.
COULD YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF?
So my name is Jodi and I'm 20. I don’t really feel like I've done much in my 20 years, but at the same time I feel like I've done a lot. I'm an ecologist and I usually work in London, but I spend a lot of time travelling. In a nutshell I go out in my hi-vis and I save animals from industry, construction and people pretty much. It’s always felt pretty odd, people saving animals from people, but it's got to be done. When I'm not doing that I like to run, swim and cycle. I like being outside.
HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN THIS ACTIVE?
Not exactly. My dad and my Nana have always ran. Then in 2018 when I was living in Falmouth I got a letter from my nan to say that a half marathon in our local town was starting again. It hadn’t happened for 20 years, but my Nana, Granddad, my dad and his Nan ran the first one. This meant that I would be the fourth Thomas generation to run it - if I was to run it having never ran in my life. So obviously I said yes, thinking that's not too difficult. It's only 13.1 miles? In hindsight, I had never ran the .1 let alone the 13.
So I joined a running club and ran a park run for the first time on the 5th of January 2019 which took me 31 minutes. I was a bit huffy and puffy, thought I was going to pass out but just decided to keep going. I kept going, prepared for the Half Marathon this year which unfortunately got cancelled. But I figured why not do it myself. So I ran 13.1 miles. I didn't hate it, I actually got a bit hooked. So when I say I like running, I hate running until I’ve done it. I like it after it when I'm in the shower and I realise I’ve been for a run. But I think it’s something I’m going to keep working on.
Whereas Swimming is something I’ve always had an affinity for. I could probably swim before I could walk in all honesty, think it’s something to do with living by the coast. During summer when we were growing up we were at the beach every day after school. Eventually I started swimming for a club through school. We would go three times a week for training and compete once a week. I fell out of love with it when I was 13, decided it was too competitive and took up other hobbies. I got really involved in drumming and didn’t really think about swimming for a while, but it was always something I could just do. I think that’s quite lucky, I don’t know many people who can just swim. Then over the last couple of years, living in Cornwall, I’ve felt close to the sea again. I’ve realised how much I appreciate it; it’s one of the few places I can go where if I swim out far enough I can see people but I can’t hear them. I feel at home in the water.
WOULD YOU SAY YOU’RE PART OF AN OUTDOORSY COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE?
I don’t know, I think there’s some preconceptions that come with being outdoorsy. Like people expect you to be a bit of a tree hugger when in reality we really just enjoy being outside. There is something special about the people you see at the river at 6AM on a Tuesday morning mid March, when there’s still a bit of frost on the ground and the sun is just rising. You know that the people you see are likeminded and it’s easy to pinpoint other people doing something that they love. Some people really struggle with it. I’ve told people in the past that I’m going for a swim and they’ll ask “which pool?”. Then I go onto explain the wetsuit and the river, you wouldn’t believe how many times people have asked if I mind the cows drinking… Yeah, some people raise their eyebrows but that's fine because everyone's outdoors is different.
It’s funny because I’m not actually sure how many people know I like wild swimming. Nowadays there’s this bizarre thing that people say if it’s not on social media, did it really happen. Yes it did. I can go out for a bike ride for three hours and not see anyone; the last thing I am worrying about is updating my social media. It’s a crazy bubble away from people, like a sort of escape. Then you can come home and shower, throw on some nice jeans and you’re back in the real world. It’s a different kind of escape though. Some people’s escape is watching TV, which is completely understandable. You know, I practically used to be an EastEnders Advocate - I’d never miss an episode. But I guess I’d rather spend an hour in the water than an hour in front of the Telly now.
DO YOU THINK THAT CHANGE HAPPENED NATURALLY?
Maybe it happened with age. I know 20 is young to a lot of people but I’ve definitely appreciated things a lot more since growing up. It wasn’t until I moved away from home that I realised how much was on my doorstep. I’d never really fitted into the whole demographic of being a 16 year old in Essex, fake tan and eyelashes wasn’t my kind of thing. I realised quite a lot when I moved to Cornwall for college, there was something immediately captivating about it. I began to understand that actually I could visit Tesco without any make up on, wearing penguin pyjama bottoms and flip flops in daylight and nobody cared – I really like that. I brought that mindset back home to Essex with me, where I’ve since realised how beautiful this place is.
CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT ABOUT YOUR WORK?
My nutty job! I work in London but not the posh, swanky part. When I tell people I work in the environmental industry they almost always say “Oh gosh, plastic pollution right?”. Well, no – I find it quite difficult to explain but I basically work for a global consultancy. When something new is being built I am hired to survey land before anything can happen, to ensure that any construction isn’t detrimental to the biodiversity and livelihood of animals living in the area. I don’t design roads, I’m not an engineer or an architect, but for a road to be built for example I would need to assess the negative impacts on bats, badgers dormice… and consider what mitigation is put in place.
Throughout the year we focus on different species mating and breeding. Survey season is from the beginning of April until the end of September. We run around the countryside in High Vis with Bat detectors, Newt Bottle Traps, Dormice Boxes or Reptile Felts. You can imagine how crazy we look - hardhats, wellies and clipboards at 2am looking for bats. If we find areas where trees holding roosts may be demolished then we ensure the safety of the bats with green bridges and things.
I really love the Bat surveys. As the sun is setting we sit under the trees waiting for them to emerge, then again in the morning we watch for the confirmation of a roost. Sometimes we need to track them, so we catch them then place a small tracker on them that will fall off after 10 days so they’re not harmed. We look mad following them around with this huge telegraph pole-like thing, sticking our heads out of car windows waiting for their calls. Eventually we are able to determine where they are crossing regularly, indicating where a green bridge is needed for them. That way they are much safer when it comes to new roads. It’s long hours; you start around 5pm then finish around 11pm, before starting again around 2am and finishing early morning. I end up being a bit nocturnal, sleeping through the day for this crazy job. Then we spend the winter months writing up data and analysing surveys. I love it, I’m learning how multi-million pound global business services work as well as running around at Dusk and Dawn looking for bats.
WAS THIS WHAT YOU SET OUT TO DO?
I’ve always been interested in the environment, but I thought I wanted to go into Marine Biology. It is still something I’m passionate about but while I’m living in the UK, I think there are some really interesting things going on from an ecological perspective. I’m now studying environmental science. I think perhaps I’ve always just loved animals and I like the idea of making a positive difference to animals when we have such a huge negative impact. Feels like I’m giving back a little, you know?
I’m not sure if I’d say I was destined to be an ecologist though. I remember the turning point when everything began fitting into place. I signed up for a six-week turtle conservation charity in Greece, because who wouldn’t want to hang out with turtles on a tropical beach every day. That turned out to be the hardest six weeks of my life so far, also amazing though. Honestly, some days it felt like David Attenborough should have been narrating. I think it gave me the kick I needed for surveying and ecology over here. It began to put things into perspective for me; I want to do something about the harm we’re causing animals.
DO YOU THINK THAT THIS KIND OF MINDSET IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY POPULAR AMONG PEOPLE?
Yeah, I think people are wanting change as we haven’t managed to get things quite right so far. There’s a reason why humans are at the top of the food chain, we’re very powerful and clever. It’s just a shame that we abuse the knowledge that we have. We seem to manipulate everything for our own development, then continue to create more stuff to try and undo our previous mistakes. I’m involved in an industry that requires land to be built on. Some of my most precious memories were spent in Greece, where I flew to at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately, nobody’s perfect.
It’s difficult as well. To survive in this country you need money, which doesn’t come from hugging trees and saving animals. It comes from creating planes or making cars, playing monopoly in London… We’re so busy dominating all these industries that we are losing sight of what is important. People assume that this mindset is trendy, or is synonymous to an age group or something, but the reality is that so much has changed within the last couple of decades that we can’t keep up with it. We can see the Great Barrier Reef deteriorating, or the forest fires burning. It couldn’t be clearer.
THERE IS STILL A BIT OF A GENDER DIVIDE IN OUTDOOR INDUSTRIES, DO YOU THINK THIS IS REFLECTED IN YOUR WORK PLACE?
In terms of work there are more women than men in my ecology team. The men and women are treated equally at work, we are given the same jobs and learn the same lessons. Of course, when you look higher up the hierarchy there are more men, but that makes sense. A couple of decades ago these men were training to be in those positions. The fact that now, when I go on site, I see more women means that in a few years time when the current generation are retiring there will be more females in those positions. I struggle with the idea that we should be balancing the proportions of men to women purely for statistics. If I get a job, I want to get it because I deserve it - not because they need one more woman. Why shouldn’t a man get the role if they’ve worked really hard for it? Equal rights for both. I understand that we need a change, but it isn’t going to happen overnight. Naturally, the women that are currently training will be in those higher roles soon.
But outside of my industry, I do see a bit of a difference. How come when I flick on the telly I only see the men’s Tour de France? Or when they show the London Marathon, they spend so much longer covering the men’s event? And why are there always more men running than women? It happens in real life too. Just the other day someone told me they had assumed I was a man because I was swimming in a wetsuit and hat on my own. Apparently, it was the nail polish that made them realise…
Like I said, I do think it’s improving gradually but it’s definitely a conversation that we should all be having. I’m not sure we should be pushing more women though. If you put pressure on people to go outside, then are they really building a genuine relationship with the outdoors? I think encouragement is good but that they’ll find it themselves in our current environment. My role model for what I’m doing is my dad. He did some crazy things that I can’t even imagine doing, but I’m going to give it a good go. He’s a man and I’m a woman, but that doesn’t mean I can’t follow in his footsteps. I admire how much hard work he put into his athletics and I want to try. Maybe there just needs to be more role models in general.
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