“When I grew up it wasn’t considered an option to go into things like countryside management. If I said I wanted a job that allowed me to play in the mud and climb trees they would have said, nobody’s going to pay you for that. Well, that’s what they’re paying me for.”

Eve Schulte’s passion for conservation, nature and wildlife naturally led her to Scotland. A high-level PA working for a successful organisation in Germany, she fell in love with Scotland whilst on holiday and after returning year after year, she decided to make the move and live here.

“I just packed my bags and came over, found myself a job and thought I'll maybe stay for a year and see how it works out and here I am almost 30 years later.”

Eve set up a successful boarding kennel business which took in Animal Care apprentices from the local SRUC college. Though profitable, the business was tying, and the decision was made to close it with Eve returning to work in a 5-star hotel in St. Andrews from which she was later made redundant. With hindsight, Eve now views the redundancy as a blessing, giving her the incentive to return to college and pursue her passion.

“I was lucky enough to be made redundant because that gave me the push to go back to college and do my HNC and HND and then see what happens from there.”

Eve enrolled on the HNC Countryside & Environmental Management course at SRUC Elmwood followed by the HND at which point she started volunteering for NatureScot at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve.

After taking a year out to work, Eve signed up for the BSc Sustainable Environmental Management course at SRUC Edinburgh. Just after the degree started, Forestry Commission Scotland advertised for apprenticeships. Eve applied and was offered an apprenticeship in Trees and Timber which she fitted in around her studies.

After graduating at the end of May 2013, Eve focussed full time on her apprenticeship. In December that year, the Environment and Heritage Ranger position came up in the Scottish Borders. Eve started in January 2014 and has been working for what is now Forestry and Land Scotland ever since.

“If you’ve done other things in life and then you find this type of work you just have a much greater appreciation of how lucky you are.”

To enhance her career, in September 2020 Eve started the MSc Wildlife & Conservation Management at SRUC via distance learning. The first year was challenging due to COVID as the induction weekend and subsequent study weekends did not take place. It was the second year before the masters students met for the first time. Eve describes the study weekend as ‘a game changer’ being able to put faces to names and build a support network.

Eve speaks enthusiastically about her final dissertation year. One of the species she monitors with a passion is goshawks, so she decided to investigate whether there is a potential effect of the large-scale felling of larch on the breeding outcomes of goshawks. Eve describes that final year as an amazing experience with supervisors that were all real experts in their fields who were there to support her.

“The HNC, HND and degree have brought me to where I am now. Doing the masters, that’s hopefully going to be the start of another journey, but where that’s going to lead, who knows.”