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Volunteering at European Wilderness Society

Hi! We are writing from Tamsweg, Austria, where the European Wilderness Society is based. While Rebecca was the first volunteer, who wrote the earlier blog posts, the rest of us volunteers have taken up her mantle to keep this blog going. Here we write about the personal aspects of volunteering life and the adventures we get up to. In the office we each have differing roles but as a team we are all focused in helping each other, in order to meet the mission of making Europe wild again. Here you’ll read about our adventures in the mountains alongside office work and trips further afield.

Our destinations

All about Insects at Burg Finstergrün

2 days agoHelena Hieke3 min readAdd comment

On the 7th of October the week started very exciting and full of joy. On Sunday, 15 ukrainian kids arrived after a long bus drive in the beautiful castle in Ramingstein, Austria. 50 Austrian kids followed the next day. With so many children around, our team met the experts of tomorrow. The plan was to get them ready for Insect Repsect. All of that was feasable through Interreg Volunteer Youth and the possibility to implement own Citizen Engagement Activities. Holisitic experience about insects We started the day with a wide ranging program to give our young experts the knowledge they needed....

Insect Respect was a great success!

2 weeks agoZiva Alif2 min readAdd comment

This week I organised my own project named Insect Respect, funded by Eure Projekte, in Finstergrun castle. I did a great workshop as a special guest with over 50 children at big youth event that the European Wilderness Society organised. All the kids were excited to learn more about insects and build insect hotels. In the morning, there was a presentation on what insects are like, what their role in the ecosystem is and why they are threatened. It was great to see so many young people being interested in this topic, actively asking questions. Furthermore, they were keen to learn more on this....

Striking for climate and a hike for blisters

4 weeks agoHelena Hieke3 min readAdd comment

Last Friday, EWS participated in the global climate strike. For that we did a cycling strike with the whole team. Luckily, the weather was sunny and even tough it was chilly in the morning, it got warmer during the day. So, we cycled our way through the Lungau to Mauterndorf. There we bought regional and organic food for lunch and had a picnic in front of the Castle Moosham in the sun. Afterwards we went back to Tamsweg, all with some climate signs on us. During the weekend it was good weather, and it also was one of the last weekends where huts in the mountains are still open. Therefore....

Weekend is for a walk in the nature

4 weeks agoLeona Hermann4 min readAdd comment

We enjoyed the wonderful weather in Tamsweg as a family and started a short trip on Saturday. We started walking on the cultural- pad up to “Sankt Leonhard ob Tamsweg”. While starting walking, my daughter fell asleep, just as we found our way up to Sankt Leonhard. That fact was very nice, because so we could walk a longer distance. Since she can walk by her own, she wants to explore the world on her feet, and don’t get me wrong, I mean it is wonderful, but it takes a lot of time to get to the goal. And she also loves nature, espacially the mountains, so she loves to run some steps down and....

WILD times in Majella

1 month agoJonas Sommer4 min readAdd comment

After getting settled in Tamsweg and exploring the surroundings with my great new colleagues, it was time for my first wild adventure with the European Wilderness Society. At first, I only knew that after two months in the Lungau (and a short trip to Triglav) I would go back home to Frankfurt for the first time to attend my friend´s wedding. I had no idea that the week after that would be one of the most memorable in my life. Before the wild As an IVY volunteer, I have the possibility to organize a so-called Citizens Engagement Activity, an event to raise awareness for the European Cohesion....

A wolf adventure in Slovenia

2 months agoZiva Alif3 min readAdd comment

Biff, Hanna and me spent the last week in Slovenia in the search for wolves. While we were working hard during the day for European Wilderness Society, we worked even harder each night, driving around on dirt roads in deep forests in hope to hear a wolf. All this was a part of the annual wolf monitoring where we volunteered for four nights in a row. I’ve done it last year and was lucky enough to hear an entire wolf pack with pups, so I thought I’d try out my luck once again. Sightseeing on the way On the first evening we drove to Postojna to meet the other volunteers and the....

  • 6 Volunteers so far
  • 7 Countries visited
  • 120 km Kilometres hiked
  • 30 + Diary entries