European Wilderness Volunteer DiaryThe Diary of the European Wilderness Society Volunteers

Ziva Vita Alif

Taking the office into the wild

For me, the lockdown was happening at an incredible speed. All the new measures the government announced one day after another – not only in Austria, but also in my home country Slovenia – meant that the first few weeks seemed like months. Never before have I seen our lives transform at such a high speed. One day, I was working in the office, hanging out....

WIlderness Diary Ziva-30921.jpg - ©  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Winter in Tamsweg

Living in Tamsweg in the centre of the Alps provides one with a great opportunity to experience the true winter. A winter where the temperatures often go below -10°C in the mornings and where there is snow for several months. The first snow was already back in November and the 30 cm we received in one day caused power shortages and large transport issues. However....

Fridays for Future Protest in Salzburg

On the Black Friday, the 29th of November, the European Wilderness Society team headed to Salzburg to participate at the Fridays for Future protest. At 15.30 we met in front of the railway station where the protest started, together with two other volunteers, Abigail from Baden, Austria, and Andi working in Munchen, Germany. Together we marched through the city....

Ziva Wild Diary Oxford-30264.JPG - © European Wilderness Society CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Four countries in seven days

Last two weeks were vey busy for me, as I went to my graduation ceremony in Oxford, followed by a meeting in Eberswalde. Thus, before I started my trip, there was also a lot of work in the office in the preparation for the Youth Green Conference, Insect Respect and Respect Nature projects next week. So last Tuesday I took the train back to Ljubljana in order to catch....

Insect Respect was a great success!

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....

Slovenian Wolf Monitoring Howling-26712.jpg - © European Wilderness Society CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

A wolf adventure in Slovenia

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....

Val Alba Wilderness-25665.jpg - © European Wilderness Society CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

A trip to Wilderness

Last week I was super excited for the first team trip to discover some Wilderness out of the office. This time, we didn’t go very far from home – I mean my own home, Ljubljana. We went to Soča river valley, one of the jewels of Slovenia. As the area is rather far and inaccessible from Ljubljana, I have wanted to go there on a trip for a few years now and....