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Before landing a role as one of the guardians of Jersey's natural heritage, Donna Le Marrec enjoyed flying - quite literally - through a plethora of positions in a highly varied career.
The former cabin crew member worked in the States for 38 years, with the last 20 as Development Manager at Jersey Tourism. When the department was privatised, she joined the National Trust for Jersey as Marketing and Events Manager.
Donna says that her job, which includes organising activities to help educate islanders on the importance of preserving the island's heritage, is where she feels most at home and which makes the most of her marketing skills and event management experience.
"I am honoured to work here with a lovely team which works hard to protect our built and natural environment," she confessed.
For Express, she took a break from her duties, which included organising the open milling day this Saturday, to write about five things she believes need changing in the island...
I would like us as an island to plant more trees. Jersey has a tree coverage of only 5.2% and is ranked near the bottom of a European league table - only Guernsey and Malta have less tree coverage in the whole of Europe. The UK has 13%, France 31%. Finland and Sweden have the most trees at 68.4% and 73.1% respectively.
Pictured: Pretty when they are in bloom, providers of shade when it gets too sunny and good for islanders and wildlife - for Donna there should be more trees in the island.
Every Islander should make an effort to plant one, developers should be tasked with planting whenever and wherever they can. There is nothing better than seeing trees in bloom and they are obviously good for us as well as wildlife generally.
Can we stop wrapping everything in plastic? I am getting more anxious about this every time I look at Facebook and see pictures of whales, turtles and other creatures living in the ocean with plastic in their diet or wrapped around their torsos! Why are bananas and avocados sold in plastic bags? It doesn’t makes any sense at all.
Pictured: Is plastic packaging really necessary? Donna doesn't think so. (The Good Jersey Life)
I appreciate health and safety issues but I think that supermarkets and retailers generally should take more notice of customer concerns and the impact packaging has on the environment and take some responsibility. I saw an initiative the other day on social media when shoppers unwrapped all of their packaging at the till before payment as a protest and thought it was marvellous.
Can we please start growing something other than Jersey Royal potatoes? I know that this wonderful crop is our agricultural ‘bread and butter’ so to speak but I would like to see more diversity such as tea or flowers or exotic leaves for local floristry use. I think the hemp initiative is fantastic.
Pictured: Jersey Royals are good but Donna would like to see more diversity in the fields.
Even writing this I can imagine the immediate response from growers about cost, resources and so on… but given our climate, soil and location we must be able to grow other crops and it would be nice to see less plastic (sorry) on our fields in the winter.
I think it would be wonderful if we could re-introduce grant funding or establish a new scheme to preserve more heritage sites, old walls and so on. The recent opening of the refurbished Victorian cottages in Pitt Street (Foot buildings) and the amazing feedback we received was overwhelming. I like new, modern buildings as well – but where possible, we should be preserving a bit of history so we have a balance.
It is too easy to let old buildings fall into decay and then use this as a reason for demolition or cover up bits of history which with a bit of initiative or foresight could be preserved. Whenever I travel to other cities I am constantly amazed by how much history has been retained even in the newest buildings.
My friend lives in St Martin and drives every day to the airport. He has to drive through about ten different traffic schemes every few miles ranging from 15, 20, 30 and 40 miles per hour in an eight mile travelling distance.
Pictured: Too many different traffic schemes and hedgehogs and rabbits dead on the roads, for Donna, something must be done about traffic.
Yet I live just off a main road in a country parish where the average speed seems to be 60 mph and I have never seen a speed camera in the 13 years that I have lived there. I am so fed up of seeing squashed hedgehogs and rabbits on the roads. Can’t people see these poor creatures before they drive over them?
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not those of the Bailiwick Express.
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