A South Molton volunteer who started at 15 won a countryside award
Lily Herniman, 18, volunteers three days a week at a north Devon otter sanctuary and was named Countryfile Young Countryside Champion.
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Lily Herniman started watching an otter sanctuary from the school bus and now spends three days a week there. The BBC reported on October 27, 2026, that the 18-year-old was named Countryfile Young Countryside Champion at the BBC Food and Farming Awards in Belfast.
She joined the UK Wild Otter Trust, near South Molton in north Devon, as a volunteer at 15. Founder Dave Webb and his wife Kath nominated her. They said it was clear early on that she would stay. The trust credited her with work on the wild ground at its new rehabilitation centre, including ponds, tree planting, and other habitat.
Herniman told the BBC the win had not sunk in. She described herself as a link between farming and conservation, and said the two are often treated as separate when both shape the same countryside. She called the chance to work with otters a privilege. The award recognizes that volunteering. It does not say how many animals the centre has returned to the wild.
For the classroom
The BBC reported that Lily Herniman, who is 18, won the Countryfile Young Countryside Champion award at the BBC Food and Farming Awards in Belfast. She started volunteering at the UK Wild Otter Trust near South Molton in north Devon when she was 15, after seeing the otter pens from the school bus. She now helps three days a week. The trust said she has worked on ponds, tree planting, and habitat at its new rehabilitation centre. Herniman said she wants farming and conservation to work together because both matter to the places where otters live. The award is for her volunteering. It is not a count of how many otters the centre has released.
- What made Lily decide to volunteer, and what does she do there now?
- Why might farms and wildlife need the same streams and fields?
- What is a small habitat project a class could try near a school?
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