From permaculture to conservation: a career rooted in nature

For much of his working life, the career path has not been a straight line for Keegan Blazey. His life has moved through art studios, organic farms, classrooms, games design, university laboratories and, eventually, into the practical, muddy work of conservation. But looking back for the current Tree Nursery Officer at the Council’s Tree Nursery at St Asaph, the thread running through it all is clear: a desire to understand the natural world and to do something useful within it. County Voice pulls up a chair with Keegan to find out how nature has always been accompanying him through his working life.

His interest began in his 20s, when he became involved in permaculture — a way of thinking about food, land and community that goes beyond sustainable agriculture. For Keegan, it helped him connect with wider ideas about culture, spirituality, mindfulness and self-sufficiency.

He explained: “I got really into being sustainable and self-sufficient. You learn how to grow your own food because it keeps you healthy. Buddhism, mindfulness and all those things were part of what got me into it.”

Growing up in South Africa also helped shape his outlook. As during the time, water shortages, drought and rolling blackouts were part of everyday life. Keegan explains that Permaculture offered practical answers including rainwater harvesting, sustainable water use and designing systems that depend less on mains supply.

After moving over to the UK, Keegan worked mainly as an English teacher while continuing to volunteer on land-based projects. That eventually led to a role as an organic garden manager, where he ran a market garden supplying a bed and breakfast site, managed around 20 volunteers, taught English to international volunteers coming over from Europe and helped build a more circular, wildlife-friendly growing system.

The work involved ponds, wetlands, ducks, composting and closed loop growing. It brought together several parts of his background: teaching, practical gardening, sustainability and people management.

Later, his career changed tracks again. Art, which had always sat alongside his environmental interests, became his profession. Keegan moved into digital concept art, working mainly in gaming for five or six years. During the Covid pandemic, the games industry grew rapidly and the work was there — but something no longer felt right for him.

Keegan said: “I was sitting there painting medieval armour for games while the world was suffering, it just didn’t feel right.”

That realisation pushed him to test himself through an environmental science Degree at Bangor University. He admits he looked for a role where his skills could contribute to solutions, and this route gave him the technical grounding to move into research. Environmental science helped provide him a broader outlook as it not only at protecting nature, but at how people and the environment can work together.

A placement in forestry research became a major turning point for Keegan. He worked as a research technician on climate change experiments with the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, helping gather and process field and laboratory data. He explained the work was very ‘detailed’, soil tests, water tests, tree and root measurements, data collection and analysis all kept him busy.

“At one point, I spent months washing soil from oak roots, separating them by hand, scanning them and passing the results on for analysis, he says with a smile.

But it provided a solid grounding in fieldwork, data and experimental process, which has helped with his current role as Tree Nursery Officer.

During his degree, Keegan explained he also focused on soil science and completed a dissertation on microplastics, using Denbighshire’s own local wildflower meadow sites as part of his research.

The project looked at microplastic movement in soil alongside carbon, moisture and compaction, measures used to understand soil health and land management.

Chatting with County Voice, Keegan admits he still hopes to complete a research focused PhD one day, but for now sees practical experience as the best next step.

Sitting in one of the nursery tunnels, it’s evident that Keegan’s scientific background is helping push forward the site’s aim to protect local biodiversity with positive results of his Aspen growing experiment beside him as the talk continues, with sea holly grown in the background and new wildflower beds replenishing seed stock on the nursery’s doorstep.

“It’s been a huge learning curve,” he says. “But I’ve had experience of the skills I needed coming in. The details matter in research, but I’ve also learned what level of data we actually do need here.”

Before County Voices closes the chat, we ask how he feels about the Tree Nursery Officer role he took on in 2025, another smile emerges: “This is the best job I’ve ever had. The prospects in terms of what we’re doing and what we’re trying to achieve at the nursery are incredible. Everyone I talk to is jealous of what I do.”

Tackling the impact of climate change issues on the land locally is not without challenges, but for Keegan, that is part of the point.

He says: “Most climate change and nature enhancement work feels impossible…But it’s important that we try.”

What began with permaculture and a search for self-sufficiency has grown into a career for Keegan built around restoration, resilience and the belief that even striving to conquer difficult environmental work is worth doing, evident at the many green shoots of progress appearing at the Tree Nursery.