The Team
Meet the team responsible for delivering Cornwall Rivers
Project. While most staff at the Trust have worked on
the project throughout its life, and continue to contribute
from time to time, the current core delivery team are
as follows:
Justin Bartley –
Project Officer
Justin joined the Trust
in 2005, and is now working on the Cornwall Rivers Project
as a Project Officer. He is originally from East Devon
where he grew up surrounded by cider apple orchards and
pedigree South Devon cattle. He has an MChem in Environmental
Chemistry with a year in Germany and recently completed
an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College
London. During his studies he has carried out research
into air pollution at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
(CEH) near Edinburgh, as well as research into a forestry-based
environmental scheme for Costa Rican farmers.
Justin is a keen traveller and has lived and worked in
a number of countries, including over a year teaching
English in Ecuador and India, doing volunteer work in
Mexico, Guatemala and the Philippines, and literally painting
Vancouver red, blue and green as a house painter. In his
free time he enjoys walking, especially with dogs, looking
at the sea and being grumpy...
Ross
Cherrington – Senior Rivers Officer
Ross has 15 years of
hands-on experience of working on, and managing farms.
He is passionate about the farming world and the countryside,
he is essential to the Trust’s vision of influencing
farmers from the inside.
He is a regular column writer for “Rural News”
in New Zealand as well as “Manitoba Cooperator”
in Canada and in May 2001, he was part of a lecture tour
to New Zealand to talk about Foot and Mouth Disease.
He is currently a partner in his 220 acre family farm
in Devon which is a mixed stock enterprise, where he lives
with his wife and 2 children. His interests include fishing,
shooting, walking and travel.
Anna
Cook – GIS Officer
Anna Cook, originally
from West Sussex, is one of the Trusts Rivers Advisers.
Anna attended the University of Plymouth from 1997 to
2001. She studied for a BSc Geography degree, with a research
project examining soil erosion from maize fields in Cornwall
and graduated with Honours in 2000. Anna chose to stay
in higher education and studied for an MSc in Sustainable
Environmental Management. Her research project involved
mapping heath land vegetation on Dartmoor to be used as
an assessment tool for heath land vegetation decline.
On graduating from
university Anna started working for the Environment Agency
as a data scientist. Her role involved examining and developing
ways to model diffuse and point source pollution on a
catchment scale. Anna joined the Westcountry Rivers Trust
in 2002 as a Rivers Adviser for the Cornwall Rivers Project.
Anna’s future aims are to develop skills in GIS
and consultancy work.
On a personal note
Anna enjoys spending time outside in the Cornish and Devon
countryside on her bike or feet. Whilst also enjoying
the busy social side of Plymouth!
Dr Laurence
Couldrick – Project Manager (Higher Education)
Dr Laurence Couldrick
is the project manager for higher education at the Westcountry
Rivers Trust. Specialising in Science education, he has
extensive experience of teaching and tutoring from primary
school children to university students, both in the classroom
and field, as well as presenting papers at both national
and international conferences. Coupled with this, Laurence
has research experience in a number of disciplines from
theoretical modelling through to experimental protocol
design and testing.
Laurence also has experience
working on time limited contracts for environmental companies
on sites across the UK, including surveying and overseeing
mitigation for protected species, phase 1 habitat mapping,
landscape management of riverbanks and interviewing farmers
nationwide to provided data for an government funded inorganic
waste survey.
Laurence has successfully
bid for both local and national funds, thus making further
educational development within the Trust possible, and
is currently designing a new Foundation Degree in Sustainable
River Basin Management. He is passionate about education
and wishes to see the knowledge and experience gained
by the Trust over the past 10 years disseminated in novel
and exciting ways.
Gillian
Dixon – Projects Manager
Gillian completed her
university education in Canada where her family emigrated
in 1989. She has a BSc degree in Physical Geography and
an MSc in Geography, specialising in fluvial geomorphology,
which involved detailed studies of pool-riffle sequences
in glacially influenced streams, with a view to promoting
site specific river restoration techniques. She has presented
her research at an international conference and also published
it in a Canadian journal.
After moving back to
England in 1999, Gillian volunteered and led groups with
several organisations involved in practical conservation
before joining WRT where she has worked enthusiastically
as a Farm and Rivers advisor for 4 years, with a one year
break working at the Environment Agency in water resource
licensing. In 2004 she took on the management of the Cornwall
Rivers Project and will be responsible for managing future
projects for the Trust.
After advising on farming
issues for a number of years, Gillian became addicted
to the lifestyle and now lives on a farm in deepest Devon
where she can be found tending her rare breed pigs, cattle
and calculating the best production rates from her chicken!
Abby Dowding
– Senior Education Officer
Abby joined the Trust
in 2002 as a Rivers Advisor on the Cornwall Rivers Project.
Originally from the New Forest, Abby attended the University
of Plymouth from 1998 -2001 following a gap year where
she worked on environmental and conservation projects
as part of a Raleigh International Expedition to Zimbabwe.
Whilst as university
she combined studying for a BSc (Hons) Earth Sciences
Degree with competing for the university as team captain
of the Equestrian team. As part of the degree programme
she carried out a research project examining soil erosion
processes in the badlands of South East Spain.
On graduating from
university Abby moved down to Cornwall and worked as yard
manager and instructor at a local equestrian centre before
joining the team in 2002. She is currently working on
the Cornwall Rivers Project Phase 2 as a Senior Education
Officer following three years experience as an advisor.
Aside from work, hobbies still include competing at a
local and national level and walking with her dog Blue.
Martin
Harmer – Project Manager (Fisheries)
BSc MIFM
An experienced hydro-environmental
surveyor, with expertise across a range of disciplines
including techniques for land / hydrographic surveying,
data capture, environmental and fisheries management.
A fascination with
all things aquatic, he is an enthusiastic angler and naturalist.
Martin is now Co-ordinator for the Trust’s Angling
2000 Scheme and says : Old fisherman never die they just
smell that way!
Dee Medlicott
– Project Officer
Dee Medlicott joined
the Westcountry Rivers Trust in February 2005 as one of
the newly appointed Scientific Advisors. Dee has a mixed
farming background including a Pedigree Channel Island
dairy herd. She attended the University of Hertfordshire
where she graduated with BSc Hons in Ecology & Agricultural
Biology.
Dee has a special interest in ecology
and botany, and runs several local wildlife groups. She
is currently involved in wildflower recording and Otter
monitoring in the River Inny catchment.
Dee enjoys all countryside pursuits,
as well as being a bit of a show-off on a surfboard!
Lyneth
Morley – Finance Officer
Lyn has worked for
charities for the last 15 years as she finds they give
more job satisfaction. She has a broad experience of both
manual and computerised accounts in both the public and
private sector and worked in London for 20 years prior
to escaping to the Westcountry 2 years ago.
Known as The Office
Dragon (for good reason!) she keeps the office running
in the face of all odds.
Giles Rickard
- Project Officer
Giles is a newly
appointed Farm and Rivers Advisor on the Cornwall Rivers
Project, who has a background in Environmental Science
attained through completing a BSc (hons) degree at Plymouth
University. As part of his degree he completed a dissertation
on diatoms of U.K lagoons which are a useful tool for
tracking environmental change and events through time.
He is a keen
angler with a broad knowledge of UK fisheries, including
game, coarse and sea fishing and also has a strong interest
in ornithology. When he is not visiting farms, he particularly
enjoys water sports such as snorkeling, surfing and diving
and holds a current BSAC sport diver qualification.
