RSPB Reserves Conference 2014
SPEAKERS ON WEDNESDAY
PAULA BAKER
I’m Paula Baker and I am the Site Manager for RSPB Loch Lomond. I have been working here since March 2013. Prior to this, I spent seven years as Assistant Site Manager/Visitor Publicity Officer at RSPB Lochwinnoch and six months as Information Assistant at RSPB South Stack. Like many in the RSPB team, I started as a volunteer and spent several months as a residential volunteer at Blacktoft Sands and helping with community fundraising in South-East England. I have a degree in Geography (BSc) from the University of Leicester. I consider myself a generalist but am particularly keen on moths and butterflies. In my spare time, I play drums for four (!) different bands, everything from samba to heavy metal.
ROISIN CAMPBELL-PALMER
I am presently the Conservation Projects Manager for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, where I have worked for 12 years in varying roles beginning as a reptile keeper. For the last 5 years my main duties have focused on the reintroduction of beavers to Scotland in my role as the Field Operations Manager for the Scottish Beaver Trial and undertaking my PhD in beaver health and welfare through Telemark University College, Norway. More recently I have been involved in wildcat trapping and sample collection for genetic and veterinary screening, and co-drafting the wildcat captive management for reintroduction strategy. I completed my honours degree in Zoology at the University of Glasgow and my MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the University of Edinburgh. I am passionate about native wildlife conservation.
HARRY BOWELL
From May 2014 I have been Director for the Midlands for the National Trust. This makes me responsible for an amazing collection of places – from the heights of Kinder Scout in the Peak District and the Shropshire Hills to the farmhouse in Lincolnshire where Newton witnessed an apple falling; from a row of back to back houses in Birmingham which tell the stories of working people over the last century to Bess of Hardwick’s house of glass in Derbyshire. Before this, I was Assistant Director, Operations for the east of the Midlands.
From 2000 to 2009 I was Regional Reserves Manager for RSPB with responsibility for the nature reserve operation which spans from the Peak District to Scotland. Before that I led Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve team for 13 years.
I studied Environmental Science at UEA back in a time when 3 As were not needed to get in.
My leadership challenges include keeping focussed on the right things when everything is potentially interesting, building and sustaining income whilst keeping true to the aims of the charity and leading a team which are geographically spread to the corners of a large region
I live in Sheffield, love getting out in the Peak on my bike and am woken in the early morning by my small children.
MARTIN HARPER
I have been the RSPB Conservation Director since May 2011 and oversee the Society’s work on conservation policy and advocacy, research and acquisition of nature reserves. Prior to joining the RSPB in 2004 as Head of Government Affairs, I spent five years as Conservation Director at Plantlife International, having previously run Wildlife & Countryside Link. Educated at Oxford and University College London, I undertook fieldwork in the Comores and Mongolia before embarking on a career in policy and advocacy. Away from work, I enjoy family life in Cambridge and the North East coast with my wife and two children. Running keeps me sane, while Arsenal FC and the England cricket team provide me with emotional highs and lows.
REBECCA LAIDLAW
I recently completed a PhD at the University of East Anglia (2009-2013) which focused on understanding how we could manage the impacts of predators on breeding waders within lowland wet grassland reserves, and was carried out in collaboration with the RSPB.
My current research within Conservation Science is concentrated on developing conservation solutions that aim to reduce the impacts of predators on breeding waders through landscape-scale habitat management. During the wader breeding seasons in 2013 and 2014 we have monitored lapwing and redshank breeding attempts and the activity of predators in the wider countryside of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.
JEN SMART
I am a Senior Conservation Scientist and have been at the RSPB since 2006. Much of my career has been focused on the ecology of breeding waders and developing conservation solutions that mitigate the impacts of predators. I manage two other scientists, Becky Laidlaw and Lucy Mason, and between us we spend a lot of time working on wet grassland reserves and trying to think like the foxes and raptors that like to eat our waders! Increasingly, our thoughts are focused on what we can do to recover waders in the wider countryside. I love working with students so if you have a great idea for an MSc project on your reserve please come and talk to me.
MALCIE SMITH
I’m the RSPB’s most northerly member of staff along with my wife and colleague Martha. I’ve been based on Fetlar since 1998, but we moved to the relative civilisation of Cullivoe on Yell in 2007. For most of this period I have been the North Isles Warden but, since last year, I cover all aspects of our species and habitat work throughout Shetland. I like music, baking cupcakes, taking photos and going to new places (one of these is a lie). I have a particular interest in our red-necked phalaropes as they are the most beautiful and interesting species in the UK. Despite my accent, I am not Irish – I hail from the Isle of Lewis.
GILLIAN GILBERT
I am a Senior Conservation Scientist within the Species, Monitoring and Research section of the Conservation Science department. I have tended to work on wetland species such as Bittern and Spotted Crake, but also a wide range of other species including Corncrake, Storm petrel, Stone curlew. I am currently based up in the South and West Scotland region looking into a potential food availability problem for Chough and testing UK habitat management solutions for Grasshopper warblers.
ANN KICELUK
I head up the People Directorate which has responsibility for the employment and engagement of our 20,000 strong workforce (paid and unpaid). The mission of the People Directorate is to enable the RSPB to deliver its objectives through its people. I have a real passion for people, as they are the key to success for an organisation, especially one such as the RSPB. I've worked in HR for over 20 years and have experience over the University, public and not for profit sectors.
Away from work, my main passions are my two daughters, travel and cycling. I do the occasional triathlon, but more for enjoyment than achieving any personal bests. As an Australian, I just love the British countryside and get out in it as often as I can, whether it be on bike or foot.
NATALIE HOLT
I’m the Warden for Dungeness and Lydden Valley reserves in Kent. My work involves reserves work planning and delivery, managing health and safety and legal compliance risk, working with graziers and external partners, project management, and every day problem solving! I started working with the RSPB as a residential volunteer in 2009. I was then Assistant Warden in North Kent for a year before moving to my current post at Dungeness in July 2011. Outside of work, you can often find me on a tennis court or out on my mountain bike.
MARTIN RANDALL
I have been involved with the RSPB since beginning as an intern in 2006. Since then, I have worked across the country at a variety of reserves, managing a variety of habitats. Now site manager of Dungeness and Lydden Valley, I undertake a variety of work streams including managing the reserve’s visitor operation, overseeing habitat management across a suite of unique habitats while also leading the development of the RSPB’s new reserve operation at the Lydden Valley.
SAL COOKE
I am an RSPB Council member. I qualified as a teacher, taught and lectured in schools, colleges and university and now head up a leading UK advisory service which focuses on the use of technology to aid and support education, training and employment. As director, my role involves creating the vision and strategic direction for the service and liaison with Government teams and departments.
I am an active RSPB member and volunteer, have served on the East Yorkshire Local Group committee for over 20 years, and I am its former joint leader. I run and promote seabird cruises at Bempton, where I am also a pin badge coordinator. I support RSPB campaigns, give talks, have undertaken practical work on reserves and show birds and other wildlife to visitors.
I also support the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, East Yorkshire Ringing Group, Flamborough Bird Observatory, Flamborough Head Marine Forum, British Trust for Ornithology and the Ornithological Society of the Middle East.
INNES SIM
At the RSPB I have worked on a wide variety of projects, including monitoring seabird numbers and breeding success on Orkney and red kite numbers in Spain, coordinating national surveys of hen harriers in 1998 and 2004, black grouse in 2005 and upland birds during 2000-02 and local surveys of ring ouzels in southern Scotland in 1997 and factors influencing buzzard numbers in the West Midlands during 1994-96.
Since 2006, I have lead on a project aimed at understanding the causes of ring ouzel declines in the UK. In 2013, I completed my PhD entitled 'Demographic and ecological approaches to understanding ring ouzel (turdus torquatus) population declines' at the University of Aberdeen.