Programme

Click through our programme to explore…

Professor Clive Potter, Future of UK Treescapes programme Ambassador

 @potter_clive

Clive Potter is Professor of Environmental Policy at Imperial College London and a Future of UK Treescapes programme Ambassador. An environmental social scientist with research interests in sustainable land use and forestry, Clive has published widely on the policy challenges facing the UK’s trees, woods and forests.

Dr Julie Urquhart, Future of UK Treescapes programme Ambassador

@GeogJulie

Julie Urquhart is an Associate Professor at the Countryside & Community Research Institute and a Future of UK Treescapes programme Ambassador. Her academic background spans the remits of the three research councils funding this programme. While her roots are in environmental science, her work integrates environmental social science and human geography, as well as research collaborations with arts’ scholars.

MEMBRA

Voices of the Future

newLEAF

Connected Treescapes

Branching Out

Dr Estrella Luna Diez, Principal Investigator for MEMBRA

@ELunaDiez

Estrella is a Lecturer in Plant Pathology at the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research. Her work is aimed toward plant protection and biosecurity. Dr Luna-Diez studies the sophisticated immune system of plants in order to exploit their resistance capacity to a maximum.

Natasha Simons, Research & Evaluation Officer for Coed Lleol (Small Woods Wales)

@ActifWoodsWales

After completing her PhD, Natasha specialised in designing and delivering evaluation strategies for charities, educational outreach organisations and museums. She is also experienced in report writing and funding bids. She has worked as the Lead Evaluator on several larger scale projects run by the British Council, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Physics. Natasha currently coordinates the research and evaluation for Coed Lleol – Small Woods. She owns her own woodland in Wales.

Shelley Castle (she/her), Co-lead Artist for Walking Forest

@walkingforest4

Professor Kate Pahl, Principal Investigator for Voices of the Future

@kate_pahl

Kate’s field of study is literacy and language practices in communities. She is passionate about bringing different voices into research and policymaking, with particular expertise in working with young people. Working in Education as a field, she uses arts and humanities together with social science methodologies such as visual methods, collaborative ethnography and research-creation to work with young people as co-researchers. She has held advisory roles on research projects with a focus on methodological innovation and is a strategic panel member for the AHRC.

Pete Stringer, GI Resilience Manager for Manchester City of Trees

@CityofTreesMcr

Pete has a wide range of experience in Green Infrastructure (GI) planning, delivery and research. He was appointed by Red Rose Forest in 2001 to manage the now nationally recognised Green Streets programme. An important part of his work is to facilitate research collaborations with Universities in Greater Manchester, to help provide the key evidence needed for demonstrating the role that GI plays in climate change adaptation and social benefit. Pete is also involved in developing strategic plans for where GI is most needed to address needs such as flooding, cooling and air quality.

Professor Jan White, Co-founder and Director for Early Childhood Outdoors

Working as an independent consultant across the UK and internationally, Jan is a thinker, trainer and writer on outdoor play in early childhood, advocating for high-quality outdoor provision for children from birth to seven. She is an honorary Professor of Practice with the University of Wales Trinity St. David and co-founder/director of Early Childhood Outdoors, the national organisation for play, learning and wellbeing outdoors in the early years.

Dr Matthew Dennis, Principal Investigator for CASTOR

@DrMattDennis

Matthew is an interdisciplinary researcher and lecturer in Geography at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on the application of spatial-ecological techniques and biogeographical principles to understanding biodiversity, ecosystem services and well-being outcomes in complex social-ecological systems.

Rosie Holdsworth, Countryside & Partnerships Manager, West Yorkshire (National Trust)

@nationaltrust

Rosie looks after the National Trust’s countryside places in West Yorkshire, including overseeing exciting conservation projects working with partners as well as having responsibility for the conservation and restoration of 3 beautiful countryside properties, ranging from formal gardens to windswept moorlands and hidden woodland valleys.

Chris Jones, Communities and Land Director at Beaver Trust

@kernowbeaver

Chris is a farmer and ecologist. He has worked as a policeman in Africa, as a forester in SW England, and as a drilling fluids engineer in the North Sea, Middle East and Africa. He has been interested in the idea of reintroducing beavers to the UK for many years and has been practically involved in setting up and running the Cornwall Beaver Project with Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Exeter University since 2014.

Dr Stephen Cavers, Principal Investigator for newLEAF

@scavers_at_wk and @newLEAF_Trees

Stephen is a researcher working at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, studying genetic diversity in trees. His research concerns the processes that generate and shape genetic diversity and how we can protect, manage and make use of that variation to secure more resilient tree populations for the future.

David White, Woodland & Climate Change Adaption Adviser for the Forestry Commission

@ForestryComm

David is the Woodland and Climate Change Adaption Adviser at the Forestry Commission. His work involves reducing the vulnerability of forests, as well as using forests to reduce the vulnerability of society to climate change.

Dr Chris Nichols, Conservation Evidence Manager for the Woodland Trust

@ChrisPNichols

The role of Chris’ team is to underpin the work of Woodland Trust with evidence. He oversees their Conservation Research Programme which funds and supports applied research to provide evidence and enhance our ability to protect, create and restore UK native woods and trees. His team is developing a Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Framework to enable us to evidence the impact of our conservation activities.

Piran White, Principal Investigator for Connected Treescapes

@York_IGDC and @YESIUoY

Piran is an ecologist and interdisciplinary researcher, based at the University of York. He is Co-Director of Interdisciplinary Global Development Centre (IGDC) and theme co-lead for Environment and Health within the York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI). He works on human-environment interactions, including human and wildlife health and wellbeing, and the impacts of environmental change on communities, their health and livelihoods.

Paul Armstrong, Public Affairs Manager for the Woodland Trust NI

@PaulArmstrongNI

Paul joined the Woodland Trust as Public Affairs Manager in January 2021. Prior to this, he worked in policy and advocacy roles at the National Trust and in the social housing sector. He is responsible for leading and managing the trust’s policy and advocacy work to support the creation, protection and restoration of woodlands in Northern Ireland for the benefit of climate, nature and people. He is a strong advocate for communities engagement and he is a voluntary board member for the charity Supporting Communities.

Clare Olver, Programmes Manager for The Mersey Forest

 @clareolver

Clare has been involved in land management for 30 years and has previously worked in the private sector. During her time at The Mersey Forest, Clare has managed a number of large-scale programmes including EU-funded projects around green infrastructure planning and delivery of nature-based solutions. Currently, Clare manages Trees For Climate, a multi-million-pound woodland creation project, part of the national Government-led Nature for Climate fund delivered by England’s Community Forests. Clare developed and leads the Natural Health Service which uses the power of nature to reduce health inequalities.

Dr Michael Wilson, Principal Investigator for Branching Out

@profmikew

Michael is Professor of Drama and Head of Creative Arts at Loughborough University, where he leads a research team in Applied Storytelling. Over the past fifteen years, he has led numerous RCUK/UKRI cross-council and European Commission projects that explore the application of storytelling to a variety of social and policy contexts, especially around environmental policy, health, education and social justice. More recently this has included GCRF and Newton Fund projects on environment and health in Kenya, Uganda, India and Colombia.

Dave Meigh, Operations Manager (Public Realm) for City of York Council

@CityofYork

Dave is a senior manager with 25 years’ experience of caring for and developing York’s green space including parks, river banks, play areas, allotments and tree stock. Services provided in house, through contractors, the 3rd sector and local community volunteers. Green Flag judge.

Laura Purseglove, Producer of Loughborough University’s Radar programme

@laurapurseglove and @radarlboro

Laura is Producer of Radar, a commissioning and research programme based at Loughborough University which creates opportunities for artists to work in collaboration with academic researchers. Radar will be supporting an artist to work in collaboration with researchers as part of the Branching Out project.

Ian Bateman, Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute

@EnvBatman

Ian J. Bateman OBE, US-NAS, FBA, FRSA, FRSB, is Professor of Environmental Economics and Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) at the University of Exeter, UK. He has been an advisor on environmental improvement to senior Government ministers for over a decade and worked with over 200 private sector companies