Contact
To join VINE or to contribute to the web site, please contact:
Sophie Lake Email: sophie@vineproject.org.uk, Tel: 01929 558103
Making a donation
If you would like to make a donation electronically, simply click Donate and you will be taken to the PayPal site where you can choose the amount you wish to contribute and complete the transaction. The VINE Project is very grateful for your support.
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Steering group member profiles
John Bacon (CHAIR)After an initial career on the 'home' farm in the late 1950's/early 1960's - spraying everything in sight with nasty organo-chlorine and organo-phosphorous chemicals - I started as a voluntary warden for the Nature Conservancy Council in Kent in 1967(!). In 1970 upon leaving the farm I spent three months working alongside a coppice woodsman which left me in awe at the sheer variety and weight of flowers, birds and butterflies that resulted from this management. That convinced me that 'wildlife was the life for me' and I was lucky to get a new job working for the National Trust as the Northumberland Coastal Warden from 1971. Various nature reserve management jobs followed for the Nature Conservancy and English Nature in NW Scotland, Hampshire and then as Regional Chief Warden West Midlands. Took up the Senior Land Manager role for English Nature in 1994 which included coordinating the FACT and GAP projects and providing practical advice to land managers. Upon retirement in 2005 I returned to a voluntary warden role for English Nature coordinating the work of the VINE Steering Group whilst keeping my hand in on practical land management by chairing Butterfly Conservation's Reserve's Working Group.
Joyce Gilbert
After ten years of working in medical research, I decided to abandon my career as a biochemist and pursue my growing interest in environmental education.
Over the past twenty years several jobs have given me the chance to work with poets, musicians, artists, writers and scientists and also to work with very different communities in rural and urban areas from industrial Sheffield to the remote Hebridean island of Islay. This unique set of experiences has led me to believe that the key to drawing out people's empathy and love of the natural world is by learning in the outdoors through a combination of arts, science and philosophy.
Intrigued by holistic systems thinking and its role in promoting creativity in education, I applied for Winston Churchill Fellowship in 1998. As a result I spent an inspirational four months in Canada which led to the idea of creating an educational charity called SpeyGrian (www.speygrian.org.uk)which has an underlying philosophy very similar to VINE.
I am based in the village of Luncarty in Perthshire and work as Education Policy Officer with RSPB Scotland. In my spare time I enjoys hillwalking, cycling, sailing and canoeing and - in more leisurely moments - reading, listening to music and experimenting with textiles.
Email: joyce.gilbert@rspb.org.uk
Tel: 0131 3116500
Philip Goodwin
I worked as a professional musician and as an international service volunteer with a community-based environmental organisations in Timbuktu, Mali before taking up leadership positions overseas with British Council culminating in the post of Regional Director for Sub Saharan Africa. Returng from Africa at the end of 2008 I headed up their global programme in the creative and knowledge economy before taking the post of CEO of Tree Aid
I have a PhD in Conservation Policy and have published articles on conservation issues in Transactions of the
Bill Grayson
I run a conservation grazing business in NW England and like many conservation practitioners frequently find myself so engrossed in the gritty minuteae of chasing verifiable outcomes that I frequently overlook the more reflective and inspirational aspects of the natural world. Which is why I was drawn to VINE initially.
I am also an organic adviser, helping farmers and other land managers to negotiate some of the pitfalls that await them as they convert their land out of chemical based systems. I particularly ascribe to organic husbandry's central tenet that we should not "seek to dominate nature", something that modern industrial farming appears largely to have forgotten. Maybe I should tell them about VINE?
Email: billgrayson@phonecoop.coop
Tel: 01524 761347
Judith Hanna
Grew up in wandoo and jarrah forests on the 3.6bn year-old pre-Cambrian granite of the Yilgarn craton that forms the south-western corner of Australia, and on tropic-sea-lapped Manus Island off New Guinea. Living in central London turned me into a gardener who feeds the birds, and an allotmenteer. Currently work as Social Science Principal Specialist in Natural England's Evidence team, looking at what we know and don't know about what the natural environment means to people, and the benefits deriving from it. Involved in various community environmental activity in densely built-up Tottenham, the UK's most ethnically diverse local area. Former chair of Permaculture Association Britain and of New Economics Foundation, formerly worked for what is now Volunteering England, for the Commission for Racial Equality, Transport 2000 and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. So perhaps not a proper nature conservation practitioner -- but I do like to know at least the common names of the plants and critters I see around me, and how they work together as an ecosystem. Strongly suspect that only nature keeps me sane in this crazy megalopolis and sci-fi modern world -- and am interested, professionally and personally, in how others think, feel and make sense of our relationships with the natural world.
Judith.Hanna@naturalengland.org.uk
Kathy Hodder
I’ve been lucky enough to work in applied ecology (Dorset) and conservation management (Mauritius) since finishing my studies at UCW Aberystwth in 1990. I currently work as a senior lecture in Conservation Ecology at Bournemouth University. Unlike most ecologists, I’ve worked on many different topics, rather than specializing on one taxonomic area or ecological process. This gives me a somewhat bewildering publication record including studies on various birds of prey, geese, squirrels and pike. Then more latterly, reviews of biodiversity impacts of seed sowing, naturalized grazing and energy crops.
- Relevance and accessibility of environmental ethics for conservation management. What are the underlying motives for nature conservation? How is the science and practice of applied ecology implicitly or explicitly influenced by political, geographical and historical contexts?
- The history and development of conservation ecology. Why do some themes such as integration of people, economics and wildlife conservation regularly reappear as if novel? How is this influenced by the political environment?
- How can we modify language, and other aspects of communication, to break down barriers between different groups of people that come into conflict over nature conservation issues?
Tim Kemp
Facilitator and writer. Consultant to a wide range of organisations around the UK and across Europe. Coach and management adviser to conservation professionals and scientific specialists as they manage the challenging transition from specialist to generalist management and leadership positions. As Managing Director of First Step, I see my role as trying to reduce the detrimental impact our work may have on the natural environment while, at the same time, maximizing its effect on the organizations with which we work.
www.firststepmanagement.com
Sophie Lake (SECRETARY)
I currently work as an ecologist for Footprint Ecology, a small ethically run consultancy based in Purbeck, Dorset, where I am also involved in the local Transition initiative, working towards local resilience in the face of climate change and peak oil. Previously employed by the Royal Society for Wildlife Trusts as UK co-ordinator for the Grazing Animals Project, I was delighted when work with FACT brought me together with like-minded colleagues to found VINE. In love with wild places and wildlife since my childhood, an interest in deep ecology sustained me through my first few conservation jobs, until I felt I needed time out to reassess my notions of nature conservation and where it was leading me. "Time out" took the form of a PhD based on the Dorset heaths which gave me both the opportunity to develop my science while exploring other techniques for understanding nature. Further “time out” took me abroad to work with various conservation and development NGOs and agencies in India, Fiji, New Zealand and Bolivia which happily left me with a renewed zest for conservation in the UK. I hope that VINE can help us all maintain our zest.
Tel: 01929 558159
Email: sophie@vineproject.org.uk
My academic background is in the arts, for I was passionately keen on English literature, especially poetry, during my teens, and wanted to become a writer. That desire is currently reasserting itself after a long sojourn in practical nature conservation. First, I fell in love with a nature reserve in Hampshire, and became its warden. Having graduated through the school of voluntary work I carried out contract work for various conservation organisations, and explored much of Britain’s natural heritage. Since 1991 have been privileged to work for the National Trust as a senior ecologist, with the pompous title of Adviser on Nature Conservation. I must confess, though, that the burgeoning bureaucracy is stifling my dedication, and I do not believe in biodiversity. Above all, mine is a spiritual journey into and with Nature, a pilgrimage.
Peter Phillipson
Currently works as a Director of an environmental communication, training and interpretation consultancy called TellTale.
Peter was trained as an ecologist and landscape architect. After a brief spell working on environmental improvement schemes in the East End of Glasgow, He chose to follow a career in nature conservation. He worked as a volunteer for the Nature Conservancy Council, was Education Liaison Officer for Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and then Conservation Officer for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. From 1985 to 1995 he was Senior Ecologist for the Peak District National Park. He has particular interests in site and habitat management and in encouraging visitors to appreciate the beauty, interest and fragility of wildlife and cultural heritage sites.
Peter is an experienced trainer. He is responsible for the development and course direction of all the professional training courses in nature conservation at Losehill Hall. Peter sits on the Training, Education and Careers Committee of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management.
Email: peter@telltale.co.uk
Lisa Schneidau
Somerset Wildlife Trust.
Details to follow
Patrick Vincent (TREASURER)
Company Director of Green Mantle (Ecosophy) Limited, an environmental & wildlife habitat management service covering Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Dorset. The business promotes the development of a fresh approach, integrating nature conservation with ecologically-inspired philosophies.
Tel: 01761 413638
Email: Pat@green-mantle.co.uk
