Lee Beel
Wildlife and wild places
Nature based solutions for a sustainable countryside
About us
We are a professional land advice consultancy with a team of experienced advisors. We have decades of managing nature reserves behind us and we have experts in creating new habitats for nature, soil and water management, mapping and monitoring and stewardship applications.
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is an independent charity that has been protecting wildlife for almost 60 years in the county, mostly on its own estate of 55 nature reserves. Increasingly, its focus is on the wider countryside, working with farmers and landowners to deliver nature’s recovery in the county.
What we do
We have a track record of sharing specialist knowledge and working successfully with farmers and landowners. We provide advice on using natural solutions to manage land for all aspects of environmental gain. We can help with stewardship schemes, natural capital and nature recovery mapping, licences and consents, land management and wildlife plans, the financial implications of land change, soil health planning and natural flood solutions. We are part of a large trial working with DEFRA on the new ELM scheme and can help you with the planning for this new scheme as it becomes a source of income for land managers.
We understand that no two farms or estates are the same and therefore offer a bespoke approach that meets your needs. Some might need support realigning a stream or river, others will want to explore what ‘re-wilding’ might mean on their land. Our team can provide in-depth advice on land management plans for a range of habitats and share expert knowledge on how to help specialist species.
Why our services are needed
The twin threats of climate change and the loss of wildlife need urgent action and the way land is managed can have a significant impact on both. Farms and Estates need to take a longer-term view and put in place sustainable solutions to climate change and reverse the loss of wildlife.
The UK Government has responded to these threats with a 25 Year Plan for the Environment. Crucially for landowners, it moves away from direct support payments for land, towards new payments for environmental care. The Agriculture Bill and the Environment Bill indicate that future payments will only be for the delivery of public goods. These include water, flood prevention, biodiversity, climate change and pollution prevention. The basic payment scheme and its predecessor, the single farm payment have generated considerable income for many years into land-based sectors. For all farmers and landowners, its loss will need careful consideration and considerable planning for the loss to be managed. There is a chance to do this now as there is a period of planned change starting in January 2021 as direct payments will start to taper off and finally end by 2028.
Taking the time to appraise your farm business is always worth the effort but never more so than the present as new support schemes are being launched. As funding systems change now is the time to consider how your business will be affected and what steps you will need to put in place to make the farm business work when support payments will only be made for the delivery of public goods. We have looked carefully at how these changes will affect land management and how new schemes can be best used to support farming business.
Meet the members of the Wilder Landscapes team
Tim Bevan - Senior Wildlife and Farming Manager
Tim has decades of experience in land management and hails from a mixed farm in the Black mountains of SE Wales. He is a graduate in pure and applied Zoology from the University of Leeds. Tim’s early career included lecturing at agricultural colleges on a range of land management skills including farm business analysis. He has managed a research farm for Reading University and created a National Nature Reserve from many small farms and woodlands when curating the estate of the National Botanic Garden of Wales. He has considerable experience in the use of grazing stock for habitat restoration and maintenance. He has particular experienced in providing land management advice for soil health, countryside stewardship, organic systems and farm business assessments.
Richard Spyvee - Lead Wilder Landscapes Manager
With 25 years’ experience of managing a small farm (which is currently under ELS/ HLS), 20 years’ experience of ecological survey and habitat management work, and four years’ experience of working closely with landowners on landscape scale conservation projects, Richard has significant knowledge and practical experience of CAP and agri-environment schemes. He’s worked extensively on river restoration projects, which have included partnership working, and good understanding of water management planning, and some have been related to WFD. He has a broad understanding of a range of different agricultural systems, with particular knowledge of suckler beef production. Richard has good knowledge and practical experience of giving talks and walks for farmers and the general public.
John Field - Wilder Landscapes Manager
John has been with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust since 2007, having previously worked for the Soil Association and the University of Warwick. Primarily a specialist of river habitat restoration and natural flood management, John has more than 10 years’ experience in riparian mammal (water vole, otter, American mink, water shrew) surveys, white-clawed crayfish conservation and wild brown trout habitat enhancements. John holds a Natural England licence for white-clawed crayfish surveys, experience in translocation and is leading the Trust’s approach to their conservation in the Stroud Valleys. In addition, he is also licensed for barn owl surveys and box checks and is the licensed lay vaccinator for the Trust’s badger vaccination programme.
Emma Settle - Wilder Landscapes Officer
Emma joined Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust in 2017 and focuses on project delivery for conservation management work that includes Natural Flood Management, River Restoration and Species Conservation. Her other responsibilities include managing volunteers, monitoring and control of non-native species, assisting the Reserves teams and creating content for the website. Before joining the Trust, Emma completed a wildlife conservation traineeship with the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. In 2016 she graduated from the University of Exeter with a Masters in Conservation Science and Policy, where her final project studied how laws and policies affected human-wildlife conflict between lions and rural communities in Kenya.
Jenny Parsons - River Severn Catchment Officer (currently on maternity leave)
Jenny joined Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust in 2017 bringing over ten years’ experience working for Natural England on SSSI and agri-environment schemes in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. As River Severn Catchment Officer, Jenny’s role is focused on the water environment, working in partnership with farmers, landowners and other organisations, to deliver projects that improve the health of our rivers and streams and the animals that live there. After completing an MSc in Wildlife Conservation in 2018, with a final project mapping rivers in the highlands of Madagascar, Jenny has developed a particular interest in landscape scale conservation and enhancing connections between natural habitats to increase species’ population resilience.
Anna Tarbet – Canal Environment Manager
Anna joined the Trust in 2018 and splits her time between delivering a canal restoration project near Stroud, ensuring it achieves a net gain for biodiversity and developing a programme of ambitious projects to restore and enhance ecosystem functioning across Gloucestershire for GWT. Anna has been involved in the Wildlife Trust’s Defra funded ELMS trial which focused on developing a process for producing land management plans that identify existing and potential public goods. Before joining the Trust, Anna led on a wetland creation programme for a renewable energy company and has a Masters in Advanced Wildlife Conservation in Practice, where her final project focused on developing an environmental DNA surveying technique for the critically endangered European Eel.
Contact Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
We will provide a free first consultation to agree your requirements and supply an estimate and schedule for the work we will carry out for you.