TVERC Team Update

We are delighted to have welcomed some new faces recently at TVERC to help us with field surveying projects beyond the Local Widlife Sites projects to include working with landowners to help them understand the biodiversity value of their holdings, support data projects and to position TVERC to help ensure that the biodiversity and geodiversity takes an important part in the future Nature Recovery Strategies for our two counties.

We have welcomed Katherine Howell as our new Biodiversity Officer in August. Katherine joined us from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology where she worked as a Field Ecologist, primarily conducting botanical surveys for a project monitoring the effectiveness of Agri-Environment Schemes (AES) at a landscape-scale on mobile species (pollinating insects, moths, birds and bats). Previously she worked as a consultant Ecologist carrying out Phase 1 Habitat and protected species surveys and holds survey licences for great crested newts and dormice. Katherine also has prior experience in practical conservation management and started her career-path in biological recording as a trainee at the Somerset Environmental Records Centre (SERC). Katherine was formerly a dormouse monitor in Somerset for the National Dormouse Monitoring Project and is keen to become involved again at any dormouse sites in the TVERC region.

Also in August, we welcomed Elizabeth Tatham as our new Biodiversity Data Assistant to support our data search service. Elizabeth has just finished her masters degree in Biology, where she ran a citizen science project to uncover the relationship between pigeon plumage polymorphism and air pollution. During her masters, Elizabeth also completed a micro-internship with TVERC looking at Odonata distribution. Alongside her studies, she helped to run the student wildlife photography society and researched climate change policies for Oxford University’s Net Zero Tracker. Elizabeth is looking forward to getting to know TVERC as well as she knows pigeons.

More recently, we welcomed Chloe-Mae Kilby to TVERC in October as our Admin Officer who will be covering Filipa McGuinness whilst on maternity leave. Chloe-Mae has a BSc in Wildlife Conservation from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology and an MSc in Conservation Ecology from Oxford Brookes University. Much of her interest is focussed on human-wildlife conflict scenarios, particularly those involving large canids, but she has also researched bumblebee diversity and abundance along varying urban/ agricultural land use gradients. She has worked in conservation and development and joins TVERC as administration officer, where she hopes to utilise a varied skillset to support our work in data management and biological recording. In her spare time, you can find her planting in her allotment or looking after her various animal companions.