Brought up on her family‘s mixed working farm, Sheelagh developed passion and experience in animal welfare and conservation, before spending 7.5 years specialising in wildlife rehabilitation. Sheelagh has worked with most British mammal species including: beavers, otters, badgers, pine marten and red squirrels. She’s experienced in animal handling and trapping.

Sheelagh’s expertise and experience in the field is respected throughout the UK and internationally. Her skillset is often sought in an advisory role for animal welfare and husbandry.

Elliot manages our communications and education, engaging the public and key stakeholders on our work to restore rivers and help people to live alongside beavers again.

Elliot was previously a Trustee of Scottish Wild Beaver Group before joining BT and is currently a Trustee of SCOTLAND: The Big Picture.

Sophie coordinates our communications initiatives, producing our outreach and education content and sharing it with the public and communities.

Sophie is a zoologist, author and science communicator, based in Devon. Her passion for wildlife conservation has gained her a wide reputation across the science communication and charity sector. Praised for her wit, digital creativity and audience insight, Sophie has influenced a range of nature and environment projects since graduating in 2017, often invited to keynote and chair at AGM’s, university conferences and wildlife festivals.

Matt coordinates the accounting and administration of global programs for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), based in Amsterdam. His professional focus bringing finance and technology expertise to non-profits includes years of enriching field work across Africa and India. Matt is also a former music artist with Atlantic Records in New York.

Victoria is head of the institutional business at Artemis Investment Management LLP. As a trustee of the Artemis Charitable Foundation, she significantly increased grant making to environmental causes. She is a committed environmentalist and enjoys putting this into practice on a hill farm in the Black Mountains. She is a trustee of food poverty charity, City Harvest.

Megan is a zoologist and wildlife TV presenter. She joined the Springwatch team in 2020 and is soon to publish her debut book called ‘Back To Nature,’ in which she hopes to encourage a new generation of nature lovers to connect with the wonders of the natural world.

Gerhard has worked as freelance beaver manager in Bavaria since 1996. Besides providing more than 1,000 beavers for European reintroduction programs, he also trained over 700 local beaver consultants in Germany. He is coauthor of the German “beaver book” and author of the “Beaver Management Handbook for local beaver consultants”.

John is Emeritus Professor of Ecology at Queen Mary University of London. He is interested chiefly in the behaviour, ecology, welfare, and management of mammals and especially rodents and insectivores. He led the Natural England/PTES Feasibility Study on Reintroducing Beavers to England (2009), is a founder member of Beaver Advisory Committee for England and sits on the River Otter Beaver Trial Steering Committee and Management Group.

Originally from Australia, Josh is a senior lecturer of water science at the University of Birmingham. Josh is focused on hydrological and water quality dynamics, and the feedbacks with aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Recent research has included the role of beavers in these interactions, across Switzerland, Germany, and now the UK.

Mhari Barnes is Project Manager for Water for Tomorrow Project with Water Resources East. Previously, she was National Flood Management and Access Policy Adviser for the NFU, leading on coastal erosion, land drainage and flood risk issues. She has researched forest-related Natural Flood Management (NFM) and compared the impacts of engineered leaky dams to beaver dams on agriculture, farmer compensation and flooding, and developed the NFU’s Integrated Water Management Strategy.

Archie runs a 2000 acre arable estate in Essex and the first natural flood management project to employ beavers in eastern England. He has worked with the national Rivers Trust on natural capital, been a Regional Director of the Association of Rivers Trusts, and is a founding Trustee of the Essex and Suffolk Rivers Trust, improving water quality, flood risk management and aquatic ecology.

Ben Goldfarb is the author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His writing on wildlife conservation and land management has appeared in publications such as Science, National Geographic, the Guardian, and Orion Magazine.

Dr Carol Williams has been Director of Conservation at the Bat Conservation Trust for 10 years. She has worked in a range of conservation roles over the last 30 years including working for Natural England/English Nature and carrying out research on the lesser horseshoe bat. She is based in Cornwall.

Charnna Gilmore is the Executive Director for a non-profit organization in Northern California. Scott River Watershed Council was established in 1992 and their work focuses on holistic solutions to address the tensions around natural resources, especially water, within working landscapes. The use of beaver as a restoration partner remains a primary component in much of their work.

Cheryl is Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Head of Conservation and lead’s their involvement in the Cornwall Beaver Project, a fenced trial run in partnership with Chris Jones and Woodland Valley Farm. Cheryl’s favourite quote from a visiting farmer “I came thinking I can’t possibly have beavers on my land, I’m leaving thinking I can’t possibly not!”

Chloe is Kent Wildlife Trust’s Head of Wilder Landscapes, championing nature-based solutions including the beaver project at Ham Fen, the UK’s first beaver reintroduction (2001). She uses the transformational work of the beaver to enthuse organisations and landowners and chairs the East Kent Beaver Advisory Group on behalf of Kent Wildlife Trust, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Stour (Kent) Internal Drainage Board and Wildwood Trust.

Daniele has had a lifelong interest in wildlife and over the past 20 years has worked as a Wildlife Guide and Countryside Ranger. Passionate about environmental education, she now runs Perthshire Wildlife, with a focus on beaver tours, swift conservation and native wildflowers. Educating people on the brilliance of beavers is the best job in the world!

David Stroud has had a long interest in wetlands, promoting their conservation professionally through former employment as a government advisor, as well as with multiple national and international environmental organisations. He is a waterbird-obsessive in his spare time. David is Honorary Patron for UN AEWA and was recent Chair of Ramsar Scientific and Technical Review Panel.

Dominic is a former strategy consultant and conservationist. He manages the 4000-acre Wild Ken Hill project in Norfolk, which combines rewilding, regenerative agriculture, and traditional conservation on one site. The site includes a 55-acre beaver enclosure, home to up to 15 beavers.

Ed believes passionately that nature is our greatest ally in tackling climate change and a deep connection with nature will help us build a better world. Ed is the Director of Development for the climate charity Ashden. When at London Wildlife Trust he witnessed how enhancing river habitats can be transformative for nature and local communities. Ed is proud to be a part of the Beaver Trust alliance.

Fran is a landscape ecologist specialising in natural flood management, climate mitigation, wilding and the restoration of natural landscapes for the benefit of people and wildlife. She supports the Knepp Rewilding beaver release, and the wider restoration of these lost ecosystem engineers to our landscapes.

George is an environmental and political journalist, author and broadcaster. He studied zoology, and has spent much of his career defending the living world. An advocate for rewilding and restoring Britain‘s rivers, George believes beavers are one of nature’s ultimate climate solutions.

Herman founded World Fish Migration Foundation and the Dam Removal Europe movement to remove dams and protect fish populations in free-flowing rivers worldwide. He is an aquatic ecologist and entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in fish migration and water management. Herman started “World Fish Migration Day” which will be celebrated next on 16th May 2020.

Isabella Tree is married to the conservationist Charlie Burrell. Her bestselling book ‘Wilding’ tells the story of the conversion of their failing farm in West Sussex to an internationally renowned rewilding project. It was selected in the Smithsonian’s top ten science books for 2018.

Dr. James Robinson is Director of Conservation for the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust and has been involved in wetland conservation projects for over 20 years. WWT’s vision is a world where healthy wetland nature thrives and enriches lives and they are involved in beaver research and Natural Flood Management projects.

John has a lifetime’s experience in ground breaking and pivotal roles in forestry, wildlife conservation, research and management, and training in Argentina and the UK. With key posts with the IUCN, WWF International, Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina and the Royal Forestry Society, his forte is engaging with stakeholders with a common but opposing interest in shared natural resources to obtain consensus.

Jonah is a freshwater ecologist and Operations Director at Norfolk Rivers Trust. He has 15 years experience of researching and restoring rivers in Yorkshire, Scotland and Norfolk. Jonah’s particular interest in beavers is in their ability to bring life back to our damaged rivers.

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future, has been green campaigning and a member of the Green Party for over 45 years, promoting solutions to our environmental crises – as Director of Friends of the Earth, Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, President of Population Matters and The Conservation Volunteers, and Chancellor of Keele University. His latest book is ‘Hope in Hell: a decade to confront the climate emergency’.

American-born Lee Durrell received a PhD in Zoology from Duke University. She married author and founder of Jersey Zoo, Gerald Durrell, and spent 15 years with him writing and making tv programmes about natural history and conservation. Lee maintains a deep interest in her late husband’s legacy, receiving the MBE for services to conservation in 2011.

Mark manages the two Beaver Projects that Devon Wildlife Trust runs. Working as a wetland ecologist, he is particularly interested in the use of wetland habitats to reduce the effects of climate change and beavers are the logical conclusion of that. He has worked in wildlife conservation, and climate change and water policy since 1991.

Martha is a fiction writer from Minnesota. Since 2002 she has worked at the University of Miami, teaching writing through nature and animal studies. Her students practice writing as a way of exploring connections and examining patterns of perception and thought. Writing, especially storytelling, can be a vital part of reconnecting to the land, and restoring (re-story-ing) habitats left traumatised by human activity.

Mike Callahan is founder of Beaver Solutions LLC and Beaver Institute. He has resolved over 1,900 beaver-related flooding problems using nonlethal water control devices. Mike developed the first professional flow device training program, including BeaverCorps professionals across North
America and hosts the international BeaverCON
conferences.

Owner of Escot Estate, East Devon, Mish and his wife opened their extensive gardens to visitors in 1989 and started a collection of native wildlife, including the second walk through red squirrel enclosure in the UK. Beavers were introduced into a natural ¾ acre enclosure in 2007 - they built the first recorded dam in SW England for 400 years.

Neil Garrick-Maidment FBNA is the Founder and Executive Director of The Seahorse Trust and has worked in conservation for 45 years, working on a wide range of projects (and lots of species) including designing and building wildlife ponds and wooded areas when he owned his own wildlife landscape company. He believes that conservation of the natural world is the only way forward.

Nick Fox is an unsuccessfully retired zoologist, having managed raptor conservation projects across Central Asia, the Middle East and New Zealand. He re-introduced Goshawks to UK in the 1970s, and reared 53 Red Kites for reintroduction in the 1980s. Nick farms in Wales and England and hosts three families of beavers at the Bevis Trust. He has authored books, films and papers on raptors, animal welfare and land management.

Nina is an award winning self-shooting filmmaker producing films on a wide range of conservation projects from elephants to basking sharks. Nina has been documenting the Cornwall Beaver Project since 2016. She works regularly with the BBC, WWF, Butterfly Conservation & The Wildlife Trusts and her work appears on BBC Springwatch, Countryfile, Sky On Demand, Channel 5, ITV, CNN & BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Oly and Pete run the Argyll Beaver Centre in Knapdale Forest, home of Britain’s first beaver project, the Scottish Beaver Trial. They are passionate about inspiring people to become beaver believers and have been providing regular guided walks, face-to-face information, formal and informal education and outreach work for over 10 years.

Peter Smith is a founder & Director of the Wildwood Trust and has spent 25 years helping to reintroduce Britain’s keystone species, including the first beavers in the UK. He is an ecologist, specialising in conservation genetics, population dynamics of endangered species, rewilding, land use economics and policy, conservation campaigns and restoration ecology.

Phil founded the award-winning Better Food Company and co-founded The Community Farm. A Soil Association member since the 70’s, he is a farmer, retailer, wholesaler, teacher and community builder. He helps people from all walks of life to connect with where their food comes from and the importance of organic farming in protecting our wildlife habitats.

Philip is Global CEO of Compassion in World Farming, Visiting Professor at University of Winchester and Vice-President of Eurogroup for Animals, Brussels. He’s an award-winning author, ornithologist, photographer, naturalist and self-confessed animal advocate. His unquestionable passion for all animals and the countryside drives him to strive to achieve ever greater impact for animals.

Sarah Bates is Deputy Regional Director of National Wildlife Federation’s Northern Rockies, Prairies & Pacific region. She has taught public lands, water and environmental law and is a Senior Fellow with the University of Montana’s Natural Resources Conflict Resolution Program. Sarah is Senior Director of the Western Water programme, including restoring healthy headwaters with beavers.