Meet the people
that make it happen

We’re supported by so many fantastic people and groups,
take a look below to meet the team behind the charity. 

The Beaver Trust team

Meet the passionate team behind Beaver Trust, working to restore beavers to our landscapes and support thriving ecosystems. From conservation fieldwork to communications, our staff drive the day-to-day efforts that bring our vision to life.

Dr Richard Young

CEO

Richard is a conservationist and biodiversity scientist and is passionate about wildlife and the importance of nature in people’s lives and in society. He believes that the large-scale restoration of beavers in Britain represents a generational opportunity to breathe life back into our rivers and wetlands, helping landscapes become more resilient to a rapidly changing climate. Based in Bath, Richard has seen firsthand the return of beavers to the River Avon and what this has meant to local communities.

His role at the Beaver Trust is to ensure we deliver on our mission and that our financial support achieves maximum possible impact. He works closely with Trustees and staff to set the Trust’s strategic direction and supports colleagues to ensure they have what they need in their work to restore beavers across Britain. Before joining Beaver Trust, Richard was Managing Director of the sustainability consultancy Nature Positive and previously Director of Science and Training at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

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Dr Roisin Campbell-Palmer

Head of Restoration

Roisin is a highly experienced field biologist and recognised beaver reintroduction specialist. She has authored over 25 peer-reviewed publications focusing mainly on beaver reintroduction, wildlife health screening, captive care and welfare. Roisin is also the lead author on the Eurasian beaver management handbook and completing her second book on beaver ecology, conservation and management.

Roisin is highly experienced in animal trapping and handling, biological sample collection, remote monitoring techniques, field sign identification, data processing and translocation. Roisin advises various conservation projects across Britain, including conflict resolution, mitigation techniques and training. In 2020, she was recognised for her exceptional contributions and won the Conservation Scientist Award at the Nature of Scotland Awards.

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Dr Robert Needham

Restoration Manager

Rob helps coordinate our Restoration projects. An experienced field biologist, he has worked with large carnivores in Norway and, more recently, beaver-related projects for over 10 years. His University of Southampton PhD investigated the interactions of beaver habitat modification on brown trout populations in Scotland.

Rob is experienced in animal trapping and handling, survey techniques, data collection and analysis, electrofishing, PIT tag telemetry and GIS. He has also authored and co-authored peer-reviewed publications.

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Elliot McCandless

Communications Manager

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.

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Helen Scribbins

Finance Manager

Helen manages our internal operations and finances, and supports our governance with the management team and trustees. Helen is a financial and project manager, interested in charity and community organisation governance. She grew up in Switzerland and Kenya, developing a love for wild places and travel. Having recovered from the culture shock of England, Helen has helped a range of clients, including Taunton Women’s Aid and a renewable energy company. She is a trustee of Wiveliscombe Community Swimming Pool Club.

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Jolene Macnaughton

Fundraising Lead

Jolene creates partnerships with trusts, foundations and businesses, coordinates our match-giving campaigns, and engages with our supporters, making sure they are thanked and kept up-to-date with the impact of their generosity.

Jolene plays a central role in growing the charity’s income to support the return of beavers across Britain. She is an experienced fundraiser; before joining Beaver Trust in 2022, she had worked for UK-based health and social welfare charities for ten years.

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Jess Chappell

Policy Lead

Jess is responsible for leading and coordinating Beaver Trust’s work to influence decision-makers across Britain, in order to ensure that government policies and strategies in Scotland, England and Wales facilitate the restoration and normalisation of beavers and wetlands. Prior to working at Beaver Trust, Jess spent over ten years working in policy at the RSPB where she worked on a variety of policy areas, giving her a holistic view of what is needed to tackle the nature & climate emergency for wildlife, climate, and for people.

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Sheelagh McAllister

Senior Field Officer

Brought up on her family’s mixed working farm, Sheelagh developed a 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 are respected throughout the UK and internationally. Her skillset is often sought in an advisory role for animal welfare and husbandry.

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Alana Skillbeck

Senior Project Officer

Alana works her way through a number of crucial tasks for the administration and management of a busy and growing Restoration Team. Two of her favourite tasks are managing the array of training courses Beaver Trust provides and developing exciting volunteer roles and placements for all. She is also passionate about making conservation and biological recording accessible to all.

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Ben Morris

Senior Field Officer

Ben is our Senior Field Officer based in the Southeast of England. Previously working for the Environment Agency as one of their Beaver Technical Specialists, Ben has nearly ten years of experience working with and alongside the wild beaver population in Kent. Ben is also undertaking a part-time PhD which is looking to investigate how beavers are utilising intensively managed lowland wetland areas, some of the effects beavers may be having in existing wetland habitats, such as reed beds, and what small-scale green bank protection mitigation methods can be implemented to allow human-beaver coexistence.

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Emily Bowen

Senior Communications Officer

Emily helps us reach new audiences and share the story of beavers returning to mainland Britain and Beaver Trust’s role in their restoration.

Passionate about wildlife and conservation stories, she believes that connecting people to nature is critical to it being given the chance to bounce back and to halt and reverse biodiversity declines.

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Oscar Chambers-Smith

Senior Education Officer

Oscar delivers and develops Beaver Trust’s national education programme, creating curriculum-linked materials and coordinating with partner schools and organisations across the UK. With a background in primary education as a teacher and school leader, he brings extensive experience in environmental and science learning. Oscar is particularly focused on inclusivity in education, ensuring all learners can engage through sensory and experiential approaches. Based in Somerset, he is also a passionate wildlife photographer, often found exploring and photographing wetland habitats.

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Beth Denro

Administration Support Officer

With experience from other wildlife charities, she brings valuable skills to help us support our mission. Beth is passionate about nature restoration and actively participates in community conservation efforts in Somerset. Additionally, she manages a local nature network and organises community events in her village.

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Sophie Mackaness

Education Officer

Sophie is our Education Officer for the North of England and Scotland, developing and delivering our schools program and community outreach initiatives. With a background in marine and freshwater biology, she has built a career in science communication and conservation education.

Her work has spanned a diverse range of education projects, from European lobster conservation to hydrogen-fuelled LEGO vehicles, engaging young people across Scotland. Sophie is passionate about fostering a connection with nature and empowering young people to recognise the vital role they play in addressing the climate crisis.

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Cristín Lambert

Field Officer

Cristín Lambert is a Field officer based in Scotland, part of the restoration team, involved in all aspects of trapping, translocation, animal handling and transportation. She engages with a wide range of stakeholders and helps reduce human-beaver conflicts by installing and maintaining mitigation measures.

Cristín is an ecologist with 12 years of experience either working with or studying wildlife, primarily in Scotland. Experienced in animal handling, survey techniques, data collection and analysis, she is passionate about animal behaviour, nature restoration and encouraging human-wildlife coexistence.

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George Layton

Field Officer

Previously, George has worked in south-west England for eNGO’s on landscape-scale nature restoration projects for multiple years before joining Beaver Trust. During this time, he managed two beaver enclosures undertaking trapping, handling and engagement activities as well as delivering UK-first river restoration projects, applying low-tech beaver-influenced techniques to renaturalise river catchments and terrestrial habitats alike. Additionally, he has undertaken stakeholder engagement and ecological surveying for Landscape Recovery Schemes paired with aiding in the writing of wild release applications for one of England’s first official wild releases.

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Elliot Shirnia

Policy Officer

Elliot is a Policy Officer based in England as part of the policy team. Working to influence decision makers across Scotland, England and Wales to ensure that policy across all three regions promotes the reintroduction of beavers and expansion of riparian landscapes.

Before joining the Beaver Trust, Elliot has a broad background with experience in industry as well as five years working at an international development charity delivering community empowerment, agro-ecology and sustainable livelihoods in rural Zambia.

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Galatea Hoyle

Communications Assistant

Galatea is excited to be spreading the word about beavers and the life they bring to the British landscape. She has a degree in animal behaviour, and a background championing youth environmental projects, including a voluntary position on Heal Rewilding’s youth panel. She believes in the power of stories to create change, bring hope, and inspire action, and regularly intertwines them with her work in the conservation sector. When she’s not communicating the joy of beavers, you can find her producing the Generation Nature Podcast.

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Our Board of Trustees

Our trustees provide strategic leadership and governance, ensuring that Beaver Trust stays true to its mission, operates responsibly and continues to make a meaningful impact for people and nature.

Victoria Heffer, Trustee

Victoria Heffer

Chair

After working in the investment management industry for +25 years, Victoria changed her career path to work in conservation.

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.

Katy Barke

Vice Chair

Katy is the Head of Nature Recovery at Northumberland Wildlife Trust and has spent much of her career working on landscape-scale species conservation projects including red squirrels, ospreys and water voles. Katy is also a longstanding trustee of Haltwhistle Youth Club.

Keith Shepherd

Trustee

Keith is an accountant who has worked in investment management for large private, public and third-sector funds, where he was a keen advocate of responsible investing. He is also a trustee of the John Ellerman Foundation, a grant-giving foundation.

Jim Bliss

Trustee

Jim is from a farming background and has lived and worked on farms his whole life. He went on to run a large environmental program on the private Lowther Estate where he led the project to reintroduce beavers into Cumbria for the first time in 400 years. He has recently embarked on a Nuffield Farming Scholarship to look at the linkages between rewilding and marginal farming and now runs his own consultancy called Blissfully Wild advising other landowners and farmers how to manage their land for the benefit environment, social and economic outcomes.

Richard Allan

Trustee

Richard is a qualified lawyer with over 20 years of experience as a FTSE General Counsel.  A trained biologist, he farms a top-fruit and livestock farm, alongside wild beavers, in Wiltshire and has implemented biodiversity projects (with both Bristol Avon Catchment Market and Wiltshire Council) focussed on wetlands and wood pasture.  He is a Soil Association trustee and a member of its Farmers & Growers Board.

Zara Reid

Trustee

Zara Reid works for the UK Government, specialising in international nature policy and programming. Since beginning her career in public policy in 2015, Zara has developed deep expertise in environmental strategy and international conservation, including years spent living and working in Botswana on transboundary conservation efforts and combating the illegal wildlife trade.

Zara is the designer of a successful board game, Kavango, themed around rewilding in southern Africa. Kavango has been published internationally, translated into multiple languages, and is sold worldwide, reflecting her creative approach to conservation storytelling and public engagement.

A passionate advocate for nature and rewilding, Zara is studying for a degree in Environmental Science with the Open University. She lives in the Cairngorms National Park – one of Scotland’s key sites for beaver reintroduction – which informs and inspires her commitment to restoring nature at home and abroad.

James Byrne

Trustee

James Byrne is an environmental leader with over 20 years’ experience shaping nature recovery, climate action, and ecological finance across the UK and internationally. He is currently a senior leader at Plantlife, where he focuses on scaling nature markets and delivering landscape-scale restoration. James has worked on major philanthropic and investment programmes that have enabled multi-million-pound habitat and species recovery projects, both in the UK and globally. He brings deep ecological expertise, a wide network across the environmental sector, and a long-standing commitment to rewilding and species reintroduction. He is a Chartered Ecologist and a Fellow of the Linnean Society.

Anna Gilchrist

Trustee

Anna is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management and Ecology at the University of Manchester, where her research and teaching are focused on how we can implement transformative conservation methods to respond to the biodiversity crisis, particularly rewilding and nature recovery. She is the Co-Programme Director of the MSc in Nature Recovery, Restoration and Rewilding and also has a variety of external roles, including Co-Chair of the Manchester Biodiversity Action Group and Vice Chair of the Friends of Lindow Moss.

Our Ambassadors

Our ambassadors champion the work of Beaver Trust, using their voices and platforms to raise awareness, inspire action and support our mission.

Mya-Rose Craig

Naturalist, campaigner and blogger

Mya-Rose Craig (aka: Birdgirl) is an 18-year-old British Bangladeshi conservationist, environmentalist, writer, speaker, race activist and diversity expert. She is the youngest person to have seen half of the world’s bird species and is the founder of the pioneering equality/diversity project Black to Nature.

Megan McCubbin

Zoologist and TV presenter

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.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.

Sean McCormack

Veterinarian and presenter

Sean is a veterinarian, conservationist and presenter with a lifelong passion for nature and wildlife. He runs Ealing Wildlife Group, a community conservation group in West London who are collaborating on the first truly urban reintroduction of beavers to London. He also hosts his own podcast, Sean’s Wild Life, exploring issues around rewilding, food production and traditional nature conservation.

Sean is a veterinarian, conservationist and presenter with a lifelong passion for nature and wildlife. He runs Ealing Wildlife Group, a community conservation group in West London who are collaborating on the first truly urban reintroduction of beavers to London. He also hosts his own podcast, Sean’s Wild Life, exploring issues around rewilding, food production and traditional nature conservation.

Maddie Moate

Presenter, YouTuber and children's author

Maddie is an award winning presenter, YouTuber and children’s author, best known for presenting the CBeebies science series Maddie’s Do You Know? On her own YouTube channel, Maddie has been creating fun educational videos for the past ten years in the hope of encouraging a new audience to stay curious, adventurous and a love for the natural world.

Her first book, “Stuff”, is full of mind-bursting facts and extraordinary stories of the ingenious ways people around the world, and across history, have made, used and reused the stuff around them, inspiring a curiosity and sense of wonder about a more sustainable future.

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