Forgotten a name? Or just want to know what sort of people work for the Westcountry Rivers Trust? Click on the links in the menu on the left of your screen, to find out a bit about each member of the team.

The Trust has always had a policy of recruiting people who can grow into a job, and we spend a lot of time and effort training our people in a variety of subjects depending on their role and career aspirations. We try to recruit locally where possible, and we aim to recruit the best. We have an incredibly low staff turnover and usually have a waiting list of people who want to work for us.

We believe that our most important asset is our people. Therefore, though we can’t always offer as high a salary as we might like, we try to offer other benefits including flexitime and the choice of spending the day working from our offices in Launceston, or from home depending on convenience.

If you would like to be considered for a post, please email your CV to us for our files. Vacancies are advertised either here on our website, as well as in the local or national press as appropriate.

Dr Dylan Bright – Trust Director

Dylan heads up all things scientific at the Trust. A diligent and thorough scientist, he possesses specific expertise in data analysis and statistical methods, particularly in the field of mathematical population modelling linked to GIS.

With extensive fieldwork and data collection experience, Dylan has the applied skills to complement his expert knowledge of freshwater, estuarine and marine ecology. In addition to his excellent taxonomic skills, he is experienced in most forms of sampling from the aquatic environment and in many forms of laboratory testing for water quality.

Dylan is a skilled scientific writer capable of communicating complex issues to a broad audience. He has published a number of academic papers in high impact peer-reviewed journals, the most recent of which was awarded the New Phytologist Forum position for excellence in the field. In addition, he is the author of twelve chapters of the Encyclopaedia of Aquatic Life of the World and has delivered several grey literature-R & D reports for the Environment Agency and WWF. He is currently supervising two PhD students at Exeter University both studying population genetics for conservation. He is also the author of several articles for magazines and newspapers on a variety of subjects.

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Ross Cherrington – Senior Rivers Officer

Ross has 15 years of hands-on experience of working on, and managing farms. He is passionate about the farming world and the countryside, he is essential to the Trust’s vision of influencing farmers from the inside.
He has written columns for “Rural News” in New Zealand as well as “Manitoba Cooperator” in Canada and in May 2001, he was part of a lecture tour to New Zealand to talk about Foot and Mouth Disease. A trip to South Korea to discuss Modern art in 2004 was one of the more bizarre events in his life.

He is currently a partner in his 220 acre organic family farm in Devon which is a mixed stock enterprise, where he lives with his wife and 2 children. His other interests include cricket, fishing, walking and travel.

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Dr Laurence Couldrick – Project Manager (Higher Education)

Dr Laurence Couldrick is the project manager for higher education at the Westcountry Rivers Trust. Specialising in Science education, he has extensive experience of teaching and tutoring from primary school children to university students, both in the classroom and field, as well as presenting papers at both national and international conferences. Coupled with this, Laurence has research experience in a number of disciplines from theoretical modeling through to experimental protocol design and testing.

Laurence also has experience working on time limited contracts for environmental companies on sites across the UK, including surveying and overseeing mitigation for protected species, phase 1 habitat mapping, landscape management of riverbanks and interviewing farmers nationwide to provided data for an government funded inorganic waste survey.

Laurence has successfully bid for both local and national funds, thus making further educational development within the Trust possible, and is currently designing a new Foundation Degree in Sustainable River Basin Management. He is passionate about education and wishes to see the knowledge and experience gained by the Trust over the past 10 years disseminated in novel and exciting ways.

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Martin Harmer – Project Manager (Fisheries)

BSc MIFM

An experienced hydro-environmental surveyor, with expertise across a range of disciplines including techniques for land / hydrographic surveying, data capture, environmental and fisheries management. A fascination with all things aquatic, he is an enthusiastic angler and naturalist.

Martin is now Co-ordinator for the Trust’s Angling 2000 Scheme and says : Old fisherman never die they just smell that way!

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Julia Hutchinson – Finance Manager

Julia joined the Trust in April 2009 as Finance Manager, with particular responsibility for the Trust’s European funded projects.

Previously from Yorkshire, she relocated to the West Country in 2002. Her experience – always in Accountancy and Finance, includes training in a Chartered Accountancy practice, working in a publishing company and in the motor industry. She also worked in retail where she was a co-director in a footwear business and a travel business. For the last 6 years, Julia has been involved in a European funded project in Cornwall - administering Objective 1 funding.

In her spare time, Julia has a passion for sailing and enjoys both cruising and racing. She also loves travelling to remote places and more closer to home – goes to the gym, enjoys walking, has taken up dancing and recently started bee-keeping!

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Lynne Hyland – Director of Finance

Lynne’s responsibilities include budgeting, forecasting and reporting on the Trust and Tamar Consulting finances, reviewing claims to funding bodies and ensuring compliance with funding regulations. She also has the often scary task of managing our cashflow as well as working on developing the Trust's strategy and attracting new finance to the Trust.

Her strength’s include great at explaining finance to non-finance people, strong at systems implementation and very organised with good project management skills. Good at upholding the ethos "a tidy office is a happy office".

Her career highlights to date are delivering £6m worth of complex European funded projects within 1% of budget, implementation of a new finance system with over 300 live projects on the books, developing annual budgets for sales of Pepsi whilst sitting next to the marketing team at Britvic HQ and being awarded luxury promotional gifts such as a Spice Girls CD!

 At the weekend Lynne enjoys her time as a leisure member of St Mellion Golf and Country Club, powerboating around the South Devon coast and bike rides on Dartmoor.

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An environmental scientist with extensive hands on experience of managing freshwater aquatic ecosystems, John is a key member of our team. Specific responsibilities include the development of innovative catchment modelling methodologies relevant to the mitigation of diffuse pollution from agriculture and the delivery of Environmental Impact Assessments.

With a formal academic background in fisheries science, he has developed a specialism in evaluating river habitat for salmonids using various productivity and population models. An interesting and rapidly evolving element of John's analytical modelling is now taking place on GIS, a facility we use a lot where appropriate. John is currently on secondment to the Cycleau project where he is working on the River Axe.

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Jenny Ingham Clark – Membership and Fundraising Officer

Jenny is a part time fundraising and membership consultant for the Trust and has worked tirelessly to update the Trust's membership. She currently works on membership recrutiment and fundraising and has helped generate funding for the Trust's core activities.

Alongside her duties she assists with Events organising for the Trust such as the Invasive Weeds Symposium on the 26th October 2006 at the Eden Project. Click here for a conference summary.

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Hazel Kendall – Invasive Weeds Officer

Hazel joined the Trust in July 2007 as our Invasive Weeds project officer for the River Camel working over the summer season. She is in charge of monitoring Invasive Weeds across the catchment and organising events to control the spread of these problem species.

She has been organising Himalayan Balsam pulling events in 'high risk' sub-catchments of the River Camel and volunteers can help on the day as well as gain experience and training in river management. You can find out what events are going on in your area through the Invasive Weeds page - CLICK HERE

Hazel has also recently become our Cornwall Wet Feet project officer and will be working with a team of volunteers and other trust staff to deliver environmental community activities and projects across cornwall. If you are interested in setting up an activity for your group please contact Hazel.

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Stephen Magee – Projects Accountant

Stephen has been with the Trust since February 2010 as a Project Accountant, working on the Trust Fisheries Projects.

His main responsibility is with the Trust’s European Funded Programmes. Having moved to Cornwall January 2009 Stephen had initially worked for Cornwall Council helping centralise their European Funded Budgets and then North Cornwall’s “Children Schools and Families” Department, whilst volunteering with Plymouth Argyle’s Disability Football Teams. Prior to which his most recent work was in Lancashire for the Council’s Commercial Services, before joining the NHS.

Outside of work Stephen enjoys being able to embrace his village social group and helping out on the local farm when required. In addition to heading to the sea with his wife, he takes the opportunity to get together with friends and attempt a variety of social activities.

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Dee Medlicott – Project Officer

Dee Medlicott joined the Westcountry Rivers Trust in February 2005 as one of the newly appointed Scientific Advisors. Dee has a mixed farming background including a Pedigree Channel Island dairy herd. She attended the University of Hertfordshire where she graduated with BSc Hons in Ecology & Agricultural Biology.

Dee has a special interest in ecology and botany, and runs several local wildlife groups. She is currently involved in wildflower recording and Otter monitoring in the River Inny catchment.

Dee enjoys all countryside pursuits, as well as being a bit of a show-off on a surfboard!

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Lyneth Morley – Finance Officer

Lyn has worked for charities for the last 15 years as she finds they give more job satisfaction. She has a broad experience of both manual and computerised accounts in both the public and private sector and worked in London for 20 years prior to escaping to the Westcountry 2 years ago.

Known as The Office Dragon (for good reason!) she keeps the office running in the face of all odds.

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Toby joined the team in 2002 and he has been working on developing the Trust fisheries department. He has a BSc in Geography and an MSc in Coastal & Marine Resource Management from Portsmouth University.

After leaving university, Toby combined travel in Australasia and South America with gaining experience of inshore and pelagic fisheries. This included work on both fishing and scientific vessels, and in a programme establishing community-lead fisheries management.

Since moving to the Westcountry, Toby has worked in voluntary and private sector organisations dealing with the freshwater environment. Projects have involved water quality monitoring, river habitat assessment and restoration and fisheries management.

A keen sea and game angler, Toby has found the ideal working environment and now uses the perfect excuse for packing his rod and line with briefcase!

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Dr Bruce Stockley – Fisheries Scientist

Bruce joined the trust in 2010, and brings a wide range of experience to his role of fisheries scientist at the Trust. He is an experienced project manager, specialising in European funded projects in the South West. He is currently leading our wide ranging AARC (Atlantic Aquatic Resource Conservation project). This project links together water management, river restoration, conservation aquaculture, sustainable resource protection, and genetics.

Bruce has a background genetics and evolution in aquatic animals, and has an extensive fisheries background, including working on fishing research around Norway, Ireland, Iceland, and the Azores. Always a keen sea fishermen, since joining the trust, he is discovering the joys of freshwater angling.

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