What are your first memories of the countryside?
Luckily I was born and brought up on the farm where I still live, in East Hertfordshire, so my very earliest memories are rural ones. I had two older brothers, but they were nearer in age to each other, so I sometimes ended up on my own during school holidays, and would keep myself entertained by using the whole farm as a backdrop for whatever made-up adventures I fancied embarking on. The woods made wonderful bases for planning my next counter-attack on any invading hordes!
I’m very lucky to have spent holidays with family across the UK as a boy, whether up in the Borders, Loch Tay or Lochaber in Scotland, the Brecks in East Anglia, the North York Moors or the North Devon coast. I feel immensely lucky to have had more than enough exposure to some of the most beautiful parts of our country growing up, which I no doubt largely took for granted.
What were your aspirations and interests growing up?
I was always very interested in sport – at various times preferring cricket, tennis, skiing, rugby, football and, of course, shooting. I’m still actively involved in cricket and shooting – although I still take a spectator interest in most sports. In my moments of honesty when I accepted I was unlikely to become an international sporting superstar, as I have a number of politicians in my family, I suspected a career in politics – directly or indirectly – was most likely.
What do you love about your farm and shoot?
As the crow flies, we’re just 25 miles from Trafalgar Square, but to be there you wouldn’t know it. Certainly we’re not remote, and with rights of way criss-crossing the farm we have a lot of human interaction – something I believe those of us managing the land should welcome. But nevertheless it still feels rural and, on its day, is a truly beautiful part of the country.
Can you name some of your favourite wildlife species and parts of the UK countryside?
I love seeing lapwings at home, but I have a particular soft spot for the house martins that have always nested in the eaves of the farmhouse. The family sees them rather in the same way as the ravens at the Tower of London – it would be a bad omen if they ever failed to return. I’m pleased to say they’re back this year!
Further afield, I spent a lot of time as a boy – and still do – in North Devon, where the Bristol Channel meets the dunes, cliffs, rivers and rolling hills, dotted with sheep and cattle and the occasional arable field. This is Tarka country, but the breadth and wealth of wildlife there goes well beyond otters, including grey seals and dolphins out to sea, an array of butterfly species inland, and the odd adder too. I enjoy running, and taking to the North Devon footpaths, both along the coastal path and inland – experiencing the landscape and wildlife first hand – is one of my great pleasures each summer.
What does your perfect weekend entail?
It depends what time of year! From the end of summer, I tend to find my weekends taken up by shooting, and from the following spring I’ll often find myself playing cricket for the village – or if I’m lucky heading up to Lords or the Oval to watch people show me how it’s done properly. So February and March provide a bit of respite if I’m not lucky enough to be off skiing – and a weekend at that time of year with my feet up reading, watching the Six Nations, or simply enjoying the company of family and friends on a long walk around the farm, can be hard to beat.
What other interests do you have outside work?
Beyond those already mentioned, when I have a spare second, its good to find a quiet corner to read a little and listen to some music. I mostly read non-fiction – history, politics or science in particular, when I’m not simply trawling through the news. I also enjoy cooking – sadly I find I have less time than I once did to expand my culinary repertoire, but I still enjoy cooking on weekends, even if its just the Sunday roast. My children will swear by my roast potatoes – something I have very strong views on how to do well! I’ve recently become slightly obsessed with producing the perfect Scotch egg!
Why is nature recovery important to you?
With home being a working arable farm, I am very conscious of the tensions that arise between various land uses. Anyone involved with land management knows that balancing economic activity with environmental protection isn’t a zero-sum game – both can be done effectively. But there is no doubt there is also tension between the two, something as a country we haven’t always got right.
When I first came back to look after the farm I put us into an environmental stewardship scheme straight away, and since then I’ve always felt that the ‘perfect’ shouldn’t be the enemy of the good. The real success of those early schemes was in demonstrating to farmers and land managers that environmental activities and farming could live side by side, to look at our land as being able to deliver both, and I think gave rise to a new generation of landowners who appreciate the multi-functionality of our land.
But ultimately, it’s the simple things that really drive an interest in nature recovery: the desire to live and work in a landscape where we can rub shoulders every day with iconic species, and the fact that doing so will mean the next generation will get the same pleasure.
What was your first connection with GWCT and what inspired you to apply for the CEO role?
I joined GWCT many years ago, when I returned to live on the farm after working in London for some years.
Which previous career experience do you think will help in leading the Trust into a new chapter?
I would like to think and hope that my varied experience comes together pretty neatly to lead the GWCT in the next stage of its work. My personal experience looking after the farm and shoot at home has given me first-hand experience of the challenges facing land managers who are trying to balance running farms and estates in an economically viable way for the present, with making sure they are sustainable for the future too. There’s no doubt that there’s big improvements that can be made in looking after our environment and wildlife, but the real challenge is how we do that alongside economic activity on the land too.
Add to the that the fact that most of my professional career has been in the political sphere, much of it working on agricultural policy – as well as having trained as a lawyer – I think helps immensely in engaging with the political and technical policy issues the Trust is wrestling with every day.
What’s the best advice you have received at work?
“Take the world as you find it, not as you wish it to be.”
This is a variation on the observation that politics is the art of the possible – and I think it applies to much of the work that organisations like the GWCT are involved in too. We have to be practical about how best to achieve our goals, and realistic about the world in which we operate. I like to be as ambitious and optimistic in my aims and goals as possible, but at the same time one needs to be clear-eyed and phlegmatic in assessing the best ways of achieving them.
What, in your view, are the GWCT’s strengths and unique qualities?
The GWCT’s reputation for robust, high-quality research is well-deserved and one that I’m eager it maintains and publicises. Underpinning that is a real passion and commitment among our staff for the work that they do – something reflected in the passion of so many of our supporters too. They rightly see the GWCT as the only organisation that can credibly promote the practices that farmers, landowners and gamekeepers can undertake, at the scale that is actually needed, across the country to benefit wildlife.
What GWCT project has caught your attention since you started at the Trust?
At the risk of overlooking some really important ones that I haven’t yet been able to experience first-hand, I spent an excellent day in Wales in April with our team there, looking at how they’re using drone technology to monitor curlew numbers – something they’ve already started taking to other parts of the UK to use with other species. I think this is really exciting work that could really change and improve the way we undertake some of our research projects – both in terms of efficiency and accuracy, but also in minimising disruption and the physical impact of our research. It also has such a wide application across a whole range of projects we’re doing right now, as well as ones we might want to expand into in future.
What are the biggest challenges facing our sector?
There’s no doubt the changing climate is presenting a challenge to all land managers. The old certainties about the ebbs and flows of the seasons over the year are being called into question. We’ve seen it in farming and in moorland management in the last few years, where long periods of persistent rainfall interspersed with periods of drought have made things very difficult. As a research charity that means we have to become adaptable at making sure our science fits the real-world challenges our members and supporters are facing on the ground.
Alongside this, we are also facing a fast-changing political environment, which has a huge impact on the way our land is managed. Since leaving the EU we still haven’t found a settled system of agricultural support outside of the Common Agricultural Policy, which will be crucial when it comes to directing public funds efficiently to support environmental management and nature restoration on the ground. And it’s not just about public funds – government has an important role to play, if it’s willing, in crafting the framework in which voluntary and private markets can fund those sorts of activities too. Alongside that, we need to persuade the government, and the public, of the vital role that farmers, gamekeepers and other land managers - “working conservationists”, to steal a phrase from Teresa Dent – can play in properly managing our farms, moors, rivers and woodlands. Without them the government will simply never meet its environmental targets.
Simply put, if as a society we are to effectively balance all the various pressures on land use in the UK, rising to these challenges should be at the top of any government’s to-do list. And, crucially, they need to follow the science in deciding how best to proceed – something the GWCT can play a hugely important role in providing.
How would you like to see GWCT evolve going forward and what are you most excited about looking ahead?
I’ve already mentioned the many challenges we’re facing, so it’s a bit trite to say we need to make sure the Trust is fit for purpose in meeting those challenges. But that’s the bottom line. And I think that absolutely means evolution not revolution. The Trust has a proud history over many years, right up to the present under Teresa Dent’s exemplary stewardship, of undertaking the right research and translating that into practice for the benefit of wildlife across the country. But it has not always been easy, with competing narratives and interests that undermine what we do, and I’m in no doubt that will not get any easier.
So as we move forward into the next quarter of the 21st Century, for me there are three key principles we’ll need to observe. Firstly, we need to be relevant. That means making sure the research we do chimes with the actual issues facing land managers on the ground. But it also means recognising we depend on the support of the public and politicians too – for better or for worse – so our work needs to reflect their priorities too.
Secondly, we need to be credible. That means our science must continue to reflect the highest standards and quality it always has, and as an organisation we need to be ruthlessly honest in interpreting and promoting the results of that research, even if it makes for uneasy reading. And the way we present ourselves, and how we engage with the public, media, policy-makers and other stakeholders, needs to underpin that credibility, talking with authority, clarity and respect at all times.
Finally, we need to be visible, making sure we are seen and heard so that we are not just a trusted and authoritative voice, but that we’re one that cannot be ignored.
There’s no doubt that, taken together, it’s a big task. But it’s also exciting. If we can get it right – and I’m sure we will – then the future is bright for the Trust.