We are very excited to welcome Louise Barnetson to the team in the new role of Water Champion - Parishes and Communities. We caught up with Louise to find out more about her and this exciting new position in the WSRT family…
Welcome Louise, tell us a bit about your background and previous experience:
I’ve worked in the nature conservation sector for the past four or five years, working for WWT, Manhood Wildlife & Heritage Group, and Horndean Parish Council as well voluntary work for the RSPB and the Woodland Trust.
My work has encompassed practical habitat management, public and youth engagement, communications, and citizen science. Prior to working in conservation, I had a career in book publishing, mostly working for global academic publisher, Wiley.
Give us a brief overview of your new role and the exciting Downs to the Sea project.
As ‘Water Champion – Parishes & Communities’ I will help parish councils and communities interpret, understand, and take action for their local water environment, and help build a community of change. This is part of the collaborative Downs to the Sea project, which has two strands:
Water in the landscape, focused on restoring and improving wetlands, ponds and rivers, and increasing the landscape’s resilience to climate change and other threats;
Water in people’s lives, focussed on connecting people to natural heritage and the water in their lives, to benefit their health and wellbeing, to develop skills and knowledge, and to help protect freshwater resources that are vital to our communities.
My role is focussed on the second strand.
How have your first few days at WSRT been?
It has gone really well. I’ve really enjoyed meeting everyone in the WSRT team as well as members of our partner organisations, and getting to know about their roles, and how I will be working with them and supporting their work. I have been made to feel very welcome and feel very supported. It’s a pleasure to be working with such a talented and passionate group of people!
What about this role are you most excited about?
I enjoy the community and public engagement side of conservation and feel that the skills I gained working for an international publishing company, as well as the skills and knowledge I’ve gained working in wildlife conservation were a good fit for the role.
I’ve followed WSRT on social media for a couple of years and have been super impressed with everything the Trust has been doing so was very keen to join the team. I’m most excited about helping people to take positive steps to help our rivers and wetlands and understand what their role is in tackling some of the current issues.
What do you think are going to be the challenges of this role?
The problems facing our rivers, waterways, and wetlands are multifaceted and can seem intractable, so I think the challenges will be in supporting parish councils and communities to see where and how they can make a difference.
It is important not to get too bogged down in what we cannot change but instead focus on what we can do locally and in our own lives to make a difference. It will be important to reach out to the people in the parish councils and communities who are keen to get involved, but also to find ways of engaging with those who might be less motivated.
Do you have a favourite river focused memory you’d like to share?
I live very close to the River Lavant and it’s always been a favourite walk for us as a family to walk along the river. The trees and hedgerows lining the river in my local patch are full of birdsong in the Spring and Summer so we like to try to identify as many as possible on our walks.
A river-focussed memory with a different energy is white-water rafting along a river in Nepal!
Amazing, and what’s your top wildlife spot to date?
It’s difficult to choose just one - I’ve seen some impressive wildlife on international trips - but thinking more locally, watching a juvenile cuckoo being fed by its reed warbler parents at close quarters in Arundel was very memorable. The size difference was incredible and the poor reed warblers were working flat out to feed the baby cuckoo. The lifecycle of the cuckoo is so interesting so to see this happening a couple of metres away was a privilege.
Another very memorable wildlife encounter was when a stag beetle attached itself to my youngest son’s finger when he was a baby and he was crawling across the garden lawn! He was not impressed but I was very excited to have stag beetles in my garden!
Seeing the white-tailed eagles flying locally was also very impressive – you don’t realise just how big they are until you actually see them, and it’s fantastic to see them making a comeback.
Finally, is there anything else you’d like to say to readers?
If there are any local parish councillors, or members of community groups, who would like to learn more about how they can help their local river or wetlands then please do get in touch!