Melissa has a Master’s in integrated Catchment Management and has spent the past 10 years at the Severn Rivers Trust, 5 of which has been spent as the Head of Land Management supporting a team of 12 skilled farm advisors across the Severn region delivering sustainable land management projects with over 1500 farmers and landowners.
Melissa has managed large work programmes of over £2million across multiple large-scale projects and was the lead representative for the trust on both regional and national agricultural and policy boards alongside being the trusts lead for the Severn Vale and Warwickshire Avon Catchment Based Approach (CABA) groups. Melissa also spent 5 years at the Severn Rivers Trust as a Farm Advisor where she specialised in arable systems, pesticide management and wetland design and function. Before this, her work has taken her into consultancy where she worked as an Ecological Consultant for 4 years gaining skills in phase I Habitat surveys, protected species surveys, aquatic survey and river habitat survey techniques, and Ecological Impact Assessment. Melissa has also spent 6 years within the Environment Agency in both the policy team developing and delivering the Water Framework Directive River Basin Management Plans and as a LiDAR Data Scientist where she gained an excellent working knowledge of GIS systems and mapping data.
Melissa is incredibly passionate about restoring healthy river systems and believes with the correct knowledge and engagement we can all play a part in enhancing our local environment.