Experience

· Co-organised "Better Forestry Conference" 2024 with Forest Policy Group 

- A founding member of Communities for Diverse Forestry

·  Co-Convenor of the Forest Policy Group and co-wrote the report "Communities' experiences of new forest planting applications in Scotland" with Anna Lawrence, which provided systematic evidence of the need for better forest and community integration.

·  Director of the Scottish Woodlot Association, an organisation whose role is to promote and facilitate the private leasing of woodland management blocks to individuals and groups.

·  Worked on numerous community responses to new woodland creation proposals and long-term management plan consultations locally.

·  Community Councillor in the Glenkens, a region experiencing rapid land use change.

·  Extensive knowledge of policy environment through developing Communities for Diverse Forestry’s engagement with the public and commercial sectors

·  Up to date experience of policy development through consultancy work for “Communities' Experiences of New Woodland Creation”, and “Community Benefits and Community Wealth Building from New Woodland Creation” reports. 

·  Contributed to community responses to consultations on NPF4, agriculture bill, land reform, biodiversity, community wealth building and forest grant scheme, as well as the Royal Society of Edinburgh Inquiry into Tree Planting.

·  Compiled ‘Woodland Creation Schemes – Guidance for Community Councils’ for community  councils to enable them to interact better with woodland proposals.

·  Co-authored Forestry Engagement in Galloway: Feasibility Work with Dr Kerry Morrison in 2021, including approximately 50 hours of stakeholder interviews.

·  Contributed to drawing out consensual priorities through a 30 stakeholder interviews commissioned by public bodies in Spring 2023 (as yet unpublished).

·  Co-leading a pro-active mediation project between Confor and Communities to explore and agree on best practice engagement. 

·  Invited to present at Confor pilot community engagement training for professional foresters.

·  Coordinated a workshop for 40 attendees from mixed stakeholder groups for Scoping Study identifying opportunities for community benefit and CWB from new planting, commissioned by public bodies.

·  Led the Dalry School Forest project, linking Dalry Community Council, the South of Scotland tree planting scheme, and the Queens Green Canopy.

·  Delivered presentation on Communities and Forestry at the Southern Upland Partnership AGM in 2021 

·  Invited by the Southern Upland Partnership to join Stuart Goodall, CEO of Confor, for the Communities and Forestry presentation at Tweedsmuir, as part of the Talla Hartfell Talks series.

·  Trustee of the Glenkens District Trust. The GDT is a SCIO, active in the community since 2018, whose role is to resource and enable community development in the Glenkens and surrounding communities using wind farm benefit payments.

·  Designed and delivered the sell-out Glenkens Land Use Conversations event at the Catstrand in New Galloway, which brought farmers, foresters, and the community together to discuss options for future land use in the region. 

·  Co-organised an online event which brought in the Regional Land Use Partnership Pilot, the Scottish Land Commission, the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, and artists who had interacted with the previous land use pilot in the Scottish Borders.

·  Co-curated the Fantastic Forest Festival with the Galloway Glens Landscape partnership and was an artist in residence for the duration of the festival.

·  Organised “Lost Rainforests of Britain” talk by Guy Shrubsole for the Fantastic Forest Festival

·  Part of an informal group working to curate a Rainforest exhibition at a prominent UK venue.

·  Appointed artist in residence for the Upland "Artful Migration' project in 2023, in partnership with Forestry and Land Scotland and the RSPB.

·  Working with Kilsture Forest Community Group Citizen Science Project.

·  Invited by Woodland Trust Scotland to be part of panel discussing ‘Forestry for People’  and the Just Transition at the Scottish Labour Conference Fringe 2022.

- "Building a sense of community around particular landscapes, and getting people to express that in creative/innovative ways, then translating that energy into political influence" presentation to RSPB policy and advocacy team

- Contributed to Scotlink paper - UKFS and People