Introducing the man of the hour our Principal Ecologist John Thompson!
After helping EcoNorth to win the Community Engagement award at the BIG Biodiversity Challenge Awards for the work on the Morpeth Northern Bypass in 2016; John’s blog about the project is now being featured in the BIG Challenge website!
In his first ever blog John explains that “The daunting reality of working in and around biodiversity had become exactly what it should be within construction… something to celebrate, and to take pride in its protection.”
This was achieved partly working closely, maintaining good lines of communication, and using safeguards during the planning and development. But also by using more creative strategies such as holding lunch time ‘guess the dropping’ competitions and circulating ‘bird of the month’ information around the construction team. The level of engagement was such that by Johns own account “before long most of the construction team could identify a tree with ‘bat risk potential’ from distance”.
The high levels of engagement spilled over into the community leading to work with schools on pollinating bees, organized litter picking events on wildlife sites, and local community ‘bat walks’ inviting children to take control of professional bat detection equipment and discover the unseen world of bats.
So if you too want your project to be something you, your team and your community can engage and take pride on just give John a ring +44 (0)1670 735547