Who we are

Darren Hart Brushcutting Halangy

Who we are

Our staff

The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust has a small staff team, but one that’s grown in recent years. Our CEO, Julian Branscombe, is supported particularly closely by Rob Carrier (Head Ranger in charge of the land-management team), Jaclyn Pearson (Conservation Manager), Anna Bayton (Office Manager) and Helen Miller (Operations Manager).

Rob’s ranger team is made up of Darren Hart, Rhianna Pearce, Liam Wallace and Simon Nicholls. They are out in the field in all weathers, carrying out habitat management and access work across the Trust's tenancy.

Ongoing conservation work includes the island restoration work on St Helen’s and Round Island, and the work of Megan Lloyd as Islands Officer. We are working in partnership with the RSPB and other organisations to establish the feasibility of getting rat-free status for all of Scilly’s off-isles to benefit our breeding seabirds.

Julian Branscombe, CEO

Julian joined the Trust in September 2021. His career in nature conservation has taken him around Britain. After an early career based in the Midlands, he was Chief Executive of Gwent Wildlife Trust from 2001 to 2009. For the next decade he lived on Orkney, first on Mainland, then on Papa Westray.

He then worked briefly for Cornwall Wildlife Trust in West Penwith, until the lure of a conservation leadership role on another wildlife-rich archipelago took him to Scilly. Julian is a passionate naturalist, who is loving everything that makes up the special character of our islands.

e: julianbranscombe@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk 

Rob Carrier, Head Ranger

Rob has lived on the islands for over 20 years. After studying Countryside Management in Nottinghamshire, he came to Scilly for a three month placement as a Volunteer Warden for the Trust. He stayed on working for the Royal Mail and at the airport.

He rejoined the Trust as a Ranger in 2014, and is also a retained Firefighter. He’s now the Head Ranger, leading all our land management work, across the huge area of land we look after across the isles.

e. robcarrier@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Jaclyn Pearson, Conservation Manager

Jaclyn Pearson joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust as our Development Manager in May 2022, before becoming Conservation Manager in July 2023, overseeing our conservation strategy and projects. 

Jaclyn first visited the islands in 2009 to volunteer for the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust and quickly returned to make the islands her home. She has worked for RSPB, in partnership with the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust and communities on Scilly, to manage the successful Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project: removing rats from St Agnes and Gugh in 2013 to protect Manx shearwaters and storm petrels.

Passionate about ensuring community engagement is at the heart of wildlife conservation, she spent two years in Australia 2017-2019 assisting the Lord Howe Island community during the LHI Rodent Eradication Project to protect endemic species, including the world’s rarest insect, the Lord Howe stick insect!

e: jaclyn@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Darren Hart, Ranger

Darren is our longest serving member of staff. He has worked as both a Ranger and delivering education, giving him an all round knowledge of our wildlife, conservation efforts and how to inspire people.

Darren first qualified as a veterinary nurse, but soon changed career path, studying Zoology at Leeds University and then volunteering for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. He worked in Scotland before returning to the South West in 2008 to start with The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust. He has been with the Trust ever since. 

 

e: darrenhart@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Rhianna Pearce, Ranger

Rhianna originally joined us on a 12-month placement in 2014. She returned to us early in 2017 to become a full-time Ranger.

Rhianna first arrived on the islands in 2014, completing a one year volunteer work placement for the Trust as part of her degree in Wildlife Conservation from Nottingham Trent University. After graduating, she took on a traineeship at the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, building her practical skills before coming back to work for the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.

e: rhiannapearce@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Anna Bayton, Office Manager

Anna joined the Trust in April 2022 and leads on office administration, including providing vital support for the whole team on the Trust's many and varied projects they work on. She works across a range of areas from operations to finance, HR and office admin.

She first came to the islands in 2001 to volunteer with the Trust as part of a course in Countryside Management and Conservation at Capel Manor College in Middlesex. After a brief trip back to sit exams, she returned to the islands and found work in various seasonal roles before working for the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Planning Departments within the Council.  She managed the Seasalt store until it closed in October 2021 whereupon she found herself back volunteering with the Trust, before taking on the role in the following year.

e: annabayton@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Liam Wallace, Apprentice Ranger

Megan Lloyd, Islands Officer

Megan joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust in 2023. Her role as Islands Officer involves working in partnership with local communities and organisations including the RSPB and Natural England to explore the feasibility of island restoration and our seabirds through rat removal from the islands of Bryher, Tresco and St Martin’s.

Megan originally came to the islands to conduct her master's dissertation research In partnership with the Isles of Scilly Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority in 2021. After graduating her master's degree in marine Conservation from Plymouth University, she stayed in the islands to persue volunteer opportunities working with the IFCA and wildlife trust while working in hospitality. 

e: megan@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Vickie Heaney, Seabird Ecologist

Vickie joined the team in April 2018 as Seabird Ecologist to study the islands' internationally important seabirds. Vickie works part time for part of the year, in the spring and summer when the majority of our seabirds are here.

Vickie has a PhD on seabird ecology and has been involved in counting them on Scilly since the nationwide Survey of Seabirds in 2000. She made the move full time to the islands in 2004.

She has an annual summer contract to track the fortunes of our internationally important seabirds, to see where and how many eggs they lay and how many chicks they fledge from them. 

She has worked for a number of partnerships and was involved from the start in the Seabird Recovery Project to remove invasive rats from St Agnes and Gugh. She's also a well-known artist and printmaker - you can see her work in Phoenix Craft Studios on St Mary's. She regularly travels in the winter to locations like Antarctica, where she's involved in seabird monitoring aboard cruise ships. 

e: vickieheaney@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Hester Odgers, Species Recovery Officer

Hester is working on a project that aims to remove rats from the Island of St Helen’s, to help increase the safe habitat available for Scilly’s seabird populations.

Hester arrived on Scilly to work as an assistant on the 2023 Seabird Survey and, seduced by Scilly’s coastlines, wildlife and distance from many modern comforts and conveniences, contrived to wrangle her way back in to work on the St Helen’s Restoration Project. Prior to coming to Scilly, she studied Biology at university and worked in practical conservation roles around Devon.

Helen Miller, Operations Manager

Helen has joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust from a position with the firefighters at St Mary’s Airport. Prior to this she has worked across a number of fields in science as well as running her own manufacturing business and a community cinema. She has a PhD on the molecular biology of rare cancer. Her passion for nature and the outdoors has led her to working as our new Operations Manager. 

e: helen@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk

Simon Nicholls, Community Ranger

Simon joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust as our Community Ranger in January 2023. The Community Ranger post involves working with local communities and the NHS Social Prescriber. This supports green prescribing and aims to improve health and well-being through a community volunteering programme, recruiting and supporting community members to carry out habitat management to protect the wildlife on Scilly with the current ranger team. 

Before moving to the Isles of Scilly in 2022 Simon was a visitor to the islands, camping on the off islands, enjoying the nature and the tranquillity. He has had a lifetime interest in wildlife and nature and in the past volunteered on a loggerhead turtle project in Greece. He was also a volunteer for the Kent Wildlife Trust prior to his move to the islands. He has worked in mental health for 30 years, mostly as a qualified mental health nurse, and strongly believes the power of nature and interacting with green spaces can improve mood, maintain good mental health, reduce loneliness and encourage community participation. 

e: simon@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk 

Jacob Blackett, Seabird and Species Recovery Officer

Since graduating in Geography with Applied GIS from the University of Exeter, Jacob looked to gain some conservation experience by joining as a volunteer on the St Helen’s project. Since arriving he’s taken lead on the mapping for the St Helen's Restoration Project, by making static maps in QGIS and dynamic web apps in ArcGIS Online. 

e: jacob@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk 

Patrycja Swiercz, Species Recovery Officer

Patrycja has joined us from a volunteering position on the St Helen’s Project. Being one of the first volunteers to join the team on St Helen’s she has proven her skill and is helping to keep the project organised and leading working teams on the island. 

e: patrycja@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk 

Sarita Whitehead, Conservation Officer

Marine Biology graduate Sarita joined the Trust from a volunteering role on the St Helen’s Project with the aim to gain some fieldwork experience to help kick start a career. She’s spent several summer working on Scilly and is excited to get involved in conservation work on the Isles of Scilly. 

e: sarita@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk 

Jay Cowen, Comms Officer

Jay is our part-time comms officer managing media, the website, and social media while working remotely. Previously they worked towards the summer Seabird Survey on Scilly and also worked on the St Helen’s project for a few months in winter 2023. 

e: jay@ios-wildlifetrust.org.uk 

Helen Glover & Steve Backshall
Ambassadors

Helen Glover & Steve Backshall

In the summer of 2020, we were delighted to welcome Steve Backshall and Helen Glover as ambassadors for the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.

Read the story

Our trustees

The Trust is governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees who are guided by the charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association. Trustees are elected from the membership and they provide the strategic direction for the development of the Trust. They agree and ensure the implementation of the Trust's Strategic Plan. 

Andrew Whitehouse

Andrew was co-opted to the Board in March 2019. He has worked in nature conservation for over 20 years, and is currently Countries Manager at Buglife.  He is passionate about conserving our most threatened species and habitats and working to restore wildlife-filled lands and seas. Born and bred in Cornwall, Andrew has deep roots in the far South West, and currently lives in Plymouth. 

Barry Archer

Barry has been a trustee of the Wildlife Trust since 2014, and serves as the Trust’s Treasurer. He’s a qualified accountant, who was responsible for the financial management of the Council of the Isles of Scilly until his retirement from the local authority. He and his wife run a guest house on St Mary’s.

David Appleton

David was elected to the Board by Members at our 2017 AGM. He was appointed Vice-Chair in October 2019. David currently works across the country for Natural England as the Manager leading their Species Recovery and Reintroduction Teams and the Nature Recovery Team, delivering long-term improvements in our environment.

He has worked in nature conservation for 21 years; since he graduated from Writtle College with a BSc in Rural Resource Management. David was Lead Advisor on landscape scale delivery and partnerships with specific responsibility for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for a number of years and knows the Islands and the Trust itself very well.

He lives with his family near Exeter and has been a Trustee of the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust since 2010, being actively involved in strategic planning and financial and risk management of the charity.

Izzy Allsop

Izzy was co-opted to the Board in April 2021. Izzy started working the summer season for Scilly Seal Snorkelling in 2016 and moved to St Martin’s permanently in 2019 where she runs a dive charter business. She began diving at the age of 12 and has a degree in Geography from the University of Exeter.  

Lou Simmonds

Lou first visited the islands in the early 1990s with husband Chris and three children. She moved to St Agnes in 2004 to become the island’s teacher; she loved teaching the island’s children for their whole primary schooling. Some of her first island pupils are now parents themselves. As a tiny school, they were involved from the very first steps towards becoming rat-free with the Seabird Recovery Project.

Since retiring, she has become a potter and has a beautiful studio in St Agnes Island Hall where, as well as pots, she makes baskets using recovered ghost rope and paints inspired by the beauty of Scilly. She is keen to inspire future generations to be passionate about protecting and conserving Scilly’s unique environment.

Neil Jones, Chair

Neil joined the Board of Trustees in February 2019 and soon took on the role of Chair of the Trust. Neil has been a regular visitor to Scilly for more than twenty years. He splits his time between St Mary’s and the Mainland.

Most of Neil’s career was spent in senior positions in the charity sector, including time spent on a number of voluntary sector bodies working closely with different government departments. Latterly, his roles included 10 years as Chief Executive of Make-A-Wish Foundation UK. He also has many years of experience of serving as a charity trustee.

Rebecca Kaye

Rebecca was co-opted to the Board in March 2019. She is an intellectual property lawyer and lives with her family in Oxford.  She enjoys visiting new places, and has been to over 70 countries. She has stayed on all of the inhabited islands since her first visit 15 years ago.

Rosemary Downing

Rosemary was elected to the Board by Members in 2015. She lives in East Cornwall, where she is also a member of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. She has been a regular visitor to Scilly since 1974, and has stayed on all the islands over the years. She has worked in the area of conservation management for over 35 years, 24 of those in Cornwall. She has worked for Avon Wildlife Trust. 

Her specialism is working with farmers to advise on their management of land for wildlife, and she worked for the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) for many years. She holds a Masters Degree in Nature Conservation (London UCL), and has also taught environmental issues in schools and at degree level.

She also worked for the Tamar Valley AONB for six years as Project Manager. In that role she assisted in the devising and drafting of the Management Plan and helped with the community consultation and post-plan delivery, especially in the areas of land management and landscape monitoring.

She has two grown up daughters and lives on an unruly smallholding where she enjoys trying to grow vegetables, she also enjoys wild swimming and riding.

Ruth Eggins

Ruth was co-opted to the Board in April 2021. She moved to Hillside Farm on Bryher in 2015 with her family. Ruth works alongside her husband, Graham, running Hillside Farm, paints watercolours inspired by the coast and sea around Bryher, enjoys wild swimming and is keen to explore the link between helping wildlife, successful farming and sustainability and agricultural policies.

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