Introducing
Your Steering Group
Name: George Coombs
Organisation: Natural England
Role: Health and Environment Senior Officer
What I do: I lead the development and delivery of Natural England’s Health & Environment work for the North West region, evidencing the wider benefits nature can provide in alleviating health & social inequalities, improving our health & wellbeing and reducing health risk from climate impact. Through the creation of more joined-up, high-quality natural spaces, with greater pathways to improve access, those at most need in society can benefit from the natural environment.
Why I Support the Network: A core purpose of Natural England is to bring together partners for nature’s recovery. Wider cross-sector support is vital and the Cumbria People & Nature Network is a core space for more organisations, people and communities to create healthy spaces across the region.
Name: Clair McFarlan
Organisation: Solway Firth Partnership (SFP)
Role: Partnership Manager
What I do: As Partnership Manager at SFP, I engage with local communities and stakeholders, and develop and deliver marine and coastal projects on both sides of the Solway Firth. This encompasses the whole of the Dumfries and Galloway Coast and the Cumbrian coast from the Scottish border to St Bees Head.
Why I Support the Network: It provides an opportunity to engage with groups and people that SFP might not otherwise connect with easily. We need to spread our messages about the importance of our Cumbrian coast and waters for biodiversity, climate change, and health and well-being to as many people as possible!
Name: Philippa Golightly
Organisation: Groundwork NE & Cumbria
Role: Project Manager
What I do: As a Project Manager at GWNE & C, I am responsible for a number of projects across West Cumbria. All of which are aimed at supporting local people to have better access to employment, training and to their local environment to support in creating more sustainable communities. Not only does this support people to connect with nature, but to improve mental health and reduce social isolation.
Why I support The Network: Enabling people to see what is on their doorstep is a big passion of mine and that of GWNE & C – by supporting people to understand that small activities and tasks in blue and/or green spaces will positively impact them, their family and the environment I believe that it will aid the broader recovery plans and give people more pride and connection to where they live.
Name: Jonathan May
Organisation: Cumberland Council
Role: Green Spaces Team Leader
What I do: I have site management responsibilities for all of Cumberland Council’s green spaces in the Carlisle area. I have a team of Green Spaces Officers to assist in the management and development of formal parks, parks, woodlands, nature reserves and Talkin Tarn Country park.
Why I support the network:
To be able to network with other organisations working towards similar goals in nature recovery and for our work to feed into the wider picture right across Cumbria.
Name: Ursula Pool
Organisation: University of
Central Lancashire (UCLan)
Role: Academic Researcher
What I do: Based at UCLan’s West Lakes Campus in Cumbria, my research focuses on the health and wellbeing potential of green and blue space. Current projects involve understanding psychological barriers to engaging with local natural spaces, with the aim of increasing engagement with nature among some of the communities who might benefit from it most.
Why I Support the Network: Sustainable and positive relationships between people and the rest of nature are crucial for both human and environmental flourishing at all levels. The network provides a fantastic opportunity to bring together the huge number of people and agencies from across Cumbria who are working towards this in different and complementary ways.
Name: Emma Baughan
Organisation: Cumberland Council
Role: Senior Social Prescribing Officer
What I do: Social Prescribing is about connecting people to groups and services to help improve their wellbeing. My role involves building a network of groups and services, encourage partnership working, fulfil gaps in provision and support groups and services that need it.
Why I support the network: Connection with people and nature is a fundamental part to improving wellbeing. Having activities that connect with people and nature will help improve the wellbeing of the residents that we work with.
Name: Jodie Mills
Organisation: West Cumbria Rivers Trust, representing all Cumbria Rivers Trusts
Role: Network Chair and Director of West Cumbria Rivers Trust
What I do: Being the Director of WCRT involves managing our fabulous ever-expanding team, completing funding bids and claims and making sure we have all the right policies and procedures in place. As a charity we are governed by a board of trustees so I also work closely with them to oversee the Trust.
Why I support the network: My passion is getting people into nature and I am therefore hugely supportive of the network. In the words of the great David Attenborough “No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced”.
Name: Lorraine Thompson
Organisation: Westmorland & Furness Council
Role: Inclusion Manager, Westmorland & Furness Learning Improvement Service and Furness Education Consortium.
What I do: My role involves working with schools, colleges, Alternative Provision providers and tutors to ensure good quality education for children and young people who are not accessing a full time mainstream education.
Why I support the network: I fully support the aims and ambitions of the network and will work with our schools, colleges, providers and tutors to raise their awareness of the opportunities available to them and to support them to access and embed people and nature activities into their curriculums and enrichment activities.
Name: Chris Loynes
Organisation: University of Cumbria
Role: Emeritus Professor
What I do: I am a emeritus researcher with the University of Cumbria working in the field of human nature relations. I take part in projects in Cumbria and beyond, working with scientists and artists to support greater connection of people with nature in the landscapes around them.
Why I support the network: I think it is vital that people are connected to the landscapes in which they live and that they visit, and that they are involved in the decisions about the restoration of nature in those landscapes. I think nature is part of the commons we should all engage in looking after.
Name: Lorrainne Smyth
Organisation: ACTion with Communities in Cumbria
Role: CEO
What I do: ACT champions community and rural issues and supports communities to plan for the future, develop projects, work with others and Influence and change policy. As the CEO I have a very broad brief to work at strategic and local level, as well as supporting my team. You can find out more about us here: https://www.cumbriaaction.org.uk/ We have connections with a wide range of small community groups and others who work with communities, so can circulate information and support messaging on issues of interest to rural people.
Why I support the network: Lots of people are doing things about nature, with a range of different motivations. We can inform and support them and provide some level of broader understanding of nature and its needs, alongside communities’, businesses’ and visitors’ needs. I’m keen to promote discussion, be clear about challenges and encourage action at local and strategic level to protect, enhance and develop our environment for the benefit of us now and future populations”.
Name: Addy Burrun
Organisation: Westmorland & Furness Council
Role: Nature Project Support Officer
What I do: At Westmorland and Furness Council, I support various environmental initiatives, such as the Biodiversity Net Gain Studies and the Planting for Pollinators Project, by enhancing the ecological quality of local sites and promoting community involvement through partnerships with residents, schools, and volunteers to encourage biodiversity and sustainability.
Why I support the network: Why I support the network( one sentence): I support the Cumbria People and Nature Network because it strengthens the bond between people and nature, encouraging sustainable practices that benefit both the environment and the local community.
Name: Jody Ferguson
Organisation: Cumbria Local Nature Partnership
Role: Partnership Manager
What I do: I work collaboratively with other people, organisations, and groups on work to support nature’s recovery across Cumbria.
Why I support the network: By bringing together a network of people working with nature and people we can strength the impact of individual projects and activities to deliver more benefits for people and nature. Nature’s recovery is reliant on people, but people also need nature for their health and wellbeing so the two are intrinsically linked.
Name: Marian Jones
Organisation: Cumbria Wildlife Trust
Role: Head of Community
What I do: lead Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s people engagement activity across Cumbria to involve local people in their natural environment. We take a community-led, #WilderCumbria approach to enabling people to take direct action for nature.
Name: Rachel Kelly
Organisation: Cumbria Association of Local Councils (CALC)
Role: Town and Parish Development Officer
What I do: I work as part of the CALC team to enable and monitor the provision of training and development for town and parish councils and their clerks and assist with activities that contribute to the achievement of CALC’s strategic aims.
Why I support the Network: Working with town and parish councils it is beneficial to be involved in the steering group to enable us to share information with the councils and give support to them as needed.
Name: Briony Gray
Organisation: Westmorland and Furness Council
Role: Project Support Officer – Climate and Nature
What I do: I support the climate and nature team on a variety of projects, such as tree planting, community orchards and our climate and nature partnership grants.
Why I Support the Network: To be able to network with other organisations with similar values and to help connect people with the natural environment.
Name: Helen Manns
Organisation: University of Cumbria/ Centre for National Parks and Protected Areas ( CNPPA)
Role: Dean of the Institute of Science and Environment / Acting Director for CNPPA
What I do: The Institute is one of five academic Institutes at the University covering Conservation, Outdoor Education, Forestry, Geography, Environmental Science, Forensic Science and Biomedical Sciences. CNPPA is a multidisciplinary research centre based at the University of Cumbria’s Ambleside campus. I am chair of the Forestry Skills Forum and of the Governing Board for the Cumbria Land and Nature Skills Service. I’m a Chartered Environmentalist and Fellow of IEMA with 35 years of experience working in environmental roles in the public sector and higher education.