Jessica Brooks

I come from the Isle of Wight, where my family has farmed a pastoral smallholding on the north coast for three generations. We’ve kept an ever-changing menagerie of feathered, hairy and furry beings over the years. I studied two environmental degrees at Reading University before my first job as an Environmental Monitoring Officer at the Environment Agency. After that I worked as a freshwater ecology consultant, enabling me to visit lots of beautiful (and sometimes bleak) corners in all four countries of the UK. At last I have combined my love of wildlife and farmland to become a farmland biodiversity advisor at GWCT, where I’ve been in position for 2 busy and very enjoyable years!

I am principally involved with the farmer cluster initiative which champions sustainable landscape management, and much of my time is spent working on a farmer-led project on Cranborne Chase, Dorset.

In my spare time I love portraiture, exploring footpaths and training my dog Merlin. My greatest achievement, as a millennial, is buying a house!