New staff team unveiled by SNH

23rd December 2009

A new team for Caithness has been created at Scottish Natural Heritage's North Highland Area Office in Golspie.

Tom Kellett is now in charge of the team of Area Officers following a promotion. He joined SNH in June 2008 with a background in conservation and ecology work.

Tom studied for a BSc at Stirling University, then a Masters degree at Bangor and has had a varied career including working on biodiversity projects in the Cairngorms, a period spent in Tanzania, and five years at an ecological consultancy in Perthshire.

"I am looking forward to the challenge of helping to ensure that SNH continues to provide the best quality advice and help to a wide range of individuals and organisations in Caithness, and I am confident that our new team has the depth of knowledge needed to do the job," he confirmed.

The second member is Dr Karen Reid, who recently joined the Caithness team as an Area Officer. After studying for a BSc in zoology at Aberdeen University, Karen completed a doctorate on the nesting biology of loggerhead sea turtles in Greece and is involved in sea turtle conservation work.

This included a spell in Costa Rica with leatherback sea turtles, which are occasionally recorded off the Scottish coast. Karen also worked for an ecological consultancy in Edinburgh at which her main duties were management and ecology of protected species.

And also joining the Caithness team is Ian Sargent who worked at the Aigas Field Centre near Beauly for a number of years as a Ranger and more recently as programme manager responsible for organising adult environmental education programmes. Part of this work involved leading courses on field studies and wildlife identification skills. Prior to working at Aigas, Ian carried out extensive mammal surveys in Cornwall for the Central Science Laboratory.