We continue our series of interviews by Lucy Johnson, in which she interviews some of the key players in the development past, present and future, of The Aire Rivers Trust. We thank her for her committment and expertise in putting these pieces together.
Arriving early for our scheduled interview (I have a healthy mistrust of scheduled bus times), I found the Aire Rivers Trust’s new Chief Executive Rachel Forsyth tucking into her lunch in the midst of the rest of the staff, swapping stories and jokes. I had already met Rachel on her official first day, when she came across as down to earth, knowledgeable and approachable, but I wasn’t expecting such a warm, communal atmosphere. Geoff, current trustee and former chair of ART, commented that Rachel stood out from other applicants because of her “vision.” He credited her with the ability to “see where we need to go” and “not get sidetracked,” but this comes with a big helping of playfulness.
We settled in with our drinks in the communal kitchen and picked up where we left off. Rachel is a law graduate who has spent most of her career working with the National Trust in varying roles, initially in more on the ground roles, but most recently working as Countryside Manager in the Yorkshire Dales, managing a team of rangers and an ecologist and determining long-term plans for the land. Within this Rachel looked at everything from soil and water health to public access and heritage. Throughout each role, learning and developing was important to Rachel, and this knowledge will be used for everything from delivering huge projects to having the edge on pub quizzes.
Like Geoff, Rachel has had a close connection to the outdoors and nature since childhood, spending a lot of time in the garden as a child. There were no early ambitions to work in nature, in fact the opposite as she was very intrigued by the idea of racing cars, but the experience of studying law reoriented her back towards her early interest. Her childhood, initially in Kent then in Northampton, sounds idyllic, with family walks and outings as a family to watch a nearby badger family in their large sett. She also remembers seeing hedgehogs and dormice in the garden, in addition to watching birds on the North Norfolk coast and whale watching trips. Rachel added, “It wasn’t like that all the time,” but clearly it was enough of the time to spark a lifelong interest and satisfying career.
Alongside her keen interest in knowing details and facts to get just a smidgen more points than her peers in quizzes, Rachel has a knowledge of and interest in management theories across diverse sectors, citing several during the interview. These were mostly focused on helping team members achieve their best, which is something Rachel has thought about in detail and drawn upon ideas from fields such as technology to hone her own perspective. We discussed the idea of creating multiple ideas, most of which will not be acted upon, but which can lead to a greater diversity of solutions and a better utilisation of staff skills.
Rachel is still in the early stages of her role. I asked her if she had any changes she had in mind, and she clarified that initially she wants to focus on “listening,” and finding out what’s currently in place. She also commented that some things may alter, but they may well be led by what the rest of the team have identified as possible to improve. Throughout the interview Rachel was quick to praise the support she has received from the trustees, particularly Wendy the chair, and Geoff, all staff members and her predecessor Simon, who she credited with managing a very high workload very effectively.
Rachel defined the Chief Executive role as providing a key link between the trustees and the staff, alongside taking a role in high-level partnerships and overseeing the future direction of the charity. Current partnerships are with Yorkshire Water and the newly formed regional group across Yorkshire, of the Don Catchment Rivers Trust, the Calder and Colne Rivers Trust, the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, the East Yorkshire Rivers Trust and of course the Aire Rivers Trust. Rachel will be co-leading one of the group’s work-streams on community and volunteering.
Meeting with the other local rivers trusts has sparked some reflection about the structure of the charity, as each trust has their own individual set-up and set of expertise. One trust has a geomorphologist and a farm adviser, but they don’t benefit from administration support. Equally, as charities grow more specialised roles emerge such as dedicated fundraisers, but this also means more team members who are not directly engaged with the core aims of the charity.
Finally, we spoke about what wisdom might be contained in folklore relating to the natural world. Rachel pointed to people’s personal connections to woodlands as a way of connecting to the past, and said that the reaction to the felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap showed the depth of connection that people feel which they aren’t always aware of. Pragmatically, she picked the example of planting rowan trees by your front door to ward off evil as not necessarily true, but emblematic of a broader relationship between planting trees and good things resulting. Let’s hope good things result from Rachel’s new role and the Trust’s current tree planting and other projects.
