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 commitment and expertise in putting these pieces together.

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Lucy

What personal qualities make you a good project manager?

Gareth

Having interpersonal skills. The number one quality is patience. Patience is what you need to work with people. I’m very much of the school of thought that human beings should be in nature. We are part of nature. This seems to be quite in vogue at the moment with rewilding and so on. We need to let nature get on with its own devices.

Also, being diplomatic and for example, in office dynamics, being the hate figure.

Not a serious hate figure but being the person who’s a little bit crabby sometimes, who sort of pushes the envelope with socially acceptable discussions and mores, etc. In a productive way, not in an antagonistic way. Then again that’s sort of similar to how within the team, Olivia is the good cop and I’m the bad cop.

Lucy

Do you get into a flow state while you’re working or undertaking practical tasks?

Gareth 

Yes, I do. And that’s not ideal because you’ve got to have your wits about you because you’re obviously supervising people. So for example, mowing today, I’m always aware that I need to be available. I can’t just go into a state of flow where time passes me by and I’ve mown X amount of grass, but I’m perhaps neglecting altering people’s technique or sharpening a blade and things like that.

So, it can be quite taxing in terms of your concentration.

Lucy

What’s the most satisfying element of project management for you?

Gareth

Well, surprisingly enough, completing a project, as much as I love the process. So for example with the River Aire Care 2 Stewardship Fund, we didn’t have to necessarily report and have specific outcomes, but we did an end of project summary and we had over a thousand bin bags from the river cleanups.

We’d laid over 200 meters of hedge and planted thousands of trees. When you put those numbers into black and white, it becomes quite real in that respect. For me it’s about offsetting my carbon. I know that if I plant 282 trees in a year, I offset the carbon, which through my positive life choices I’ve been able to do that.

Whereas some people would say, “Oh well, you’re really lucky that you get able to do that as well.” No, I’ve chosen this life to do this. You know, like you’ve not chosen to pay for somebody to do that. You’ve not chosen to go out and do that yourself as an intervention. Whereas the volunteers I work with have put their money where the mouth is, have come out and contributed to a project which has actually got tangible results.

Then in years to come, they’ll be able to say, oh, well, I planted that tree, or I pulled that car out of Bradford Beck. Rather than getting lost in the process, the actual result at the end of it is something to be celebrated and, you know, that is what we do it for.

Lucy

In terms of projects are the volunteer days, the end point, the midpoint or something else? 

Gareth

That’s an interesting question. Probably the midpoint, because there’s planning for a session, carrying out a session and then you’ve got the outputs. So for example, we’re on Baildon Floodable Meadow today. We are mowing X metre squared of meadow and that’s the end result. Then that feeds into the habitat management side of things.

I guess it’s one of the questions which people who work in the sector as project officers doing environmental conservation get, “So what do you do with your time? It must be nice just to come out two days a week and do some mowing or do some coppicing.” Those other three days of the week, it’s site visits, it’s liaising with landowners, it’s writing risk assessments, it’s writing out method statements of how are you going to do it, why are you going to do it?

There’s also volunteer coordination, which is sending out the emails, instructions, communicating with the volunteers, clarifying any issues which might have arisen. Part of the role is volunteer recruitment. So for example the people who sign up for the Better Impact website, going through their application, maybe signposting them to Sam to do Citizen Science rather than practical conservation. There’s volunteer management, for example, if somebody’s done a course, updating the first aid and identifying training which they might like to carry out. So it’s quite a broad spectrum of tasks. I know from experience in the third sector, you’ve got to have many strings to your bow and you’ve got to be able to do social media and do community engagement. 

So it’s a broad canvas really.

Lucy

What have been some of your biggest achievements at the Aire Rivers Trust?

Gareth

Being a good mentor for Olivia has been my main achievement. In this sector, there’s a lot of turnover of staff when one project ends and another begins. Organisations struggle to keep staff, then they’re trying to keep the knowledge, skills and experience to bridge that gap in terms of following it along. Humans, despite all of our faults, I’m a great believer, are the best resource to have. 

In terms of more tangible results, I think growing the volunteer offer, including more people in the volunteering, increasing engagement with corporate groups such as the Airedale Group who pledged over 200 hours. Getting Keighley College students involved, making more links in the community, that’s always important. That’s an element of particularly environmental project officer roles, which you can’t learn, you can’t go to university and do a degree in it. You have to do that community building on the ground and make those links and have interpersonal skills.

Lucy

If you came back in two years and popped your head in the office, what would you like to see as your legacy of things that you can tell, “I had a part in that, that’s still there”?

Gareth

I don’t necessarily know if my legacy would be in the office. I think the volunteer base is an interesting one and very representative of volunteering in general. You’ve got people who are retired, semi retired, middle class, middle aged, some from a British background ethnically. I found it very open, very accommodating. For example, new people come into the group and they assimilate well into the group. I’d like to think Olivia will continue to foster a culture of openness, inclusion. I think that has existed previously in terms of the qualities of the staff. Sam has very similar qualities in that respect and so does Nick as well. So I think the trustees have made good choices in terms of who they’ve recruited. It’s really fitted within the existing culture and then it’s more a case of adding to the culture rather than changing or diverting it.

It’s very much like, if you want to use an analogy of the river, allowing the river to flow in its own direction rather than trying to put up a wall which channels the energy in a destructive direction. It actually follows its own course and deposits the good things like the silt of good teamwork, etc, etc and erodes the bad things like fixed mindsets and inflexibility.

I think in terms of what the legacy might be, I’ll be leaving, but then there’ll be new members of staff coming in. Hopefully they will be able to join the team and work with the team, not just alongside them and co-produce things rather than being like, “oh, well, we need to knock down 10 weirs regardless.” Somewhere down the line you might figure out, oh, actually this one weir has more benefits, than negatives and think, “oh, I need to keep this” for whatever reason.

Tangibly, I’d like to see more work on the sites. So for example Bingley North Bog, I’d like to see the proposed plans for having a screen there for observing birds. Or for Bingley South Bog, the willow being cleared out to increase the diversity of it. Also in Ryeloaf Meadows, to diversify the species of trees in there. As for Trench Meadows, ensuring that it’s not encroached upon by dog walkers and dog fouling, diminishing and degrading the quality of it.

That would be the legacy I would like to see.

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 commitment and expertise in putting these pieces together.

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Olivia was also positive about her workmates. “It’s such a nice team to work with, so supportive. They care a lot about my development. They’ve been encouraging. Even if I have doubts about my own abilities.” Olivia singled Gareth out for praise in particular, stating, “he’s been a very good teacher, supported me with development and he’s not coddled me.” ART’s Senior Project Officer Nick Milsom has also played a major role in Olivia’s development.

Olivia was full of praise for volunteers, commenting that she enjoyed interacting with people of varying backgrounds and life experience, which informs their approach to tasks. She noted, “One of my favourite things is working with volunteers, building up nice relationships with interesting people who’ve lived lives that I want to hear about and then also doing meaningful work in a place that I care about.” She also commented that apart from the obvious benefits of participation, it has occurred that corporate volunteers have managed to initiate business deals after meeting on volunteer days.

Olivia comes from a large family, being one of five, and has always been active and outdoorsy. She remembers childhood walks in nature fondly, where her parents drew on their science and history knowledge to make the walks interesting. The Malham Tarn walk is a particular favourite of Olivia’s, although she states, “I also feel very linked to pine woodland dune walks that we do in Dorset, specifically on Brownsea Island near Bournemouth.” Olivia attributes her interest in using questions to draw out further knowledge to these walks.  “I like to find out things about people, about places, things. Walking along, always pointing stuff out and wondering what they are, why they’re there and what they’re doing.” A useful approach for a Project Officer!

In addition to the practical conservation skills developed alongside Gareth, other staff and the volunteers, Olivia also has an impressive academic background, taking part in a substantive research project in her placement year, examining the protocols used by ex situ seed banks around collecting seeds, for which she will occasionally speak at professional meetings. This can be viewed here https://www.kew.org/wakehurst/whats-at-wakehurst/millennium-seed-bank

Prior to working for the Aire Rivers Trust, Olivia worked on bat surveys, enjoying working at night and talking to landowners. She has also worked in cafes and spent a year volunteering with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Upskill Downdale scheme, which is aimed at young people in the Dales. It was a “full circle” moment for Olivia when the next year’s cohort were able to come along to an ART organised day. The group worked to remove Himalayan balsam at Trench Meadows, an SSSI located near Saltaire. Long term, Olivia would like an educational role or potentially to work with farmers in environmental land management. A return to academia does not appeal due to the pressures of deadline structures.

In her free time, Olivia is a highly trained dancer and a skilled sewer, most recently creating a beautiful orchid-coloured silk dress (for which a formal occasion is required, if anyone would like to organise a gala dinner). The next project will be a lined denim shirt.

Olivia emphasised the seasonality of her work, and how much she enjoys experiencing the seasons change. When asked if she had a favourite bit of folklore, she picked an Irish tradition threaded through the 2025 Lia Leendertz Almanac, the interplay of St Bridget with the Cailleach, the one representing spring and summer, the other representing autumn and winter. She appreciates the interplay between the two, and is grateful to live somewhere that actually experiences distinct seasons. Her link to seasons extends to having a dedicated playlist for summer. “I live my life a lot around nature, especially in the work I do.”