13/12/2023
Welcome David Braithwaite, one of TET's newest Trustees!
At junior school the `nature table` was David`s favourite `go to` place, and he was an eager contributor from his countryside ramblings.
He has been a campaigner for the natural environment ever since joining the York Ornithological Club in his early teens.
His teaching career, spanning 25 years, saw him develop a department for Countryside Management at Bishop Burton College in Yorkshire, where as well as running the department, he taught Applied Ecology to undergraduates and was the Director of the Centre for Applied Ornithology.
During that time, he was also the chairman of the county Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group. His support for nature conservation led him to serve on three Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve management committees, two of those reserves are today designated as National Nature Reserves. A keen ornithologist, David was also for a time, a committee member of the Spurn Point Bird Observatory.
David left teaching to become Senior Ecologist with Ecology UK where he specialised in overseeing ornithological assessments, including survey work in some difficult terrain both on land and at sea.
He left this post to take up the exciting challenge of opening RSPB Saltholme, Teesside, to the public and was Saltholme's first Site Manager. A job he enjoyed for 12 years.
David`s passion for sheep farming led to him acquiring a farm in the Scottish Borders where he still farms his Hebridean sheep today. He is deeply involved with the promotion of this once rare breed of sheep and has demonstrated how they are an excellent management tool for sensitive wildlife sites. As a result of his work, today many conservation organisations keep a flock of Hebrideans for specific grazing management regimes on ecologically delicate areas.
As the founding Chairman of the Hebridean Sheep Society, David saw it through significant developments including its incorporation as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. He also edited the book Hebridean Sheep; Old Breed for New Times, which has been a Hebridean Sheep Society best seller. Uniquely, David undertook 12 years as Chairman of that breed society.
Latterly, he has been leading a project to establish seal conservation and rehabilitation work on Teesside. Whilst at Saltholme, David was eager to tell the positive story of the return of seals to Teesmouth and oversaw the development of a seal viewing area, seal interpretation, and a `seal-cam` that relayed images from the seal haul out area at Greatham Creek to the Saltholme visitor`s centre.
As a boy, David first visited Teesside on birdwatching trips and has remained inspired by how such rich wildlife can live side by side with heavy industry. He strongly believes that the wildlife gains that have been made around Teesmouth over recent decades can continue, providing excellent opportunities both for industry to get further involved, and for the enrichment of the lives of the people of Teesside.
teessideenvironmentaltrust.co.uk
