George Clark

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT GEORGE CLARK

As programme lead at City to Sea, an environmental organisation campaigning to stop plastic pollution at source, I drive forward innovative projects that provide solutions to the single use plastics crisis. My passion for wildlife and natural environments - locally and globally - has guided my career so far. Having studied zoology at University of Birmingham, I became truly inspired by both the magic and tragedy of the state of our environment when I gained the opportunity to work as a Ranger at Aigas Field Centre in the Scottish Highlands. Alongside guiding minibuses of visitors around the majestic mountains and lochs of the wild north, pointing out golden eagles and waiting patiently for otters, my eyes to the issues facing our native wildlife and their habitats.Returning south I secured a trainee position with RSPB working with the reserves team at Otmoor, a conservation success story, gaining may qualifications in practical conservation and putting them to good use on the vast wetland reserve. My tractor-driving, chainsaw-wielding, volunteer-managing skills were honed in Wiltshire where I took up a position on the Estates Team at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. Working across 50 diverse reserves I gained a further knowledge of the threats facing our key natural environment and the direct link between us, our communities and our natural world, and how we can and must live alongside nature.During my time with WWT I was particularly inspired by the connectivity between our freshwater environments and terrestrial habitats. This led me to join Bristol Avon Rivers Trust, working on a huge range of projects across the catchment. I proved my diverse skills through the development and delivery of practical restoration, ecological surveys, education and stakeholder engagement projects. I grew quickly through the ranks and was pleased to become a project manager at BART, having particular success scoping opportunities for habitat improvement schemes, engaging with farmers and land owners, securing funding and seeing through delivery of multi-benefit schemes. I was luckily enough to don my waders and chainsaw still too!Seeing the huge array of problems our rivers are facing is at times overwhelming, but committing my energy to doing something about it is what keeps me going. When the opportunity to work for City to Sea came up in 2022 I was thrilled to come on board with an organisation that are at the forefront of driving behaviour change, offering solutions to some of these issues and holding the polluters to account. Let\'s do this!