Debbie Coldwell – Natural Flood Management Officer

Debbie joined the Trust in April 2019 as Natural Flood Management (NFM) Officer for the Upper Rother Catchment. Her role involves the development and delivery of schemes that capture and slow the flow of rainfall, runoff and rivers within the catchment with the aim of reducing flood risk. Debbie works with a variety of stakeholders and landowners from both the public and private sectors including councils, farmers and private woodland owners, to support them in implementing NFM interventions. Projects that Debbie has worked on include Slow the Flow to the Calow at Grassmoor Country Park, National Highways Little Don (NFM) Pilot, Green Recovery Challenge Fund NFM, Newfield Spring Woods, Holmebrook Valley Park, Upper Rother NFM Opportunity Mapping (stage 1 and stage 2).

Encouraging local community input and involvement is also key to Debbie’s role and includes working with community groups and running regular volunteer days installing, maintaining and monitoring NFM features such as leaky dams, wildflower meadows, and trees/hedgerows.

Before joining the Trust, Debbie’s work largely focussed on ecosystem service delivery and evaluation. Having completed a Masters degree in Ecology and Environmental Management at York University, Debbie then worked as a coordinator for a landscape-scale moorland restoration project in north Wales and for the York Environmental Sustainability Institute before moving to Sheffield to complete a doctorate in collaboration with the Dark Peak Nature Improvement Area. Debbie then worked as a natural capital consultant with Natural Capital Solutions before joining the Trust to focus on her passion for natural flood management and nature recovery.