HENRIETTE WESTERGAARD

BSc, MSc, MCIEEM, CMLI, CEnv

I have been in professional practice for 35 years. I established Ecology & Land Management (ELM) in 1995.

I am a qualified Ecologist and a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and a Chartered member of the Society for the Environment. I am also Chartered Landscape Architect. I was part of starting the Landscape Institute’s Managers Working Group in 1998, promoting the profession of landscape managers and informing the members of relevant matters such as environmental legislation and guidelines. I was elected to the Management Committee of the Tree Council in 2000 to represent the Landscape Institute where I served for two years and remain an active member to date.

I have considerable experience in identifying the historic, amenity and nature conservation value of all types of landscapes. This involves the preparation of landscape and habitat management plans. Additionally the value of encouraging and diversifying wildlife habitats and raising the educational and public enjoyment value is a consistent feature of my work.

I have experience of dealing with all stages of planning, design and management of land taking into account both UK and European legislation. I have undertaken research projects, developed nature conservation solutions for a range of clients, identified constraints to developments and provided both short and long-term solutions to a wide range of sites, habitats and species. I have also given evidence at public inquiries identifying impacts and mitigation solutions for a range of habitats and species. During my professional life I have been responsible for ecological surveys for a range of habitats within the UK. These surveys have been part of schemes related to management of land and design of new landscapes. I have produced landscape management plans, landscape appraisals and assessments including Countryside Stewardship schemes.

I also have experience of assessing land in terms of its visual attributes to define character and nature conservation value based on Use-value analysis and other methods.  

I started my career as a landscape manager, working mainly on landscape maintenance and management plans. I managed a long-term contract with Welcome Foundation maintaining all new and existing planting at their research laboratories in Beckenham. This required working closely with their in house head gardener, setting up weekly meetings and managing planting areas around existing and proposed buildings, co-ordinating contractors and also designing new areas of habitat enhancement.

Further work with British Gas provided insight into AGIs in the north and I produced landscape management plans for neglected sites. In subsequent years, my focus has been on a mixture of landscape management and ecology. Combining the two skills has enabled me to provide an extended service to clients.

In a volunteer capacity I worked for my local branch of Surrey Wildlife Trust for over ten years, doing conservation tasks, open days, engaging the public in events including pond dipping and discovery of aquatic invertebrates and being a member on the local committee. I have been a school governor for 12 years. Seven years in primary school where I worked with the school producing their first ever School Travel Plan and continued to promote walking to school using incentives such as badges provided by TFL. This work required the design of questionnaires for different groups, i.e. parents, staff and pupils and graphic representation of the local area and travel. I also set up of a database to record and track changes in behaviours. The travel plan was approved by TFL and provided funding for a variety of items for the school. In the secondary school I worked with students by forming an EcoClub to support the EcoSchools work, succeeding in achieving the Bronze and Silver Awards.