Flies
43 species of fly have become extinct in England in the last 200 years, 10 of which are shown below
Species: Belida angelicae
Extinct: 1936
Species: Clitellaria ephippium
Extinct: 1850
© John Reinecke
© Hectonichus
OUR TEAM
The Species Recovery Trust comprises a small team of specialist staff and a network of volunteers and experts across the country
Dominic Price - Director
Dominic Price is one of the UK's foremost species conservation experts, with over two decades experience in the field. He set up the Species Recovery Trust in 2012 and formerly worked for a range of conservation organisations across the world. He is also an accomplished botanical author and tutor.
Dominic also has a rich history in the environmental and anti-roads protest movements.
Dr Charlotte Carne - Programmes Manager
Charlotte completed a PhD on the conservation of orangutans and chimpanzees, exploring the potential effects of climate change and disease.
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She manages several of our conservation programmes, focussing on invertebrate species in the south of England.
Bex House - Conservation Officer
Bex has been working in conservation for many years promoting the benefits of enjoying the natural world and safeguarding the natural environment for the future.
Following completion of BSc, MSc and a PGCE Bex gained employment at TCV, Plantlife International and The Marine Biological Association. This gave her the opportunity to develop a suite of skills aimed at enabling more people to share her enthusiasm for the outdoor environment. Bex manages our projects throughout Devon and Cornwall.
Vicky Wilkins - Programmes Manager
Vicky is a highly skilled and experienced species conservationist; she has worked in the conservation sector both here in the UK and internationally for over 15 years. Specialising in invertebrate conservation, she provides advice to NGOs, universities, corporates, and governments.
She is leading on invertebrate recovery projects for SRT, with a focus on the North of England.
Holly Stanworth - Conservation Officer
Holly has been inspired by nature since a very young age, and has traveled the world to help conserve our rarest animals and habitats. But more recently, due to the current climes, she has set her aspirations to safeguard UK biodiversity. She is involved with botanical surveying, hazel dormouse monitoring, habitat restoration, and in general, adores our natural world.
Her career was kicked off with a BSc in Botany and Zoology, swiftly followed by conservation work with the RSPB, local authorities and Wildlife Trusts. The last ten years have been spent in professional ecology, perfecting the art of balancing development with conserving our natural assets. Botanical conservation is at the heart of her passion, and she will be assisting with the long-term resurrection of our rarest plant species across the south-east.
Claire Bending - Conservation Officer (Northern England)
Claire is a Farm Conservation Adviser who has worked for a number of different organisations including the North York Moors National Park and the National Trust, and also works freelance. She has a passion for plants and has been fortunate to work all round the UK in many beautiful places and fascinating habitats.
However she has also seen first hand how fragmented and vulnerable many of our habitats and species are and is committed to helping to reverse this worrying trend wherever she can.
Fran Holmes - Volunteer & Training Coordinator
Fran has worked in volunteer centered roles with both The Wildlife Trust in Berkshire and Butterfly Conservation in Kent. She has also been a conservation volunteer herself in many forms – bat surveys with NSW Forestry in Australia and University of Aberdeen in Madagascar, marsupial surveys with The Australian National University in Tasmania, butterfly surveys and stock checks in Kent, and for a short time as Dom’s sidekick with Plantlife’s Back from the Brink project based in Salisbury.
She has a BSc in Tropical Environmental Science and a PGCE, and has worked in private consultancy, conservation and the wilds of the classrooms of Kent, Essex and Hampshire.
Trevor Dines - Conservation Officer (Wales)
Trevor Dines, a farmer’s son from Hampshire, is a passionate botanist and conservationist. He has worked for the BSBI, co-authoring the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, and was Plantlife’s Botanical Specialist for 20 years, campaigning for better management of road verges, creating the #NoMowMay campaign to increase wildflowers on our lawns, and helping to create a new meadow in every county through the Prince of Wales’ Coronation Meadows project.
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With appearances on shows including Radio 4 Today, BBC Breakfast, Countryfile, Gardener’s World and The One Show, Trevor delights in sharing his passion for plants. He is now a consultant botanist and freelance author based in the Conwy valley, north Wales.
Leif Bersweden - Conservation Officer
Leif Bersweden is a writer, botanist and nature communicator with a face-down, bottom-up approach to watching wildlife. He grew up in rural Wiltshire where he taught himself how to identify the local flora and has championed our wild plants and the joy they bring ever since. He is the author of 'The Orchid Hunter' and 'Where the Wildflowers Grow'.
Jo Alderton - Conservation Officer (Central England)
Jo originally qualified as a solicitor, practising in residential property before completing a BSc in Land Management and becoming an ecological consultant.
Jo has over 10 years' experience of consultancy with a range of field surveys skills. She is a keen birder and ringer, collecting data for the BTO to inform species research. She has a passion for nature education and accessibility and is working in the Midlands area on some of our plant species reintroduction projects.
Phil Robinson - Invertebrates
Phill has been involved in conservation in a variety of capacities since graduating from his BSc in Zoology in 2012, including volunteering with The Conservation Volunteers, the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT), and the North and East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre (NEYEDC).
For the last decade, Phill has worked as a Senior Aquarist at The Deep Aquarium in Hull where he has had an active role in native Invertebrate conservation projects, forming working partnerships with stakeholders such as the YWT, NEYEDC, Hull City Council (HCC), the University of Hull (UoH), and the Wykeland Group.
Alongside this, Phill has represented The Deep on the Tansy Beetle Action Group since 2016, as well as sitting on the BIAZA Terrestrial Invertebrate Working Group, the BIAZA Conservation Committee, and has had an active involvement in the planning and implementation of Hulls participation in the City Nature Challenge alongside the NEYEDC, YWT, UoH, and HCC.
Jed Hamblin-Boone - Chairman
Jared Hamblin-Boone is a Chartered Environmentalist and senior public sector leader with over two decades of experience driving sustainability and environmental innovation. As Group Chief Sustainability Officer at Defra, he leads the department’s transition to net zero, nature recovery, climate resilience, and a circular economy across the department and its Public Bodies.
A Fellow of both the Chartered Management Institute and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, Jared combines strategic insight with a deep commitment to environmental stewardship and lifelong learning. He co-chairs the Government Chief Sustainability Officers Group, shaping cross-government sustainability strategy and standards.
His leadership has delivered major decarbonisation projects, embedded sustainability into public sector governance, and championed the ethical use of emerging technologies such as AI. In 2024, he was named one of the UK’s 100 most influential environmental professionals by the ENDS Report.
Nicholas Berry - Trustee
Nicholas Berry works in the City as a media and entertainment lawyer, and is the trust’s treasurer. He is based in London but maintains a strong link with the countryside, in particular long distance walking.
Catherine Hadler - Trustee
Catherine is a conservation ranger who looks after wildlife and nature across several sites in South West Hampshire. She thrives off of conserving nature on her sites and seeing species benefit as a result. A cheese lover and ardent home brew maker using natures' bounty, she likes to roam to far flung places and hike up big mountains across the world.
Dr Clive Bealey - Associate
Clive Bealey is a professional ecologist with particular interests in wading birds and lowland heath ecology. He worked for Natural England for many years running a national environmental monitoring project, and now runs a successful consultancy, specialising in long-term monitoring and biodiversity conservation
Sharon Pilkington - Associate
Sharon is a professional botanist and bryologist with many years’ experience of the British flora. As a county recorder of plants and bryophytes, she spends a lot of her spare time leading field meetings and training events and is an experienced tutor. She is currently undertaking a systematic survey of Somerset for a forthcoming new county bryophyte flora and is also managing a team of voluntary botanists in Wiltshire to collect records for the next BSBI atlas of plants in the British Isles.
Dr Keith Alexander - Associate
Keith is a leading expert on the conservation of terrestrial invertebrates in the UK, with a special interest in saproxylic (decaying wood) invertebrates and veteran trees. He is the Honorary Specialist Adviser to the IUCN on European Saproxylic Beetles and joint author of the 2010 European Red List of Saproxylic Beetles.