Course Tutors

Meet some of our tutors:

Philip Briggs (NBMP training workshops, British bats, their ecology and conservation)

Philip joined the Bat Conservation Trust in 2003 and is currently Monitoring Manager with responsibility for the National Bat Monitoring Programme. He is a member of London Bat Group and Dorset Bat Group and also leads the Richmond Bat Species Action Plan steering group.

Richard Crompton (Arboriculture and Bats - Scoping Surveys for Arborists, Secondary Roost Surveys for Arborists including Endoscope Use)

Richard has been a licensed batwork trainer and consultant since 1998. A former BCT Trustee and member of the Bat Survey Guidelines team, Richard specialises in training professionals and supporting ecologists; mainly on complex projects and usually involving rare bats.

Katie Swift (Bats and the Construction Industry, Arboriculture and Bats)

Katie is a qualified teacher and has worked in the FE and HE Sectors. Previously a senior ecological consultant, Katie holds Class One and Class Two bat licenses and has many years cross sector industry experience.

Katie is on the Environmental Advisors register and has extensive professional and voluntary conservation experience.

Jo Ferguson (Landscaping for Nature and Bats)

Jo is the Built Environment Manager and has been with the Bat Conservation Trust since 2015. Prior to this she had worked in ecological consultancy and has extensive experience in the conservation and scientific research sectors, including working in Australia for 18 months using her bat survey skills to help run the micro-bats trapping and radio-tracking project in the botanic gardens with volunteers from Earthwatch. Jo is a full member of CIEEM and a member of the London Bat Group.

Louise Mapstone (Arboriculture and Bats)

"Bats are amazing, you never stop learning!". Louise is a Chartered Ecologist and Lantra trainer for BCT with 18 years’ experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors. Louise has experience of dealing with bats in a range of situations throughout the UK, holds a level two survey licence from Natural England, and is also a Volunteer Bat Roost Visitor. Louise was the Biodiversity Officer at BCT for two years and has provided expertise to the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. She has an excellent grasp of the planning and legal framework behind all protected site and species work as well as hands-on survey and mitigation experience.

Colin Morris (Advanced Bat Survey Techniques)

Colin was formerly the Bat Groups Officer for BCT . He has been involved with bat work since the early 1980s when he joined the Dorset Bat Group and trained for his first bat licence, having become intrigued by bats he came across in his work as a roofer. As a volunteer Colin helped Bob Stebbings excavate the ‘World’s first cave in solid rock for hibernating bats’. In 1991 Colin joined the VWT to managing the trust’s portfolio of nature reserves. In this time Colin undertook a variety of projects including bat box schemes that enabled the study rare woodland bats (barbastelle and Bechstein’s) and several radio-tracking projects on both species of horseshoe bats and Bechstein’s bats. In 2014 he was thrilled to be awarded the Pete Guest Award for his contribution to bat conservation in the UK.

Abby Packham (British bats, their ecology and conservation, Bat walk training)

Abby is the bat groups officer at BCT, supporting bat groups and organising events. She started working with bats in 2018 and is still a surveyor along with her BCT role. Abby also has a background studying conservation techniques and management of threatened island species.

Claudia Gebhardt (British bats, their ecology and conservation, Bat walk training)

Rich Flight (Arboriculture and Bats, Surveying trees for bats)

Adam Curtis (Arboriculture and Bats)

Sean Shereston (Arboriculture and Bats)

Nick Tomlinson (Advanced Bat Survey Techniques)