Meet the team

Amy Walsh, Managing Director

Amy is experienced in strategic and operational project management in the environment and community sectors. As a qualified Forest School Leader with a background in environmental education and play work, she is on a mission to enable people from all backgrounds to discover the magic in nature.

Amy loves being creative, experimenting with new ideas and collaborations, and being outdoors creating restorative spaces where communities can improve their wellbeing, whilst nurturing skills and values to grow a more socially and environmentally-conscious society. When she’s not in the woods, you’ll usually find her swimming in a lake, stomping up a hill or in the garden.

Jake Stow, Collection Manager

Jake has been involved in the project for a number of years, helping run the management days, leading our recent mapping project and working with volunteers to rediscover the arboretum’s lost secrets.

Our resident tree enthusiast, Jake is always ready for a conversation about leaves, bark or bud shapes and is enthusiastic to pass on his knowledge and introduce others to our exciting tree collection. His work over the last few years has transformed our understanding of what we have on site.

He loves being outdoors and believes everyone should have the opportunity to work amongst the trees in this unique and beautiful woodland.

Rhea Warner, Woodland Wellbeing Programme Manager

Rhea’s career has focused on supporting people who struggle with their mental health, including helping individuals make changes to their drug and alcohol use and assisting young people in building resilience and finding their place in the world. A consistent thread throughout her 20 year journey has been a deep passion for working with groups in natural environments, where she continues to be inspired by the healing power of nature and its ability to help people tolerate distress.

Joining the Tortworth team as the Wellbeing Programme Manager is a dream come true, offering Rhea the chance to combine her love for group work with her commitment to empowering people, especially those who might not typically access nature for wellbeing, to explore and connect with the outdoors.

Amy Stone, Impact Manager

Amy is passionate about getting people outside and firmly believes in the value – to people, communities and wildlife – of connecting with nature. She has a background in planning, delivering and evaluating outdoor engagement projects – ranging from formal outdoor education to informal family learning; from conservation volunteering to therapeutic gardening and community food-growing – always sharing her passion for the natural world with those around her.   Until joining the team at Tortworth in 2020 much of her work was on wetland nature reserves and in urban parks and gardens.  Having fulfilled various roles within the organisation, she now happily combines her love of trees with her love of spreadsheets by leading on evaluating the impact of our work.

Kelly Eldridge, Bushcraft Lead

With a background in Countryside Management and Environmental Education, Kelly has many years experience working in the outdoors, she is at her happiest out enjoying the countryside often accompanied by her faithful companion Basil the dog.

Besides her passion for the natural environment Kelly also has a love of history and crafts, heritage and country crafts in particular. She has spent many years studying Countryside Management, History and Experimental Archaeology and truly believes that learning more about our past and how our ancestors and forebears lived helps us to gain a better understanding of the natural world and how we connect and move within it. ‘Historically people were much more in tune with nature and the seasons, understanding the past is a great way to try and better understand how to preserve and enhance our environment in the future.’

This love of learning also extends to learning new skills and crafts, Kelly is always interested In trying out new things and spends much of her spare time on courses and workshops trying to acquire new skills, when she is not doing this you will often find her in her pottery workshop elbows deep in clay.

Anna Price, Wellbeing Facilitator

Anna has been part of Tortworth for over eight years, contributing in various roles with her infectious enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the woods. Her first-hand experience of its transformative power, and the sense of safety and community it offers, informs everything she brings to the project.

With a particular passion for fungi and moss, she shares her expertise with wellbeing groups and the wider public during events. She also thrives in the practical side of woodland management, finding joy in days spent outdoors learning new skills and deepening her connection with nature.

Her natural ability to build relationships, connect with the land, and make learning accessible, empower those around her to join in and be themselves. When she’s not in the woods, Anna is often off walking, camping and wild swimming; she is also part of a choir and orchestra.

Meg Trump, Wellbeing Facilitator

Meg has always said her working life must consist of being with people, outside, surrounded by food as much as possible. After spending five years as a senior playworker and at an adventure playground in Bristol, Meg completed her forest school training and came to Tortworth. Initially, she was ‘guest chef’ and now helps to facilitate the Hawthorn sessions after a series of winning fireside meals. Alongside this role as project facilitator, Meg works as an activist and campaigner for
river rights in the UK. She famously married the Bristol River Avon in 2023 and enjoys splitting her time between the woods and the water. When she’s not cooking, walking or swimming, she’s writing about cooking, walking or swimming.

Michelle James, Woodland Management Officer

Michelle James has a diverse background spanning youth work, arboriculture, and woodland management. She began her career working with young people, teaching DJ skills and encouraging creativity and confidence through music. She later trained as an arborist, managing and maintaining woodlands including Goblin Combe, Leigh Woods, and sites for Forestry Commission Wales.

Combining her practical skills with a passion for supporting others, Michelle then spent seven years teaching woodworking to autistic people and individuals with learning disabilities. Drawn back to the outdoors by her love of the woods, she has now returned to her roots as the Woodland Management Officer at Tortworth.

Nick Avery, Woodland Management Assistant

After participating as a volunteer for a number of years, Nick joined the team to help out on the Redwood Project and Volunteer Sundays. With a background previously in mechanical engineering, Nick has made a career change in 2023 towards a path in horticulture, arboriculture and conservation. 

He’s keen to give back to a project which helped him to discover new skills and find a future path to be passionate about, and to help others to build their confidence in pursuing a closer relationship with nature.

When he’s not at the Arboretum, he can be found helping people create beautiful gardens around Bristol, practicing his woodworking skills and supporting other local nature-based projects.

Siggy Patchitt, Income Generation Officer

Siggy began his career as a community musician, working with young people to support their personal, social and musical development. He went on to spend over twenty years at Bristol Beacon, leading inclusion initiatives and strategic organisational development, and helping to establish many of the disabled-led music programmes and the community engagement work that the Beacon has become known for.

As a composer, creative practitioner, and avid outdoorsman, his passion lies at the intersection between the creative process and the natural world. His happy place is among the trees making music with others.

Clare Lowden, Wellbeing Facilitator (bank staff)

Clare studied in Arts and for the last 7 years has worked in hands-on creative roles. She is a strong believer in the benefits of nature and creativity, and the role they play in promoting positive mental health.

With a keen interest in wellbeing, Clare has experience in Art Therapy and Eco-Therapy, and combined with her love for the outdoors, this has led her to complete her Level 3 Forest School training.

From leatherwork to printmaking to pottery, Clare loves to share and explore new processes in the outdoors. An ardent walker, cyclist, and outdoor swimmer, she is an advocate of spending time in nature whatever the weather!

Gary Davis

Gary was our Maintenance Officer until 2025, when he stepped down following a cancer diagnosis, sadly he died in January 2026. Gary’s legacy lives on in the woods.

He first visited the arboretum 30 years ago when he attended an event at the old nursery and decided to explore.  He was pleased to return in 2015 after he saw an ad for volunteers at the Forest Centre.  

Gary taught mechanics and engineering to young people for a long time, but was always happier in the woods. After he left teaching he discovered that volunteering at Tortworth was ‘knackering but restful’ at the same time, and it made him feel good. Over those ten years with the organisation he became invaluable part of the Tortworth team and the woods.

Gary was a restorer and recycler.  When he couldn’t be found clearing paths or chainsawing a fallen tree, he’d be tinkering with old tools or repurposing materials.  He also drove hundreds of participants and volunteers from urban areas to the woods in our minibus.