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 with her rescue hens.

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 been centred around working with people who struggle with their mental health including supporting people to make changes to their drug and alcohol use and supporting young people in finding their place and building their resilience. One thread that has existed for 20 years is a passion for working with groups in a natural environment, being continually amazed at witnessing the power of nature to heal and help people tolerate distress.  

The opportunity to join the Tortworth team as the Woodland Wellbeing Manager and combine Rhea’s passions for working with groups and to enable and empower people who wouldn’t usually access nature for wellbeing to venture into the countryside, is a dream come true.

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.

Katy Radel, Event & Venue Manager

Katy has spent over a decade organising corporate conferences, award ceremonies, celebrations and weddings. She loves to plan and thoroughly enjoys watching an idea come to life, especially taking any opportunity to add a little sparkle.

In her spare time Katy enjoys spending as much time outside as possible, regardless of the weather. The first time she visited Tortworth it was torrentially raining, yet she and her family were there for hours enjoying exploring the trails and trees.

Having spent far too many days at a desk wistfully wishing she was outside she is ecstatic to have an opportunity to be part of a team actively encouraging time in nature appreciating the great outdoors.

Gary Davis, Maintenance Officer

Our Maintenance Officer first visited the arboretum 25 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 is 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 the past 5 years he has become an invaluable part of the Tortworth team.

Gary is a restorer and recycler.  When he’s not clearing paths or chainsawing a fallen tree, he’ll be tinkering with old tools or repurposing materials.  He also drives our minibus from Bristol.

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.

Clare Lowden, Forest School Assistant – Hawthorn Project

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!