Nick Oliver
Community Action Manager (Richmond)
About me
I joined WWT in 2011, starting as a casual Learning Assistant at the London Wetland Centre. I had just started studying Natural Sciences with the Open University and was keen to get some more hands-on experience to complement this, so volunteered with the Reserve team undertaking habitat management activities, bat and plant surveys. In 2014 I moved across to the Grounds team - again on a casual basis - looking after the animals in our living collection.
My background is in training and development, and alongside my part-time work at the Centre, I was running my own training consultancy. But the pull of conservation got the better of me and I embarked on a full-time role as Engagement Manager in 2017 - delivering the Trust's key conservation stories to visitors, managing one of the largest volunteering teams in the Trust and still getting the opportunity to get my hands dirty by leading corporate volunteering days.
When I'm not extolling the virtues of SuDS (Sustainable Drainage Systems) or community co-design, I'm mostly planning the next big mountain adventure as I'm coming to the tail end of the Trail 100 list of some of the choicest hills and mountains of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - 94 in the bag, six to go.
My role
I'm the Community Action Manager on the Community BlueScapes project, a Defra-funded flood resilience programme in southwest London working in partnership with Richmond and Wandsworth Councils, and Barnes Common Limited. At WWT our focus for the project is on co-designing what we're calling future-proofed neighbourhoods with the people who live, work or learn in those places - giving residents, schools and community groups the knowledge and tools to adapt to the risks posed by climate change through SuDS and other nature-based solutions.
Projects under the future-proofed neighbourhoods umbrella include two SuDS in Schools programmes, a SuDS retrofit at a community centre, and working with local groups to turn the grey-to-green in public spaces on the Alton Estate in Roehampton. To supplement and enhance my SuDS design experience, and to bring an additional skillset to the Wetland Services team, I have recently embarked upon a Post Graduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture.
Experience and interests
- Training and facilitation skills including delivery of riverfly monitoring training for citizen science volunteers
- Concept design for SuDS and landscape projects
- Volunteer management and community engagement
- Practical habitat management