Jamie Whittle

Chair

Jamie Whittle grew up in Findhorn and then at Altyre near Forres. He was a Morehead Scholar of the University of North Carolina where he gained a BA (Hons) in modern languages, before receiving an LLB in law at the University of Edinburgh and an MSc with distinction in human ecology at the Centre for Human Ecology/Open University.

He is a partner of R & R Urquhart LLP Solicitors in Forres and is a part-time lecturer in environmental law at the University of Edinburgh School of Law.

He is passionate about the outdoors and conservation, and has written a book about the River Findhorn entitled White River. In his spare time he runs the Cub Scout pack at Hopeman.

Ben Starkie

Director

With more 30 years of experience as an adventure guide, primarily in Scotland’s rivers and mountains, Ben Starkie has led numerous expeditions both domestically and internationally.

For the past 25 years, he has owned and operated Vertical Descents, an adventure company specialising in adrenaline-fuelled activities, such as canyoning, white water rafting and climbing.

Ben’s career began at Outward Bound, focusing on personal and team development. He is highly regarded in the outdoor industry as a leading voice and expert in canyoning techniques and white-water safety and rescue. Ben is the founder and chairman of UK Canyon Guides and Outdoor Safety Training.

Ben’s dedication to adventure and safety has made him a respected figure in the outdoor community and his passion for the outdoors continues to inspire those who seek thrilling and memorable experiences in Scotland’s natural landscape

Rupert Butler

Treasurer

Since training as a Chartered Accountant in the late 1990s, Rupert has worked as a business and accounting advisor to many commercial and charitable enterprises – initially as an employee, then as a partner in a London-based private equity firm and subsequently as an independent consultant for UK-based SMEs. During all this time, Rupert has been actively involved in charitable work both as a volunteer and as an advisor.

Rupert is the founder/director of a practical skills training company and an educational social enterprise; and as a Trustee of Wild Things, can bring his professional skills and experience together with his passion for outdoor learning.

Anne Skene

Director

Anne Skene has enjoyed a full career as a teacher and manager of provision for children with Additional Support Needs. For 18 years she has run her own education business which provides consultancy, instruction and teacher training both in Scotland and internationally. She has a long history of involvement and holding office in a variety of community groups. She has recently been a Moray Councillor for the Forres Ward with responsibility for chairing the Children and Young People’s Services Committee and is presently Chair of the Findhorn and Kinloss Community Council. Recent directorships have been with The Princess Royal Trust Moray Carers, The Forres Area Community Trust and the Moray Art Centre. Currently, she is a Director of Universal Hall Promotions and Trustee of the Kinloss Abbey Trust. She is involved with building and developing a school centre in western Kenya.

Adele Napier

Director

Adele Napier grew up in Zimbabwe and South Africa and is passionate about the life-giving value of wild nature. After eight years in business and brand building at Procter & Gamble in South Africa, the UK and Switzerland, a desire to explore holistic approaches to life and work led her to learn, practice and teach in leading edge social, cultural and ecological education and experimentation with the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. She currently lives in Findhorn and runs a consultancy supporting leaders and organisations to access their living systems nature, and bring vitality, connectedness and new generative possibilities to the world.

Jennie Martin

Fellow and Founder of Wild Things

Jennie founded Wild Things in in 1998 while working at the award-winning reforestation charity Trees for Life.

She was motivated by her love of the natural world and her wish to share this with others; in particular those who struggle with having access to the wild and wonderful places on their doorstep due to lack of confidence, resources, or other social or environmental challenges.

Jennie has 24 years experience of developing, coordinating and delivering environmental education activities, training and conservation holidays for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Her extensive knowledge of ethnobotany, outdoor education, wilderness living skills and ecology has enabled her to devise the wide range of activities offered by Wild things!

Her particular interest in Ethnobotany has led her to running her own Facebook page called Floral Friday (https://www.facebook.com/JennieMartinEthnobotany) for her most keen botanical students.

Jennie holds an MSc in Ethnobotany from Kent University and Kew Gardens, London, is a qualified Forest School Leader, a Bushcraft practitioner and has a Certificate in Biological Recording and Medical Herbalism.

Alan Watson Featherstone

Fellow of Wild Things

Alan is the founder of Trees for Life and served as their Executive Director for a fruitful 31 years.

Trees for Life is an award-winning conservation charity that has been working since 1989 to help restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland.

The charity focuses on an area to the west of Loch Ness and Inverness, where it works in partnership with major landowners such as Forestry Commission Scotland, the RSPB and National Trust for Scotland, as well as on its own 10,000 acre Dundreggan Estate in Glen Moriston.

Thousands of volunteers have taken part in the charity’s week-long volunteer programmes, sometimes having life-changing experiences, and the millionth tree of the project will be planted in 2012.

Alan has given presentations about forest restoration at conferences and events in both the UK and many other countries, and has travelled widely to photograph endangered trees and threatened forests around the world.

He is the founder of the Restore the Earth Project and is a trustee of the charities Wild things!! and the Earth Restoration Service, and was formerly also a trustee of the Findhorn Foundation. In 2001 he received the prestigious Schumacher Award for ‘his inspirational and practical work on conserving and restoring degraded ecosystems’.

Paul Kendall

Fieldwork Manager

Paul has worked in nature conservation or environmental education with a national and several local charities since moving to North East Scotland in 1996. He loves enthusing people about Nature both for their personal wellbeing and to help people understand and feel a part of Nature, so they can love and look after it.

With his two children having flown the nest he now has more time to indulge in longbow archery, seakayaking and walking the Highland hills and mountains. Paul is a qualified Level 3 Forest School Leader and has a Post Graduate Diploma in Education.

Jamie Neil

Fieldwork Instructor

Jamie has been teaching in the outdoors within the Highlands for several years, alongside ranger services and charities before joining Wild Things! full time in 2022.

He holds a BSc (Hons) in Applied Bioscience and Zoology. With a keen interest in bushcraft and traditional living skills, he is always looking to learn more and to pass this on to others so we can all learn to live that bit closer to nature.

Paulo Bessa

Fieldwork Instructor

Paulo is an ecologist and has been working in the field for many years. He has been working with Wild Things for the last two years.

Paulo loves to talk enthusiastically to people about nature and its species. He is a keen bird surveyor, and also has a strong interest in botany, upland habitats, and in mushrooms. He holds a PhD in molecular biology, and in his free time, Paulo loves to hillwalk and be outdoors.

Lisa Krause

Fieldwork Instructor

Lisa has an MSc in Outdoor & Environmental Education, she is a breathwork and health & wellbeing facilitator and an experienced primitive skills practitioner. She is passionate about reconnecting to ancestral wisdom for modern times, bringing nature awareness, embodiment, and mindfulness into environmental education and about creating spaces to connect to nature inside and outside of us”

Kirsty Wallace

Fieldwork Instructor

Kirsty has been foraging since she was three years old and has retained a deep interest in the natural world. She loves sharing her passion with others and making foraging more accessible and more enjoyable to everyone.

She has worked with Wild Things since 2019 and in her free time she loves gardening, foraging and walking. A real treat is sitting by a fire outside with the stars overhead!

Claire Buchanan

Fieldwork Instructor

Claire has always been fascinated by the natural world and has experienced first hand the mind and body benefits of time spent outdoors.

After studying Biology, she worked in various environmental roles for organisations like the RSPB and Marine Scotland, gaining valuable hands-on fieldwork experience relating to beavers, bottlenose dolphins and birds.

As well as her role with Wild Things!, Claire is also a part-time Biology teacher and freelance trainer for Paths for All, Scotland’s National Walking Charity.

Working with people particularly around the themes of nature connection and health is a passion of hers.  In her spare time, Claire loves roaming the hills, exploring lochs and coastlines on her paddleboard and pottering about the garden with her dog Maisie.

Will Hall

Fieldwork Instructor

Will has an extensive knowledge of wildlife. He specialises in tracking and animal behaviour.

When he’s not out teaching, Will spends his time photographing and filming wildlife. He holds a BSc in animal biology and conservation and has worked in a number of zoos and conservancies around the country. He’s a mountain leader, mountain bike instructor, and cadet force instructor. Before Wild Things! he worked as a sports instructor at a school in the south of England and so its unsurprising that Will loves all things adventurous! Whether its scuba diving, ice climbing, running or just playing frisbee in the park, he’s always sure to get stuck in!

Emma Swann

Fieldwork Instructor

Emma has always loved being outdoors and learning about nature. She’s worked in a variety of
Environmental Community and Education roles for over 20 years, from a residential outdoor centre,
to a community tree nursery, through tree planting for local council, to Forest School, most recently
specialising in supporting young people outside of mainstream education in a woodland setting.

She has a degree in Environmental Sciences, Certificate in Therapeutic Skills for Outdoor Leaders, a
level 3 Forest School Leader and level 3 Playwork qualification, amongst others.

She’s seen first-hand the benefits that connecting people to their environment can bring, to both the
individuals and the wider community, and loves playing a part in enabling it to happen.

When she’s not in the woods you’ll find her in the mountains hiking, running, camping, swimming or
even just brewing up and enjoying the view.

Sarah Collins

Fieldwork Instructor

Chris Fitzsimons

Fieldwork Instructor

Chris moved to the Highlands in 1996 and has worked as a mountain leader (leading walking holidays) for more than 20 years. He has also worked as a freelance outdoor instructor and woodland practitioner in Scotland for many years.

He loves being in the islands and remote places, watching wildlife and enjoying the experience. From sea eagles out west to a bee in the garden, it’s all captivating to him and he loves nothing better than sharing it with others, and learning from them too. A good book in front of his wood-burner is another welcome treat.

Charis Edward Wells

Fieldwork Instructor

A keen forager and with an avid love of trees, woodlands and rivers, Charis is a life-long nature enthusiast with a background in art, educational youth work, mental health recovery, and family-centred trauma recovery.

With a working understanding of the importance of environmental and creative experiences in the personal development of all people, Charis is an advocate for the integration of art and environmentalism within social care, education and mental health support provision.

Alongside this, Charis is also a Hatha yoga teacher and an ardent believer in the ethos of personal responsibility for your body, your wellbeing and the wellbeing of others; including the natural environment we exist alongside.

Ruaraidh Milne

Fieldwork Instructor

Ruaraidh has worked with Wild Things delivering Forest School, Coastal Classroom and bushcraft courses since 2006.

He holds a BSc (Hons) in Zoology and an MSc in Conservation and Wildlife Biology.

When not working for Wild Things, Ruaraidh is also a practitioner of circus and trapeze skills.

Oonagh Brady

Fieldwork Instructor

With an education and working background in sociology and individualised learning, specialising in autism, Oonagh has long valued working with all ages in the beauty and tranquility of outdoor, natural surroundings.

A strong belief that a conscious connection with nature can benefit each of us on many levels, thus creating a feeling of custodianship and an urge to protect and replenish our environment, has led to a career in Forest School and the facilitation of outdoor activities.

Oonagh has been working with local outdoor educational organisations around Moray for several years and strives to share her love of nature, foraging, crafting and bushcraft with a wide variety of people.

In her spare time she enjoys exploring Scotlands amazing wilderness with her family, running, climbing and hill walking.

CEO Holly Willmott

Holly, 49, who is local to Forres, Moray, returned to Wild Things! (Environmental Education in Action) in 2026 after previously serving as Fieldwork Manager for eight years from 2010, bringing with him a wealth of experience in outdoor learning, environmental education and professional development.

Having spent the past seven years as a Project Manager in Training and Development with Learning through Landscapes, Holly has been working to shape outdoor learning and climate change education within schools, communities and education systems.

His appointment comes at an exciting time for Wild Things! as it continues to expand its impact across Scotland, connecting people of all ages with nature through inspiring, inclusive and life-changing experiences.

Holly said: “It feels like a homecoming returning to Wild Things as the new Chief Executive Officer. I am delighted and honoured to take up this role, having worked there as Fieldwork Manager for eight years from 2010.”

Julie

Administrator

Julie has a strong background in various administrative roles but is also a qualified SEN teaching assistant with a particular interest in supporting children with autism.

She loves walking the beautiful Moray beaches, rivers and woodlands and photographing wildlife, flora and fauna.

Elaine Hunter

Marketing and Communications Manager

Marketing and Communications Manager

Elaine comes to us from the world of national newspapers, magazines, charity websites and social enterprises. Elaine is a journalist, editor and marketer having worked in the third sector for 10 years; with theirworld.org, Barnardos and ContactFamily.

Contact: elaine@wild-things.org.uk