We are working with Durham Wildlife Services to deliver a major landscape-scale biodiversity management plan for the Magnesian Limestone area of County Durham. The project involves a team of 5 ecologists and a GIS specialist in opportunity mapping. We are advising on wetland and grassland restoration and creation, and devising community interpretation and training projects.
PTYXIS is surveying over 3000 ha of diverse upland calcareous and acid grasslands, heathlands, blanket bog and other and mires.
This research project investigated the autecology of Sphagna species, particularly to evaluate their potential use as indicators of habitat management impacts. This extensive study was part of the North Pennines Peatscapes Project, and we secured funding in competition with several university research teams.
John and Clare O’Reilly have over 35 years of combined botanical experience. And we are still learning!
We believe that accurate plant identification, coupled with a deep understanding of plant ecology and vegetation science, is fundamental to the validity of all ecological consultancy work from Phase 1 survey to specialist habitat re-creation.
John and Clare are both professionally qualified ecologists who have studied vegetation from Orkney to the Isles of Scilly and many places in between. We are also keen all-round amateur naturalists.
We have a strong track record of working with conservation ngos, local authorities and the voluntary natural history sector. John and Clare are active members of the British Bryological Society (BBS), British Lichen Society (BLS) and the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI).
We work with carefully chosen associates when a survey team is required to deliver a project.
Clare O'Reilly BA MSc PGCE (FE&HE) MIfL MIEEM Solicitor (non-practicing) is a nationally recognised, professionally trained botanist, a BSBI national referee and co-author of the new edition of a leading British flora, the Wild Flower Key. She conducts all types of vegetation survey and assessment, including National Vegetation Classification (NVC) survey. One of her specialisms is aquatic macrophytes and the ecology of ponds/ephemeral water bodies, having completed her thesis on the conservation genetics, taxonomy and ecology of the stonewort genus Chara.
She has particular experience of fens, calcicolous and mesotrophic grasslands, and designing habitat restoration/re-creation schemes.
Previously an environmental lawyer with the leading City practice Allen & Overy, she brings a high level of commercial awareness, negotiation skills and pragmatism to her ecological work.
John O'Reilly BA(Ed) MSc CEnv MIEEM is a bryologist, botanist and ornithologist with particular experience of woodland, urban and upland habitats, especially blanket bog and other mires and upland hay meadows. He specialises in conservation management plans, NVC surveys and detailed botanical and bryophyte surveys, being particularly interested in types of vegetation not described in the NVC system. John is British Bryological Society (BBS) county recorder for Northumberland and Durham (v.c.c. 66, 67 & 68), a steering group member of the Bryophyte Ecology Group (BRECOG) and has contributed to the new BBS field guide.
He has worked as an agricultural advisor for RDS in Newcastle and subsequently was a lead ecologist on the design of the new Higher Level Environmental Stewardship scheme, editing the Farm Environment Plan (FEP) handbook and designing the FEP condition assessment methodology, which has become a leading survey methodology for BAP habitat condition assessment.
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