DBRC volunteers

Here is a selection of just some of the fantastic people who volunteer their time and skills for us at DBRC:

Jeremy Ison

• Helps to verify the huge numbers of botanical records we receive each year.
• Has verified thousands of our records.
• Has been volunteering here for 7 years and comes in 2 days a week.
  
  Jeremy has been interested in botany since he was a boy and has been learning about plants for 50 years. Jeremy has volunteered for many national plant recording projects over the last 30 years including: The wildflowers of N.E. Essex, 1980-1990; The BSBI27 monitoring scheme, N.Essex, 1987-1988; “Atlas 2000 project” for recording flora in Britain & Ireland; Local change survey, 2002-2004; BSBI alien trees & scrub project, 2008. Jeremy used to be a science teacher but started volunteering at DBRC when he retired. Jeremy has a University certificate in biological recording and species identification from the University of Birmingham and is currently studying for an MSc in Biological Recording.
  

Jonathan Wright

• Enters incidental records from the general public onto the RECORDER database.

• Processes and enters records we receive for Operation Otter using Mapinfo GIS and RECORDER.
  
  Jonathan has worked in IT and has experience of both Windows and Linux systems and a number of different databases. He has a degree in Meteorology and Physics from Reading University, an NVQ in Business administration and has trained in system administration. Jonathan has excellent attention to detail and a logical approach to tasks – skills which are very useful to us here at DBRC. He learns fast & enjoys taking on new tasks which has helped him get to grips with the RECORDER database. He has a life-long interest in the weather and more recently in the countryside & conservation, especially that of woodland areas. He also volunteers one day a week in the Operations section of Devon Wildlife Trust(DWT) where he works with the ALMS database and INVU. This year, Jonathan was awarded a volunteer award from DBRC/DWT for his commitment to volunteering and  contribution to our work. Jonathan is currently looking for employment.
  
  

Neil Dobson

• Updates site boundaries on mapinfo GIS.

• Helps with office admin tasks such as cataloguing reports, filing and envelope stuffing.
• Assists with IT tasks.
  
  

Neil has a good general IT background and is quick and methodical. Due to his autism he has good attention to detail and enjoys putting things into order which means he is a great help with the routine tasks we never seem to have time to do such as filing and cataloguing of reports. Neil comes into DBRC one day a week and is currently looking for work.

Michael Stentiford

• Enters survey data onto the Recorder database.
• Comes into DBRC one day a week.
  
  Michael has some time on his hands and does volunteer work for DBRC and other organisations. He finds it helps him to structure his time. Volunteering at DBRC is helping him to improve his computer skills which will help him on a computer course he is planning on taking. He enjoys the friendly atmosphere in the office and learning more about wildflowers and plants.

Marcus Windle

• Works with DBRC staff developing scalable and flexible data processing software.
• Looking into applying data visualization techniques to simplify working with and presenting multi-dimensional data.
  
  Marcus is a sofware developer and has worked as an engineer in a number of fields over the last twenty years. Communications and security systems being the key areas. He has a degree in Internet Engineering (University of Exeter) and experience in Python, Haskell, Erlang, Postgresql/PostGis, and Oracle 11g. His interests include geospatial information systems, functional programming languages, and data visualization. Marcus is currently setting up his own business.

Chris and Sharron Blackmore

• Are part of the cetacean recording network monitoring marine animals, specifically cetaceans in Devon.
• Have a set location off Capstone Point, Ilfracombe where they regularly record harbour porpoise.
• Report on other cetacean sightings around Devon’s coastline whilst out and about.
  
  Chris and Sharron Blackmore have been monitoring and recording cetaceans  for the cetacean recording network and the Sea Watch Foundation since 2005. Chris is a regional coordinator for Sea Watch and part of a group of 5 DBRC and Sea Watch volunteers who regularly carry out cetacean watches on the North Devon headlands. In the past this they would report occasional sightings of porpoise and seals to DBRC whilst fishing or walking the coast but in 2005 DBRC and DWT advertised a request for cetacean watchers and they jumped at the chance! They underwent training provided jointly by DWT and Sea Watch. Chris is now retired and Sharron is working part time so they can devote even more time to monitoring the Ilfracombe porpoises. This year they were awarded a volunteer award from DBRC/DWT for their commitment to volunteering and contribution to our work.