About
Plymouth Environmental Action (PEA) is a practical nature conservation volunteering project which aims to involve and inspire people to conserve the natural environment within their local community whilst having fun, gaining new skills, getting outside in the fresh air, and making new friends.
The group is led by dedicated volunteer leaders who have a great amount of ecological and conservation knowledge and countryside management experience. We carry out a variety of conservation and heritage-based projects including tree planting, wildflower meadow creation and management, wildlife pond creation and restoration, hedge-laying, tree care, coppicing, nature reserve infrastructure, biological surveying, beach cleans, and invasive plant species management to name but a few!
Meet the Team
Jess S
Chairperson & Conservation Leader
Jess is an animal welfare professional with a background working in animal rescue centres, specifically with rescued primates in the UK, South America and Borneo. She moved back to Cornwall to focus on her passion for protecting British habitats and biodiversity by inspiring and motivating people to act. She loves hiking, kayaking and yoga, anything to take in those rolling hills and coastal horizon of the South West!
Maria
Project Officer & Conservation Leader
After biology studies Maria enjoyed working with engaging people with learning about and looking after nature, recycling and composting. More recently, Maria combines work for PEA with training dogs for conservation work. She is keen to rewild road verges, protect woodlands and spends as much time as possible outdoors walking dogs and kayaking.
Emma
Secretary & Conservation Leader
Emma is passionate about connecting people with nature. She has significant experience working with children and families outdoors and is never happier than when she is walking in the countryside or exploring rockpools at the beach!
Jess J
Training Officer & Conservation Leader
Marine conservation graduate who's happiest outdoors and working to conserve it. Loves hiking on Dartmoor, camping and bouldering whenever possible!
Amy
Media Officer
With a background in communications and a recent degree in Environmental Studies, Amy hopes to combine her knowledge and skills to promote PEA’s valuable work across local and social media. Based in Switzerland, she is passionate about biodiversity conservation and connecting people with nature.
Ovi
Conservation Leader
A Forestry Engineer graduate, specialised in wildlife management and conservation, Ovi moved to Cornwall four years ago and fell in love with the beautiful coasts, vibrant Dartmoor forests and the serene river Tamar. He believes that amazing natural areas need our attention and help to evolve and thrive. Ovi is passionate about biking, trail and beach running, swimming and everything involving quality time outdoors.
History of PEA
2008: Plymouth Environmental Action (PEA) was founded!
The inspiration for a weekend practical conservation group was thought up by Emily, who was the Youth Project Manager at the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) – now known as The Conservation Volunteers (TCV). A committee was formed, (members: Emily, Chris, Esther, Jonny, Katie, Steve, and Michael) and a constitution written! The team soon started planning a variety of practical conservation activities at the weekends specifically for young people aged 16 to 25 years.
2009: During this year, we secured two grants from the Dartmoor Sustainability Fund and OPAL (Open Air Laboratories) Fund. This enabled us to run practical nature conservation projects on Dartmoor such as Molinia (an important grass species) raking and Dartmoor Leat restoration, as well as biological surveys of lichens, wildflowers, trees, and insects to name a few!
2010 - 2011: Heritage Lottery Funding! We secured a Young Roots fund from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to run a year long ‘Conserve, Enjoy, Explore’ project for young people aged 16 to 25 years. This consisted of 48 exciting weekend heritage and conservation projects focused on conservation around Dartmoor. Examples of project days included bracken bashing, Dartmoor leat restoration, Gorse management at Brentor Common, Molinia grassland improvement with the Dartmoor Preservation Association, beach cleans, butterfly surveys, parrot-feather removal, wildflower surveys (including the rare Heath Lobelia) at Andrews Wood with Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) and more! This project was run by Esther - PEA's first employed Youth Project Officer. Committee members were Emily, Chris, Michael, Hayley, Sam, Laura, Rob, and Pete).
2012 - 2013: PEA committee regularly met up to explore potential funding streams, and selected and applied for the HLF for 2014. Our committee members were Chris, Esther, Hayley, Rob, Pete, Laura, and Sam.
2014 - 2015: Thanks again to the Heritage Lottery Funding, we planned another year of weekend conservation projects. We secured a Young Roots fund to run a year long ‘Connect, Restore, Discover’ project for young people aged 16 to 25 years. This consisted of 48 exciting weekend heritage and conservation projects focused on the redoubts (forts) at Maker in South East Cornwall. Examples of project days included wildflower identification, bracken bashing, lichen ID, meadow creation, sycamore removal, vegetation management on the forts (in collaboration with English Heritage), and beach cleans, to name a few! This project employed Chris as the Youth Project Officer. Committee members were Chris, Esther, Hayley, Mike, Rob, Pete and Julz.
During Autumn 2015, PEA opened up the project to ALL AGES! In November we secured funding from the Tamar Valley AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) to run 6 training workshops (coppicing, dry stone walling, hedgelaying, foraging, introduction to estuaries and tree ID). We also carried out the first practical conservation day at the new nature reserve in Plymouth - Poole Farm (Derriford Community Park) in conjunction with Nature Plymouth (Natural Infrastructure team at Plymouth City Council).
2016: In January, we ran our first training workshop - Hedgelaying at Pentillie Castle. On the 1st March we held our first Annual General Meeting (AGM) to officially recruit the committee and discuss our aspirations for the year ahead. Throughout March we held our first Crowdfunder Campaign to raise funds to run 10 practical conservation projects through Summer 2016. These included creating a 10m-long wildlife pond near Bodmin Moor, a wildflower meadow in Plymouth, removing non-native species (Himalayan Balsam from Plymbridge and Yellow Archangel) from Dartmoor, beach cleans, and footpath maintenance and tree care at Burrator! We also hosted our first official AGM, at which our new Committee was appointed: Esther (Treasurer), Chris (Chairperson), Hayley (Secretary), Mike (Design and Media), Pete (Health and Safety).
In April, we recruited two new Volunteer Project Officers (VPO) Manon and Lianne, who joined both the PEA team and Committee, with Hayley becoming our latest VPO in October!
2017: This year PEA was involved in a number of great projects in and around Plymouth, some highlights including planting the BIGGEST orchard in Plymouth and over 2000 trees for new hedgerows at Derriford Community Park! In March, we recruited two new Volunteer Project Officers (VPO) Katie and Sophie, who have joined both the PEA team and Committee!.
2018-2020: PEA was involved in a number of great projects in and around Plymouth. Some highlights including carrying out wildflower meadow creation, bird-box building and siting, tree planting and orchard restoration, dry-stone walling, and nature trail creation in Plymouth’s Central Park! In November, we recruited three new Volunteer Project Officers (VPO) Steve, Vaishali and Maria, who have joined both the PEA team and Committee.
2021-2022: We are back!!! Well, Covid-19 certainly put the damper on things, didn’t it?!!! However, we are back and stronger than ever! We are incredibly lucky to have such an amazing committee and group of dedicated Conservation Leaders who are passionate about the natural environment and its conservation, and who want to inspire as many people as possible to learn the skills required and gain experience in order to protect it in the best way possible for future generations to enjoy. We’ve had a bit of a slow start, but we have run events through the summer for the Green Minds ‘Green Gym’ Project which has seen a variety tasks carried out by our fantastic volunteer team, such as tree care, butterfly surveys, wildflower meadow seed collection, and bird surveys to name a few! We are pleased to say we have recruited our new Project Officer Maria who is going to take us into autumn/winter and beyond with a fun-filled programme of practical conservation events, supported by the committee.
2022-2023: PEA is delighted to say that we are currently funded by Sea-Changers to run ‘Project Plastic’ - our latest project tackling marine plastic pollution! There are beach cleans, beach litter surveys, microplastics surveys and seashore species surveys for you to get involved with over the year. So, keep an eye out for Project Plastic events posted on social media. We will also be hosting 2 art competitions as part of this project on the theme of the marine environment and pollution, so look out for that too. Sign up to our mailing list and never miss an announcement (email plymouthenvironmentalaction@hotmail.co.uk or contact us via our website http://www.pea-volunteering.co.uk/contactus and ask to join the mailing list).
What to expect as a PEA volunteer
All volunteering events with Plymouth Environmental Action are FREE!
As a volunteer for PEA you will gain valuable nature conservation skills in countryside management, such as how to create and restore important habitats for wildlife and people. You will also gain other key skills such as communication, team working, and leadership! If you are really keen, you may want to progress to become a Volunteer Conservation Leader. You'll then get more involved in the 'behind the scenes' - planning and leading practical projects and social events . You don't have to have any skills, experience or abilities to join as a volunteer; all you need is a love of the outdoors and a good team player! We provide free minibus transport from Plymouth City Centre, as well as plenty of tea and biscuits throughout the project day! Waterproofs and wellington boots can be provided if you don't have your own.
Many volunteers have gone on to do great things with the skills they have acquired with PEA. These include working with environmental consultancies, NGO's, conservation charities, and research institutions!
Additional to our Volunteering project, we also provide skills-based training in the form of one-day workshops. These cost £10 per person and include all training by a qualified leader, free transport from Plymouth, tea and biscuits throughout the day, and all course materials. Examples of our workshops include Coppicing, Hedgelaying, Tree ID, Seaweed Identification, and Wildflower ID.
PEA Minibus Transportation:
For all of our events unless otherwise stated, we provide minibus transport to and from the event location, the pickups and drop offs take place next to Plymouth Guildhall, Plymouth City Centre.
Easy guide to using our minibus pickup service
Friends of PEA
Current partners:
Past collaborations:
