brian sutton
Brian was a member of the Habitat Survey Team of Environment and Heritage Service (now NIEA) for two years before entering ecological consultancy in 2000. During this time, he carried out habitat surveys of, principally, designated sites or candidate designated sites across Northern Ireland. He worked for AECOM Ltd and its antecedent companies, as a consultant ecologist and eventually principal ecologist, for 15 years. He was responsible for carrying out habitat and faunal surveys for a wide range of governmental and private clients. Projects undertaken were at a range of scales, from small private developments to major infrastructure projects and also performed numerous Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA), again for projects at a wide range of scales. He has carried out Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) of a number of governmental plans and was for a time ecological adviser to the Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside (CNCC). Brian has been Principal Ecologist with Blackstaff Ecology for the past eight years, responsible for habitat, faunal and ornithological input to Environmental Impact Assessments (HRA), Ecological Impact Assessments (EcIA) and HRA.
Brian has been interested in wildlife and nature conservation from an early age and has held a BTO bird ringing licence since he was 16. His main leisure activity is birding and he participates regularly in a number of nationally organized ornithological surveys. Other interests include gardening, walking, travel (usually with birds in mind) and music of a wide range of genres – if it’s good he likes it! He gained his PhD in Environmental Science at Ulster University, is a full member of CIEEM and is a member of Chartered Environmental (CEnv) of the Society for the Environment.