Partner profiles
| Chris York (MSc) |
Tamsin Morris (MSc, MIEMA CEnv) |
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Chris York is an environmental 'generalist' with the nearest things to specialisms coming in the areas of outdoor access and communications. He originally trained as a geologist, with a BSc (Hons) from Kingston Polytechnic (1987-91) and postgraduate studies in Science Communication (MSc from University of the West of England, part time 2003-05). Chris has held an eclectic mix of jobs which would be difficult to describe as a 'career path', except with the benefit of hindsight. Things started quite badly in a windowless room in Surrey digitising geophysical surveys, but took a quantum-scale improvement when he moved to Arran in 1993 to the Loch Ranza Field Studies Centre. From there, various excursions and incursions were made to developing and delivering field-teaching materials across the UK and Europe (including some rather dated videos that are still in circulation for Higher Geography!) before abandoning that line of enquiry to volunteer as a countryside ranger on Arran. This led to the seasonal role at Inverewe for the National Trust for Scotland for a few years, which was followed by management planning within the Highland regional office of 'the Trust' in Inverness. Continuing this slow easterly migration Chris joined Scottish Natural Heritage in 2000 to provide (amongst other things) specialist advice on outdoor access in the Grampian Area. In this role Chris worked with external partners to deliver access improvements across the North East, managing a variety of grants and contributing to partnership projects. In 2003 Chris took on the Macaulay Institute by becoming their Communications and Outreach Officer, which resulted in a 'formalising' of his communications skills through the Masters Degree. The work involved working with scientists to explore how their research could be translated to the public, with varying degrees of reticence. He developed the Macaulay's outreach plan and managed the PR for the Institute. After a 'career break' to travel Europe and consolidate his Spanish language skills, Chris started Walking-the-Talk in 2006 as a means of bringing together the different strands of work experience in Outdoor Access and Communications. |
Tamsin Morris is an ecologist with experience related to the involvement of the pubic in understanding environmental issues. After an unusual degree path that gave her field trips to both the Pacific Ocean and Morecambe Bay, she obtained a first class honours degree in Ecology from Lancaster University and Oregon State University (OSU) in 1996. At the same time, she worked as the environmental affairs rep for Oregon's equivalent of a student's union. Trying to bring together red-neck loggers and San Francisco vegans gave Tamsin her first real taste of conflict and facilitation in environmental issues and set a trend for the rest of her career. After graduating, Tamsin headed to Scotland to complete a Masters degree by research in Plant and Soil Science at Aberdeen University. Her research was sponsored by a co-operative of farmers in Inverness and North-east Scotland, where she quickly found that the views of a young woman with an English accent might not always be taken seriously. But after four years of hard graft, they stopped asking her to make the tea and agreed that she'd helped them achieve environmental and organic certification. In 2000, Tamsin moved to become project manager for the Ythan Project in Aberdeenshire. After successfully seeking funding from the European LIFE Environment fund, Tamsin spent the next five years working with local farmers to reduce diffuse pollution as well as developing river restoration projects and tree planting schemes throughout the catchment. Much of the project centred on the involvement of the wider public in the protection of the river, so Tamsin worked with a lot of volunteers and local groups. Switching from dealing with a farmer in the morning to a European bureaucrat in the afternoon to a brownie pack in the evening certainly required all of her social skills! With the project completed in 2005, Tamsin took a career break to travel in Europe, learning skills as an organic shepherdess in rural Galicia as well as a range of campervan mechanic duties. Returning to Scotland in 2006, Tamsin worked for the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) as a River Basin Planning Coordinator before becoming a partner in Walking-the-Talk in 2008. Whilst at SEPA she facilitated area advisory groups in North-east Scotland, Orkney and Shetland and well as producing the draft area management plans for each area. Since joining Walking-the-Talk Tamsin has delivered projects for a number of clients, including Aberdeenshire Council, Highland Birchwoods, the Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage as well as local landowners and community groups. |
Clients
Walking-the-Talk has delivered contracts for a wide range of organisations.
Business Profile
Walking the Talk is a registered partnership between Chris York and Tamsin Morris. It aims to provide high quality project management and consultancy services to the environment sector. The business is based in Tarves, Aberdeenshire but can undertake work across Scotland, and beyond. Where additional capacity is required, Walking-the-Talk is able to draw on a small network of specialist subcontractors, but quality assurance is managed by the business partners.
As the name suggests, Walking-the-Talk also aims to work in an ethically and environmentally conscious way and therefore the business practices reflect this. We will, for example, use public transport as first choice and seek to reduce all business travel to an absolute minimum.
Walking-the-Talk does not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, disability, accent or social background.
We are about much more than fine words... our actions speak much louder (or should that be more loudly?).