Meet the staff: Ryan Allison

Emma Chaplin
, 06 November 2024
Meet the staff: Ryan Allison
Ryan Allison © Kai Hilton

By Emma Chaplin

Communications Officer

Ryan Allison is in the Nature Reserves team, and his job title is Site Manager - West, which means he has responsibility for the management all of our western reserves: Amberley Wildbrooks, Burton Mill Pond, Cooksbridge Meadow, Ebernoe Common & Butcherlands, Ferry Field, Graffham Common, Iping & Stedham Common, Levin Down, Leythorne Meadow, Marehill Quarry, The Mens, Mill Pond Marsh, Waltham Brooks, West Dean Woods and Woods Mill. Also Ferry Field, and Mill Pond Marsh, both part of Pagham Harbour. These last two and Amberley Wildbrooks are managed day-to-day by RSPB on our behalf.

I caught up with Ryan to find out a bit more about him.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I was born in Shoreham and have always lived within twenty miles of there. I have a partner and three children. Before working for Sussex Wildlife Trust, I was Countryside Warden for Horsham District Council for 13 years.

Tell us about your work for the Trust.

I work most closely with Rangers Sarah Quantrill, Dav Bridger and Clive Lunny, as well as other members of the Nature Reserves team, such as Senior Ecologist, Alex Worsley. I'm slowly getting to know all the people connected to the reserves, such as the local parish groups, Volunteer Reserve Managers and all the volunteers of course.

A lot of the big practical work on the reserves is done in winter when everything is wet and many species are dormant. The opposite of what you might expect. But that's because we need to avoid the nesting season etc. It's been so wet in September and October, some work will have to be put off until next year.

What do you most enjoy?

It feels great to be working for an organisation that’s primary focus is nature recovery – everything points to that. Nature's recovery is everyone's goal. I feel lucky to be one of the people who is able to physically deliver that. I particularly like working with large herbivores – seeing cattle, ponies, and deer interacting within the ecosystem is a passion of mine. It is very rewarding to see a habitat supporting a higher diversity and abundance of species, due to prior works or actions you have taken.

What can be most challenging?

I'm covering a wide geographical area and some fairly large tracts of land (just under 800 hectares/1,900 acres in total). It’s tight to get round all 15 reserves in a fortnight, although I'm trying to get to know them all.

Graffham Common © Glenn Norris

The weather can be tricky, and there is a huge amount to do at the same time. But on the plus side, we have so many different habitats, my work is really interesting.

What skills do you need to do your job?

Patience. You can't do everything in one season. You have to be able to both take the long view - zoom out a bit and look at the regional landscape - as well as being aware of what's close-up. However, you mustn’t be slow in your actions, we are in a biodiversity and climate crisis. Thoughtful actions can make important gains.

Where are your favourite places?

There is something evocative about heathlands. Graffham Common, Gallows Hill. You get a lovely view. I've been looking for Adders there recently with no luck. Also, Iping and Stedham Commons. Both reserves being part of the 64 mile long Serpent Trail makes me feel genuinely connected. I have been talking with the SDNP Rangers about some exciting connectivity projects we can be part of.

Late spring and summer time are my favourite times of year. When you've worked hard over winter, you start to see the results. It's such a relief. Sometimes the work we do looks so dramatic, you fear it will never recover. But it does.

How do you relax?

Being outside. Reminding myself to sit down and enjoy what's around me.

What would be a perfect Sunday?

Family time. We recently went up to the Natural History Museum, and last weekend we joined the March for Clean Water. We typically avoid cities as the number of people can be a bit overwhelming, that’s probably us done now for the year. More our style is a hike and a pub lunch. We like to be active and immersed in nature, so there's not always much difference between the week and weekend.

Ryan and Rina's Exmoor Ponies

What might people not know about you?

We've got four horses. They provide conservation grazing on an area close to where we live and my partner Rina rides three of them. The kids and I sometimes lead them on foot or follow behind on bikes. Last year we also had two Exmoor ponies, these were surplus to the breeding herd on the Knepp Rewilding Project. They were pretty flighty when they came to us but with a lot of time and patience, we were able to halter train them and get them happy loading in a horsebox. This meant they could be safely used for conservation grazing on areas that are a bit smaller than Knepp. They have now joined the herd on the Isle of Wight for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. We haven’t been over to visit them yet but hope to soon.

    Leave a comment

    Comments

    • Charles Ashe:

      Very interesting. One very small point – the ‘Dene’ is misspelt in West Dean Woods.

      08 Nov 2024 12:59:00

    • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

      Thanks Charles - typo corrected

    • Richard Procter:

      Ryan, we so need people like you. Thank you for all that you do to keep our countryside protected for the future.

      30 Mar 2025 06:11:00

    Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
    1782636744.02060 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
    1782636744.04820.0276Matched route: news/[slug:s]
    1782636744.04830.0001Server address: 216.73.216.31
    1782636744.04840.0001Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
    1782636744.04840Page arguments: 
    Array
(
    [0] => /news/meet-the-staff-ryan-allison
    [s] => meet-the-staff-ryan-allison
    [1] => meet-the-staff-ryan-allison
)
    1782636744.04870.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.04970.001 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
    1782636744.05160.0018 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.05210.0005INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
    1782636744.05390.0018 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22376810
    1782636744.05450.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22376810
    1782636744.0550.0005 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-06-28 08:52:00' AND saleTo>'2026-06-28 08:52:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
    1782636744.0560.001 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='meet-the-staff-ryan-allison')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 08:52:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
    1782636744.05810.0021 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
    1782636744.05860.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3557 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 08:52:00'
    1782636744.05940.0008 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
    1782636744.060.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
    1782636744.06070.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=195 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06130.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=29 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06160.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=110 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06210.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=93 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06260.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=81 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.0630.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=126 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06330.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=79 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06370.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=105 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06410.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=244 LIMIT 1
    1782636744.06460.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
    1782636744.06490.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
    1782636744.06560.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 08:52:00' AND postSlug='meet-the-staff-ryan-allison'
    1782636744.0870.0214Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
    1782636744.08740.0004 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
    1782636744.0890.0016Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
    1782636744.08920.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
    1782636744.090.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
    1782636744.09130.0014 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
    1782636744.0950.0037 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.09560.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
    1782636744.09780.0022Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
    1782636744.09780 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
    1782636744.09850.0007 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
    1782636744.0990.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
    1782636744.10150.0025 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
    1782636744.10250.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
    1782636744.10310.0006 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
    1782636744.1060.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.10690.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
    1782636744.10890.002 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
    1782636744.10940.0004Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
    1782636744.10960.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.11030.0007Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
    1782636744.11060.0003 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='meet-the-staff-ryan-allison')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-28 08:52:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
    1782636744.11260.0019 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
    1782636744.1130.0004 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
    1782636744.11570.0028Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
    1782636744.11660.0009 [2] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3557 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
    1782636744.1670.0503 [2] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
    1782636744.16770.0007Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
    1782636744.16790.0001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.16880.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.16950.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.17010.0006 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
    1782636744.1720.002 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.17250.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
    1782636744.17450.002 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
    1782636744.17560.0011 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.17620.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.17660.0004 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
    1782636744.17890.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.17940.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
    1782636744.18130.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
    1782636744.18490.0036 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.18560.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.18610.0005 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
    1782636744.18840.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.18880.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
    1782636744.19080.002 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
    1782636744.19320.0024 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.1940.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.19450.0005 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
    1782636744.19640.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
    1782636744.19690.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
    1782636744.19870.0018 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
    1782636744.20.0012Request time: 0.1813
    1782636744.20Process time: 0.1812
    1782636744.20Memory: 1.6689