VAL GATELEY

Director of Ecology

Val Gateley

“Growing up I loved exploring nature and the great outdoors, from little critters to whole sand dune systems. In adulthood I retained this love of nature and became particularly interested in British botany and habitats, and the species they support.
I believe it is incredibly important that people can enjoy natural and semi-natural spaces alongside wildlife as having connection with nature can be so healing and regenerative and gives one real perspective. I feel privileged to have a role in the design of spaces that offers that interaction together with providing locally suitable biodiversity enhancement.
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— Val Gateley

Director of Ecology

Val joined Land Studio in September 2023, with sixteen years’ experience in ecological consultancy, Val has provided ecological support on a wide variety of projects with experience in working with public body clients and private developers for a range of schemes including residential, infrastructure and habitat management/enhancement projects.

Val is particularly passionate about biodiversity enhancement and enjoys working on projects from the initial stages which enables him to work closely with project teams and help identify ways to ensure biodiversity enhancement is provided as part of a project. He is keen to ensure habitat improvement options are in tune with the local environment and proposed ecological mitigation design draws from the findings of the baseline survey work, information on nearby protected sites, local wildlife sites and habitats to ensure it in keeping with the local area and provides greatest opportunity for existing fauna to utilise.

Val is highly experienced in habitat survey and botanical identification. He holds a Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland Field Identification Skills Certificate at level 5. He has experience in National Vegetation Classification survey, hedgerow assessment and habitat survey techniques (Phase 1 and UK Habitat) and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) condition assessment. Val became a full member of CIEEM in 2012 and in August 2023 became a FISC assessor.