My buddy Fiona (Flo) Evans, who has died aged 65 of coronary heart failure, was an ecologist concerned in serving to to ascertain Websites of Particular Scientific Curiosity (SSSIs) throughout Meirionnydd in north Wales.
Her profession within the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was spent working with landowners, farmers and planners to preserve fragile ecosystems. She beloved to debate and was a passionate advocate for nature in addition to an professional witness in conservation prosecutions.
The SSSI on which she spent probably the most time, effort and willpower was Migneint Arenig Dduallt, a 50,000-acre expanse of moorland in central Snowdonia. However she additionally helped to create SSSIs at Cadair Idris (13,500 acres), Morfa Harlech SSSI (5,500 acres) and Coedydd De Dyffryn Maentwrog (600 acres).
Born in Hornchurch, Essex, to Jennie (nee Waterproof coat), a secretary, and Victor Evans, a Thames lighterman, Flo was the youngest of 4 youngsters. Residing on the sting of Epping Forest she developed a love of nature, and at Snaresbrook driving faculty turned a talented horsewoman. After attending Metropolis of London faculty for women she cycled throughout France, then hitchhiked throughout North America earlier than taking on a spot at Loughborough College in 1978 to review for an ecology diploma.
She then moved straight into freelance conservation work, together with with Cotswold Water Park and for the NCC, for whom she was a summer time warden on the Dyfi nature reserve at Ynyslas close to Aberystwyth and the North Meadow nature reserve in Wiltshire.
Becoming a member of the NCC full-time in 1987 as assistant regional officer for north Wales, in 1991 she established the Dolgellau workplace of the NCC’s successor physique, the Countryside Council for Wales, the place she skilled many fledgling ecologists. At one level she was additionally seconded to the Welsh authorities’s Residing Wales Programme to assist plan the institution of a brand new company, Pure Assets Wales.
In 1990 Flo married Dick Squires, the warden on the RSPB’s Ynys-hir nature reserve in mid-Wales, and so they lived in a cottage in the course of the reserve, the place they inspired horse grazing as one of the simplest ways to maximise grassland biodiversity. There in addition they raised their sons, Hefin and Iolo, typically joined by Dick’s youngsters from a earlier relationship, Miriam and Joe. Flo continued working on the Countryside Council for Wales whereas elevating her younger household, rising to be a group chief till she retired in 2016.
Afterwards Flo and Dick restored the pasture connected to a brand new house within the hamlet of Furnace close to Machynlleth. There she helped to arrange the Ceredigion Bridleways Group, liaising with Ceredigion council and native landowners to convey disused bridleways again into being.
For greater than a decade she was additionally a volunteer entry and bridleway officer with the British Horse Society. By means of Pont Cymru, a non-profit organisation, she was instrumental in organising the Dolau Dyfi undertaking to guard and restore semi-natural grassland within the Dyfi valley.
Flo is survived by Dick, their youngsters, grandchildren Anna and Harry and her siblings, Rowena, Alex and Ian.
