James Grundy

Background

About James Grundy

After nearly twenty years as a professional consultant ecologist and a lifetimes involvement with voluntary amphibian related projects, I am somewhat surprised but pleased to find myself widely regarded as something of an authority on our UK native newt species (in particular, the great crested newt (GCN)). Since I have developed and delivered a range of GCN related training courses to delegates in both England and Wales and have contributed material to many publications and GCN related articles written by my peers. I am the Author of ‘Newts in Your Pond and Garden’ first edition (2007) and the long awaited Second Edition (2023). I have also produced three sets of phone downloadable Newt Identification Cards for use in the field by ecologists (free of charge). Prior to my current roles as Principal Ecologist at Ecus Ltd and Lead Tutor at GCN Training I was employed by Cheshire Ecological Services (part of the Cheshire Wildlife Trust) as their GCN specialist and was involved in the original trials of the Natural England GCN District Level Licensing scheme. From the 1980s to date I have undertaken many hundreds of GCN aquatic surveys using conventional survey methodologies (under the various iterations of the GCN survey licence) including hand/egg search, netting, bottle trapping and torch surveys and from 2016 GCN eDNA water sampling surveys. I am registered to use the Natural England GCN survey class level 1 licence (CL08) across all Counties of England. I also hold a personal Science Education & Conservation licence that allows me to keep captive and temporarily possess GCN for a period of 48 hours for use at training and educational events. I have been the Named Ecologist on well over 100 Natural England GCN mitigation licences (in their various formats) and I am currently the Named Ecologist on 12 'live' GCN mitigation licences with various end dates up to 2040 (which are highly likely to outlive me!). I also have held several Welsh GCN development / mitigation licenses (Natural Resources Wales) over the course of my career, albeit none of them are ‘live’ they were all successfully delivered in accord with the licence conditions. I hold a personal GCN survey licence to disturb and take GCN for scientific or educational purposes within all Counties of Wales. I also hold a personal Licence to disturb and take and keep in Captivity and temporarily possess for a period of 24 hours GCN in the numbers specified for scientific or educational purposes within all Counties of Wales.