WENDY HAWES

Director / Ecologist

Based in Inverell, she has over 20 years experience in survey, assessment and reporting in relation to flora, fauna and threatened species in north-west NSW. She has undertaken environmental assessments and approvals under the EP&A and EPBC Acts for large and small projects within the infrastructure, water, rural and urban development sectors.

Specialising in grassy woodland ecosystems and with a passion for environmental education, Wendy has developed and delivered numerous presentations, education toolkits, workshops, and field days for schools, government authorities, NGOs, landholders and community interest groups. She has provided expertise to a number of government expert panels, including the determination of identification guidelines and condition thresholds for threatened community listings under the EPBC Act and vegetation benchmarks, used in the Property Vegetation Management Tool to assess clearing applications and delivery of incentive funding under the NV Act. Wendy has also acted as a expert witness in government compliance actions.

Wendy has prepared technical floristic survey, threatened species assessment guidelines and draft recovery plans for government, as well as plans of management and rehabilitation/remediation plans for both public and private land. Over many years of working with private landholders, NGOs and government agency staff Wendy has developed excellent liaison and negotiation skills and a detailed working knowledge of the legislative framework.

DR JOHN T HUNTER

Director / Ecologist

Before joining The Envirofactor in 2011, John ran his own very successful consultancy for 20 years in Armidale. A highly respected botanist / taxonomist / biogeographer, John has wide-ranging experience in the vegetation communities of NSW and Queensland.

An Adjunct Senior Lecturer of Biogeography at the University of New England, John has extensive expertise in on-ground vegetation surveys and assessments on both private and public land including, many national parks and reserves. To date he has completed over two million hectares of vegetation mapping at 1:25,000 scale. He has a strong grounding GIS applications and vegetation community analysis software.

A prolific writer John has authored 150 journal publications on a variety of topics including; plant taxonomy, biogeography, fire dynamics, pollination, threatened species, biodiversity, and vegetation community definition. An editor on two scientific journals, John recently published a book on eucalypt identification for the Northern Tablelands.

John has a keen interest in fire dynamics providing advice to NSW NPWS regarding appropriate burning regimes within reserve areas. He has also been involved in the delivery of NCC Bushfire Hotspot training program.