Twenty years of studying pine martens in Galloway Forest Park

Please note, this meeting is Zoom only.

Johnny Birks and John Martin are both 'supposed to be retired’, but they find pine martens so fascinating and their recovery in Britain and Ireland so encouraging that they have continued their involvement in pine marten conservation long after they should have put their feet up. After a brief academic career Johnny worked for the Nature Conservancy Council (now Natural England) in Worcestershire before joining the Vincent Wildlife Trust, where he began his long-term interest in pine marten research and conservation. In 2003 John Martin (then a fisheries officer with the Environment Agency) joined him as a volunteer to set up a den box study in Galloway Forest Park with Forestry Commission Scotland. John took the lead in developing new den box designs to meet the needs of pine martens in commercial forests. Later, Johnny and John continued the Galloway Forest project through their respective wildlife consultancies (Swift Ecology and Myotismart) until they passed it on to the Dumfries and Galloway Pine Marten Group in 2024. John and Johnny are still involved in monitoring pine marten recovery in forests in southern Scotland and northern England.

Johnny was chair of The Mammal Society from 2009-2015. He has written a book on Pine Martens published by Whittet Ltd in 2017, with a second edition due out soon.