Kevin has spent over 30 years promoting willow as an environmental force for good. From his early breeding work at Long Ashton Research Station (where several of the UK’s highest-yielding varieties were developed) to his role as consultant and creator of the Envirocrops decision-support tool, Kevin combines research knowledge with practical delivery. He is recognised as one of the UK’s leading authorities on willow and its environmental applications.
Jamie brings hands-on farming experience and technical innovation. With 13 years of practical willow planting, harvesting and multiplication, he has led commercial- scale operations and major innovation projects. Most notably, Jamie initiated the Net Zero Willow Project, designing robotic harvest machinery and a tracked bunker system to transform willow cultivation. His focus is scaling up ideas, solving practical challenges, and showing how willow can deliver real farm and environmental benefits.
We believe willow is one of the UK’s most versatile yet underused crops. It can slow floods, feed animals, boost pollinators, improve welfare, enrich soils, cut emissions, and provide new farm income streams — all while locking up carbon.
This is why our banding is based all around the concept of the fingerprint. All of the Willow Solutions we offer provide the opportunity for customers and clients to reduce their Carbon Footprint to a Carbon Fingerprint. Simple as that. In many cases this can be done in an economically viable way. It’s a win-win.
Our strength lies in combining science and practice. Kevin provides research depth and breeding expertise; Jamie brings innovation, machinery and farming experience. Together we aim to turn willow from niche to mainstream.
Practical ideas, rooted in experience, backed by evidence, shared openly, and delivered with urgency.
William is a willow breeder at Rothamsted Research. He has over 21 years’ experience in willow breeding, perennial biomass crop agronomy and in making phenotypic and physiological measurements. He has planned, planted and managed around 100 biomass crop field trials, including the Biomass Connect Hub site network and the Accelerating Willow Breeding and Deployment (AWBD). He has performed over 750 crosses, carried out research to overcome crossing barriers, produced mapping populations and elite SRC willow varieties. William has an in-depth knowledge of the UK National Willow Collection, a unique Salix germplasm resource, which is located at Rothamsted Research.
Ed Drewitt is an expert on identifying birds, in particular their songs and calls. He is a freelance naturalist, showing people wildlife (especially in the Forest of Dean where he lives), training others to identify birds and their songs and completing wildlife surveys, often on farmland. He is also a learning/evaluation consultant, developing learning resources and toolkits for wildlife organisations. Ed is the lead authority on urban-dwelling peregrines which he has been studying for nearly 30 years. He is the author of three books, Urban Peregrines, Raptor Prey Remains and Bird Pellets.
With more than 20 years’ experience in agri-environment schemes (Countryside Stewardship, ELS, HLS, CS, SFI, capital grants), Mary supports a range of businesses involved in sustainable land management activities, for increasing biodiversity, protecting soils and reducing emissions.
Mary has been successful in supporting farmers and growers to acquire research funding including ADOPT and the Farm Innovation Programme, for a range of agricultural research projects. Mary has a strong track record in project facilitation and trial support including on-farm research ranging from creating peat-free growing media from UK materials, to reducing emissions from livestock manures.
