A WOMAN from Chester has become the first recipient of an award launched by the British Ecological Society.

Beth Brockett has won the inaugural Rachel Carson Prize for the best paper written by an early career researcher in the society's People and Nature journal.

She works as a senior specialist in social science at Natural England and played a pivotal role in the creation of the Countess of Chester Country Park during her time working for Groundwork Cheshire.

The award is named after Rachel Carson who was a renowned American marine biologist and award-winning author, who greatly advanced the global environmental movement.

A delighted Beth said: "It is heartening to see truly interdisciplinary environmental research celebrated through the creation of the Rachel Carson award and I am delighted to be the first recipient – thank you People and Nature."

She undertook the research for the award-winning paper when she was a student at Lancaster University, obtaining her PhD in 2016.

Beth commuted from Chester to both the university and her field sites in Cumbria.

She said: "I am passionate about the role of social science in nature conservation. My paper was about how we need both social science and natural science to help us to protect and restore the natural environment.

"Specifically about how we increase the amount of carbon stored in upland soils in the UK."

A summary of Beth's paper can be read here.

Please credit the fieldwork photos: Anita Sedgewick, Ecosystems Knowledge Network. The fieldwork photos are of a farmer-researcher knowledge-exchange event I ran as part of the research.