Ann Skinner is a senior national conservation adviser. She joined the National Rivers Authority as a conservation officer in 1991, having spent 10 years working for various Wildlife Trusts. She has worked in both area and national jobs for the Environment Agency, undertaking river and wetland restoration, influencing and developing policies. She spent 2 years on the LIFE in UK Rivers Project, investigating our most important rivers and the ecological requirements of their dependent species.
The value of floodplain meadows was well understood in mediaeval times, when the Domesday Book recorded them as 10 times more valuable than arable land because without them people could not keep their animals alive through the long hard winters. …
