Reflections from an Environment Agency science engagement intern

Finola Kirrane, science engagement intern, reflects on her summer in the Chief Scientist's Group and highlights the contributions of her science intern cohort.
Finola Kirrane, science engagement intern, reflects on her summer in the Chief Scientist's Group and highlights the contributions of her science intern cohort.
We needed to make sure that diverting water through the fish pass must not lower the flow through either the canoe slalom course at the adjoining Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre or the turbines of a local hydropower operation. We also needed to allow for maintenance access to the Holme Sluices.
We’ve just published our annual report about radioactivity in food and the environment. Our radiation specialist Becca Williams shares the headlines from our monitoring and assessment work and talks about how artificial radioactivity gets into the environment. Headlines Radioactivity in …
Mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change is something I’m very passionate about. From experiencing heatwaves first-hand here in the UK, to hearing about drinking-water wells drying up due to drought in my parents’ villages in Sri Lanka, witnessing the negative impacts of climate change across the world is what initially pushed me to pursue a career in this field.
We need dynamic and diverse leaders now more than ever. Worsening storms, more frequent floods and heatwaves, longer droughts, faster coastal change, significant species loss and greater pressures on water, land and air – climate change is happening now. We …
After spending almost 20 years collecting data in the West Midlands to respond to climate change challenges, like flooding and drought, I still love the job I do as much as when I first got called to interview for the Environment Agency.
Citizen science initiatives provide invaluable data about our water environment and complement our own monitoring and assessment work, enabling a greater understanding of the issues we face and how together we can take action going forward. John Findlay, who works in the East Anglia analysis and reporting team at the EA, writes here about his role and the data his team is collecting.
The Environment Agency’s Amanda Foster looks at work to improve chalk streams in Yorkshire.
Jude Ward, Biodiversity Technical Specialist, West Midlands The Environment Agency maintains a number of flood and coastal defence assets across 7000km of river. It’s my job as a biodiversity technical specialist to ensure these assets are maintained, repaired, and created …
The Environment Agency enables partnerships to come together and improve the local environment to benefit wildlife and communities. Catchment Coordinator for the EA, Adam Noon, tells us more about removing Ackers Weir on the River Cole in East Birmingham.