About Me (Sim Elliott)

I am an amateur naturalist. I am particularly interested in vascular plants, lichens, bryophytes and interbrates; but I try, to the best of my ability, to undertake pan-species recording of my patch. My patch is the county of Sussex (the vice counties of East and West Sussex for biological recording purposes in the UK). I only travel by public transport to reduce my carbon footprint. I am a retired teacher (special education).

In a world of massive loss of biodiversity, it is really important to to widen the knowledge of the general public of what species exist in their local area, so that these species can be conserved; to conserve something, that thing has to have a name. I think iNaturalist is useful for expanding the general public’s interest in the nature around them, and I use iNaturalist for pan=species recording. However, for vascular plants, bryophytes and invertebrates I also use iRecord so that I can contribute to the UK National Biodiversity Network . You can view my iNaturalist records here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?subview=table&user_id=sim_elliott&verifiable=any

I am a volunteer ranger at RSPB Pagham Harbour and I volunteer with the Woodlands Trust’s Lost Woods of the Low Weald and Downs and the National Trust leading walks to develop public awareness of lichens

I am a member of the British Naturalists’ Association, the British Lichen Society, the British Bryological Society, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.

I wrote posts about my nature journeys in Sussex, trying to identify what I saw. These posts give details of how to get to these sites by public transport in order to promote public transport use. I do not add any more to this website, but all of my previous These can be accessed here: https://www.simelliott.net

You can follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sim-elliott.bsky.social

Qualifications: BMus, PGCE (Primary Education), MA (History of Art: dissertation on the representation of flowers and landscape features in late Byzantine mosaics in Constantinople), MSc (Applied Positive Psychology, with a particular interest in nature and well being)