Company Director and Senior Environmental Consultant, Dr Patrick Crushell established Wetland Surveys Ireland in 2007. He received an honors degree in Applied Ecology from UCC, a Masters degree in Environmental Resource Management from UCD and defended his PhD (Environmental Sciences) at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The focus of his PhD research was on soak systems of Clara bog, Co. Offaly, his research also took him to the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia and Argentina. The multidisciplinary approach to his research has given him a broad range of expertise including restoration ecology, eco-hydrology, hydrochemistry, vegetation science and aquatic macro-fauna ecology. He is a Chartered Ecologist and full Member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), adhering to their code of professional conduct.
Patrick has been working in the area of nature conservation and ecological assessment since 2002. He has worked as a consultant ecologist in the preparation of Ecological Impact Assessments on over 500 different projects for a range of organisations including government agencies, engineering firms, local environmental groups and NGOs and has appeared as an expert witness on numerous occasions.
Projects that he has been involved in include impact assessments of various development proposals; pre and post – construction monitoring; wetland surveys; evaluation of proposed designated sites; bird surveys; flora and fauna surveys; restoration and management of habitats and baseline ecological surveys.
Patrick was a Member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Peatland Conservation Council (2002- 2008), represented environmental NGOs on the government appointed Special Area of Conservation (SAC) Appeals Board and is listed on the panel of approved ecologists for the Native Woodland Scheme.
For Wetland Surveys Ireland, Dr Crushell’s roles include project management, site surveying, GIS data management and mapping, report compilation and editing, hydrochemistry coordinator and data analysis.