Lauriston Agroforestry Farm – the community allotments with wildflowers and food crops grown together.
Caroline Bailey-Rothschild, a final year doctoral student in the Department of Natural Sciences, shares her experience of attending and presenting at the 2025 Landscape Ecology UK Conference (LEUK).
It was a delight to be able to present at the 2025 Landscape Ecology UK Conference (LEUK) hosted in Edinburgh in July in a talk titled, ‘Assessing landscape change in an IUCN Category V National Park using multi-method remote sensing.’ My research sits at the intersection of applied landscape policy and technological innovation, which limits opportunities to present as most conferences focus on either technical methods or on species conservation.
LEUK brought together researchers from universities, government agencies, private companies, conservation organisations and land managers to share knowledge and discuss practical approaches to landscape-scale challenges. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference made for a welcoming atmosphere and was an ideal space to discuss my work mapping historic land use change across a UK National Park. It was particularly refreshing to hear panellists speak with hope, humility and ambition despite the ‘known unknowns’ that flavour key questions in landscape ecology, such as: how can we manage landscapes so that they are able to thrive today and in the future (under climate change)?
Attendees at the 2025 Landscape Ecology UK Conference
I spoke in the session titled, ‘Technological Innovations in Landscape-Scale Monitoring’ alongside other speakers who discussed how to pair ground-based field data with emerging technologies like eDNA, bioacoustics, artificial intelligence and sensor networks. In my talk, I presented findings from using a dual-method remote sensing approach to map historic land use change within a UK National Park. I was surprised by how affirming it was to be asked questions about aspects of my study design and findings, from whether I used a co-design approach to how I considered spectral proxies for grassland mowing patterns — it felt like my work fit with the varied interests of attendees!
The final day of the conference offered us a chance to visit Lauriston Agroecology Farm, which is a 100-acre farm run by a workers’ cooperative that is focused on food growing, biodiversity and community. I found it to be an inspiring example of landscape ecology principles in action, rooted in local needs and led from the ground-up using sociocratic organising. What began as agricultural fields punctuated by dog walkers has been transformed into a mosaic landscape full of promise! Newly-planted woodlands, an extensive market garden bordered by nut trees, open allotments with a communal pizza oven, wildflower strips, vermiculture, a seed bank: it was hard to pick a favourite feature! Lauriston Farm shows how landscape management can be for both people and nature, creating space for ecological restoration while supporting food sovereignty, wellbeing and collective stewardship.
I am grateful to Manchester Metropolitan University and the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust for supporting my attendance. Thank you also to the LEUK organising committee, who volunteered so much of their time to put on a constructive, wide-ranging series of events for attendees. It was an inspiring and energising few days that left me with a strong sense of direction for the final year of my PhD.
