David is a public law barrister with more than 20 years of experience working primarily in areas of local government, planning and housing. On learning about the UK's devastating loss of biodiversity, he became determined  to try and reverse this decline. He conceived of Merlindale Nature as a means to achieve that goal.  

A true countryman, Reuben has lived in rural areas all his life, growing up on a small dairy farm in Gloucestershire before studying at Aberystwyth University. Since then he has forged a career in nature conservation in Scotland working in both the public and private sectors. For the last ten years he has run his own company, Tweed Ecology, providing ecological expertise across northern England and southern Scotland.

Maxine is a retired business solutions professional with a love of natural world that began in her early childhood on the family farms in East Anglia.

She is treasurer for the Scottish Wildlife Trust Borders group, and volunteers for a Greener Melrose eBikes project. Max is procuring the resources we need for our project and taking care of the finances. In her spare time, Max is to be found outdoors - walking, cycling, and working on her smallholding.

John inherited a love of nature from his parents, this developed further at school and his grandfather’s dairy farm in Devon. After working on a farm he took on a small holding in mid-Wales where he learnt about and practiced permaculture and sustainability while he rebuilt the traditional Welsh farmhouse using mostly traditional techniques. During this time he developed a deeper understanding of the value of community. In 2004 he founded a grassroots charitable action group which continues to engage the local community in environmental pursuits in the Scottish Borders.

Apithanny grew up in the Scottish Borders countryside and is passionate about restoring lost hay meadows to our landscape. She has a master’s degree in wildlife conservation and is currently finishing up her PhD, which focused on assessing the quality of species-rich grasslands and floral field margins for declining pollinators. Her free time is dedicated to volunteering on several environmental charity boards – but she also loves painting and writing about nature in her field journal.

Alex Lintott is a young naturalist and photographer, with a keen eye for wildlife, who is currently studying geography at the University of Glasgow. In addition, he sees wildlife as a means of reconnecting people with the natural world, so much of which has been lost. Whether through close encounters with bear and wild boar, hikes along remote ridge lines, or just enjoying your own back yard, experience has taught him that "getting yourself out there (which is often the hardest part) always proves to be the most rewarding".