Meet the Team: Sarah Smith - Network Members and Operations Manager

Find a shady patch of grass under a Large Old Tree and spend some quality time with one of our dedicated Biolinks Alliance team members - Sarah Smith, our Network Members and Operations Manager.

There are seriously not many people more committed to protecting and restoring our environment than Sarah. With a sunny disposition and tenacity to boot, she authentically lives and breathes this ethos in her every day - both at work and at home.

Building processes and systems for organisational efficiency, helping to deliver our evaluation framework, as well as being the first point of contact for our Network Members - Sarah is an integral part of our team.

1. What inspires you to work with Biolinks Alliance?

I love the fact that I work with people who bring about real change. I am inspired to be in an organisation that does such important work - work that I can be proud of and makes me feel like I’m actually making a difference in the world.

2. What does your job entail?

So much! All the behind the scenes things that you can imagine goes on in an organisation like project management, finance and HR, to organising meetings and implementing new processes and IT!  Last year I really enjoyed developing the Network Member plan and meeting many of the amazing Members we have. 

3. Is there an outcome for our environment you feel most proud of in your time with Biolinks Alliance?

Many Australians may look at their landscape and see a place that has been degraded, and yet they don’t even realise there is something wrong. Or, they may look at a landscape and think - something doesn’t look right here, the landscape isn’t healthy, but they don’t understand why. 

I am so proud of the work at the Spring Plains Nature Conservation Reserve that we undertook last year. I think this work will help to educate people about how landscapes are degraded, and what they can look like when real conservation action takes place. Conservation practices like keeping the water in landscapes, increasing biodiversity in a degraded area, and ecological thinning, and how this all helps our landscapes to adapt to climate change. 

4. Why is restoring our ecosystems so important in Central Victoria and what is the urgency around this?

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but Victoria is the most cleared state in Australia. It all started with gold and the prosperity it brought to our region, but boy did it leave a big scar. It’s not just forests that were lost, so many types of landscapes were modified and continue to be - did you know there is only 1% of original grasslands left in Victoria? All these different landscapes support an amazing diversity of plants and animals that are often not found anywhere else in the world. 

Our landscapes are under threat from a changing climate and human activity. It’s so important that we do our very best to reverse, where we can, the damage that has been done, and protect the areas that are still intact, so that our animals and plants across the region have a chance of survival. It’s about us too - we need these animals and plants as much as they need us.

5. If you were an animal, insect, or plant – what would you be and why?

I think I would be a Greater Glider - have you seen them? They are unbelievable! Like big fluffy catty creatures, they almost look like cartoon characters with their big fluffy ears and huge eyes and super long tails. 

I think they are a bit in the background, not necessarily the stars of the show, but spotting one brings such joy - I’d like to think my role is a little bit behind the scenes, but hopefully I can bring the same amount of joy to the people and communities I work with, just like those adorable gliders.

6. On your days off - what do you like to do? 
I am an avid gardener, a hunter of second hand goods, and have dabbled in jewellery making. My partner tells me I have a compost compulsion disorder. If we go walking together you may find me stopping and getting up close to plants, trying to identify them, or oohing and ahhing at something I’ve never seen before.