At the heart of the Association are our Board of Trustees and our Advisory Council, supported by Committees.
Officers and Trustees are elected by the membership and members of Council are appointed by the Board of Trustees. Committees are chaired by trustees or council members, but committee members may be drawn from the wider membership or be volunteers co-opted for the special expertise or skills they bring.
The Board of Trustees comprises the Officers and up to six additional trustees
Committees are chaired generally chaired by trustees and committee members are drawn from our members.
Professor Sarah Nield
Emeritus Professor of Property law, Southampton University with expertise on the legal framework of the New Forest and Author of Forest Law and The Verderers of the New Forest published by New Forest Research and Publications Trust. Chair of the Recreation Committee.
Dr Gale Pettifer
New Forest commoner, writer & lecturer on history of the New Forest and currently Parish Clerk to Brockenhurst and Landford Parish Councils.
Vacant
Christopher Winter
Finance director with experience in the airline industry, food manufacturing and cosmetics.
Clive Chatters
Naturalist, Conservationist and Author. Verderer of the New Forest; Former Company Secretary Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust; Former Chairman National Park Authority.
Dr Sue Kirsch
Former patent attorney now an Ambassador for the New Forest National Park Authority, member of the Friends of Brockenhurst Committee and is a volunteer with Riding for the Disabled and the Litter Pickers of the New Forest.
Pete Ryde
Chair of the Association’s Membership and Marketing Committee. Current Head of Marketing at the National Oceanography Centre and former Marketing Director at ClimateCare.
Brian Tarnoff
Chair of the Association’s Habitat and Landscapes Committee. Current Chair of the New Forest Consultative Panel and Wildlife and Conservation representative on the National Park Access Forum. Also writer and mobile cinema projectionist.
William Ziegler
Former Chair of the New Forest Association and current Chair of the New Forest Trust.
Our Advisory Council Comprises the Board of Trustees and up to fifteen additional members Council brings together on a regular basis individual members of the Association with a wide breadth of knowledge of the New Forest, engagement with other New Forest organisations or professional skills valuable to the work of the Association, and who are volunteers, serving on Committees or otherwise actively engaged in roles supporting the Association. They represent many viewpoints about the New Forest but are united in their commitment to the Association.
Council meetings are a forum in which to discuss with and advise the Board of Trustees on any New Forest issues pertinent to the Objects of the Association that its members wish to raise.
Bernie Austin
Chair of the Association’s Transport and Planning Committee
Jonathan Cox
Freelance ecologist and nature conservation adviser; Author of several English Nature and other nature conservation publications.
Dr Tony Hockley
Visiting Senior fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Former Chairman of the New Forest Commoners Defence Assocition.
Dr Keith Howe
Exeter University Agricultural economist; Senior Research Fellow Exeter University; Honorary Research Fellow Royal Veterinary College, London University; Trustee Exmoor Society.
David Humbert
Member New Forest Show Committee.
Jo Ivey
Commoner and member of Commoners Defence Association; Author; Co-ordinator of various New Forest projects and surveys.
Richard Reeves
Expert and author on New Forest history and committee member of the New Forest Archaeology & History Group.
Neil Sanderson
Freelance ecologist and leading lichenologist.
Ann Sevier
MBE New Forest Commoner, a Verderer of the New Forest, Member of the National Park Authority, Commoning representative on the New Forest Access Forum, Hyde Parish Councillor.
Jenni Tubbs
New Forest Association representative on Forestry Commission Open Forest Advisory Committee; New Forest Friends of the Earth representative; Member New Forest Consultative Panel; Former officer Nature Conservancy Council.
Sue Westwood
Former Clerk to the Verderers of the New Forest.
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New Forest Association © 2026
All rights reserved
All photographs ©
Photographs courtesy: Clive Chatters, Gale Pettifer, Steve Laycock, Mike Read, Brian Tarnoff, Peter Roberts, John Ward.