Liz Howe

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# Liz Howe Liz Howe (27 October 1959 - 31 March 2019) was a British ecologist and herpetologist. She is best known as one of the coordinators of a comprehensive field survey of the natural habitats of Wales, published in 2010. She was born Elizabeth Anne Pulford on 27 October 1959 in Kingstanding, West Midlands, England, daughter of Robert Pulford, an electrical engineer, and his wife, Margaret Davis. After attending Aldridge grammar school in Walsall she did an undergraduate degree at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, where she won the Cheesman Prize for her studies of mammalian physiology. Her Ph.D. was awarded in 1985 from Bangor University for her work on the physiology of the ocellated skink, a lizard found in Italy, Greece and Malta. After her Ph.D., she spent three decades working for the Nature Conservancy Council and its successor organizations in Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales and Natural Resources Wales. During this time she managed teams mapping vegetation throughout Wales, which was published in the book Habitats of Wales: A Comprehensive Field Survey, 1979-1997. This has since been widely used as an evidence base for conservation management and for identifying potential Sites of Special Scientific Interest. As a herpetologist she led reintroduction programs to conserve threatened species such as sand lizards and natterjack toads. She also reviewed the ecology and distributions of reptiles and amphibians in the book A New Natural History of Anglesey. In her private time she and her husband restored a rare section of limestone pavement on their small holding near Marianglas, Anglesey, which was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest shortly before her death. Howe was an accomplished amateur flautist who promoted provision of music among young people. She was a committee member and secretary for the Friends of Gwynedd Youth Music and secretary for the Beaumaris Brass Band, for which she played euphonium.