Built by an ecologist,
for ecologists.

Paddy O’Connor

Freelance Ecologist - Kinterra Consulting

BSc Ecology & Conservation Biology (Griffith University, Australia)
BSc Honours Applied Science (University of Queensland, Australia)

Why I built EcoCheck

I work full-time as an Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW) and PEA surveyor on rail and linear infrastructure projects across the UK, contracting for RSS Infrastructure. My day-to-day involves habitat assessments, protected species compliance, and on-site ecological supervision during live construction works - often during night-time rail possessions.

Every desk study meant the same routine: switching between MAGIC Map, NatureScot SiteLink, NRW datasets, and NBN Atlas, cross-referencing designations, checking species records, pulling up SSSIs and SACs, and manually compiling everything before I could even start writing. It was slow, repetitive, and error-prone.

So I built what I wanted to exist - a single search that consolidates environmental designation and protected species data across GB, returning what you need for a desk-based assessment in seconds rather than hours.

My background

My career started in Australia with urban wildlife research at Griffith University (the Mains Road Koala Project), invasive species eradication in the Torres Strait, and megafauna monitoring in South Africa’s Kruger region. I spent several years running a food and drink business before returning to ecology full-time in late 2024.

Since then I’ve been delivering PEAs, ECoW supervision, and protected species survey work across Wales, England, and Scotland. I’m PTS-certified and working toward CIEEM membership. EcoCheck comes directly from the problems I hit every week on real projects.

The product

EcoCheck is a focused desk-study tool. Enter a location and search radius, and it returns statutory designations, non-statutory sites, protected species records, and habitat data from across England, Scotland, and Wales. It’s not a replacement for a full GIS workflow - it’s designed to speed up the initial desktop assessment so you can spend your time on the ecology, not the data gathering.

The tool is live and functional. I’m actively seeking feedback from working ecologists to identify gaps, errors, and features that would make it more useful. If you’ve tried it and have thoughts - good or bad - I’d genuinely like to hear them.