Margot Planquelle

Margot joined the APEM Woodrow Team in March 2026 as an Assistant Ecologist - Botanist.

Margot’s initial training is in Visual Arts, which she studied in France. She obtained her Master’s Degree with Honours in 2012 and dreamed to pursue a career as an artist while working in museums and as a reporter in her home county. In 2014 she moved to Ireland with different goals and dreams and while still creating, she started to teach French for a living in Co. Leitrim.

Life in the Irish countryside led her to affirm her existing foraging skills and her understanding of the natural world. In 2023, Margot decided to change path and enrolled with University College Cork to study for a Diploma in Environment, Climate and Sustainability, which she obtained with Honours in 2025. In February 2024, after two days of evaluation in the field in Donegal, she received proudly her Certificate Level 1 in the Track & Sign arts. Margot worked as an ACRES Co-operation West Connacht agri-ecologist, where she gained substantial experience in High Nature Value (HNV) farmland assessment and agri-ecological survey methodologies. Her work included conducting ACRES habitat scorecards across peatlands, dry and wet grasslands, montane, and coastal systems, with a focus on evaluating sward composition, habitat quality, and ecological indicators.

Since her start as an Assistant Ecologist – Botanist, Margot has participated to various surveys on coastal, woodland, lacustrine and peatland habitats while developing her GIS mapping skills and preparing surveys with Survey123.

Margot maintains active membership and engagement with key eNGOs, including the Botanical Society of Ireland, BirdWatch Ireland and Irish Whale and Dolphin Group. More so, she regularly volunteers for Hometree at their Sligo site and for the National Biodiversity Data Centre, recording Odonata species at Colgagh Lough, Co. Sligo.

On her free time, she forages and enjoys making baskets from different harvested materials.