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2006 News ArchiveNovember: Record number at BSBI/BSS Scottish Annual Meeting Record number at BSBI/BSS Scottish Annual MeetingA record 129 BSBI, BSS and Edinburgh Natural History Society members attended this year’s Scottish Annual Meeting in early November at RBG Edinburgh. Judging by the numbers attending and the positive feedback, the new conference-style format was very successful. The morning started with presentations by both BSBI and BSS presidents, Richard Gornall and Richard Abbott, respectively, and by Deborah Long of Plantlife. Of course there were the usual exhibits, but four of the exhibitors also gave very interesting short talks about their work. The afternoon closed with an excellent lecture by Richard Bateman on the number of orchid species in Britain . For the first time ever, an exhibit, Claudia Ferguson-Smyth’s Wildflowers of Coll & Tiree has gone on to long term display at RBGE. Full details, including abstracts, will appear here. Top of Page | Back to Home Page Scottish Officer 2005/6 Annual Report published The 2005/6 BSBI Scottish Officer Annual Report was published just in time to be sent to delegates attending the BSBI/BSS Scottish Annual Meeting in early November. Further copies were sent to Recorders, key partners and all SNH offices. 2005/6 BSBI Scottish Officer Annual Report (1.2Mb) Top of Page | Back to Home Page Computerised Plant Records handed to Recorders The last of some 105,000 computerised vascular plant records for Roxburgh (v.c.80), East Lothian (v.c.84), Mull (v.c.103) and Skye (v.c.104) were handed over to some very grateful Recorders in October. This will allow VCRs to spend less time in front of the computer and more time in the field, ensuring that BSBI data and expertise is used to maximum conservation benefit. The work has been done by a team of four contractors working in parallel, selected from BSBI ranks because of their expertise with botany and recording software. The projected is funded by an SNH grant of £15,000. This was matched by an ‘in-kind’ contribution by BSBI Recorders who spent long nights preparing their paper records and checking and correcting the computerised data. The data is already on the BSBI website Maps Scheme page. It will also shortly be on the NBN Gateway site and made available in full to SNH to help with their conservation work.
Top of Page | Back to Home Page £82,000 funding for third computerisation project In October the BSBI secured £82,000 from SNH to fund an ambitious project to computerise half a million Scottish BSBI records over a 3 year period starting in autumn 2007. It will follow on from a first project which is now almost complete, and a second project which was announced just last month. Once complete this project should bring the total number of Scottish records computerised up to 700,000.
Top of Page | Back to Home Page £17,500 funding for second Computerisation Project Computerising Vice-county Recorders ’ records vastly increases their usefulness. It helps with major projects such as checklists, Rare Plant Registers and floras, and it allows Recorders to map and analyze records more easily. So it is great to report that a BSBI bid for funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has been successful and we have been offered £17,500 to computerise a further tranche. This time contractors will computerise 135,000 records over winter 2006. The records are from Moray (v.c.95), Easterness (v.c.96), Westerness (v.c.97), Skye (v.c.104) and East Ross (v.c.106). The work will begin in November and is due to be complete by June 2007. The data will be made available to the public and SNH via the BSBI Maps Scheme webpages and the NBN Gateway. Top of Page | Back to Home Page Launch of Lesser Butterfly-orchid Project The new Red Data List lists Lesser Butterfly-orchid as vulnerable, due to the decline between the two Atlases. With our partners, SNH and Plantlife we promoted a project to encourage the public to submit records of Lesser Butterfly-orchid populations in order to get a better understanding of this apparent decline. For more information and to submit records on-line see SNH’s Website . Top of Page | Back to Home Page BSBI works with NTS & BRISC on Wildflower Workshops The BSBI Scottish Officer and local BSBI Recorders helped Biological Recording in SCotland (a group which encourages biological recording and supports Local Record Centres) with four one-day Wildflower Identification courses for the public. These were part of the BRISC Wildlife Counts programme. Over 65 people attend the courses in total. We helped in the classroom and in the field, and gave a short talk and handouts on how participants could develop their interest further. The BSBI Scottish Officer also helped lead a two day wildflower identification course which the National Trust for Scotland had organised for their rangers. This was the second year running that the BSBI and NTS have worked in partnership on this initiative, which is seen as very valuable, as the rangers are well placed to spread their knowledge and enthusiasm for wildflowers to the public. This year’s event was held in Galloway and 22 rangers participated. Top of Page | Back to Home Page BSBI Scottish Workshop Report published After the Scottish Recorders’ Workshop in April, all the speakers were asked to summarise their key take-home messages in 150 words and images. These were compiled as a Workshop Report by the BSBI Scottish Officer, Jim McIntosh. It was sent out to all 40 Scottish Recorders and a number of key partners. Full Report (1.6 Mb) Top of Page | Back to Home Page Information CD for Scottish BSBI Recorders An information CD was prepared and sent to all Scottish Recorders, with the Scottish Workshop Report. It contained comprehensive data, guidance, contact details and reports relevant to Scottish Recorders. It included all 27 Site Condition Monitoring reports which the BSBI had surveyed in 2004 and 2005 and a full listing of all Nationally Rare & Scarce plant records collected by SNH from all 150 vascular plant SSSIs surveyed to date. For full list see Information CD Contents (48 kb). Top of Page | Back to Home Page BSBI agrees 2006 Site Condition Monitoring Programme The BSBI agreed with SNH to undertake a small programme of five Site Condition Monitoring sites this summer. This is far fewer than the 20 sites in the 2005 programme, because SNH have now completed the first 6 year monitoring cycle and is currently taking stock. The sites are Ben Chonzie, Dalcroy Promontory, Keltneyburn, Rescobie & Balgavies and Glen Tanar. Volunteers agreed to lead on three sites, and the BSBI Scottish Officer, Jim McIntosh will lead on the other two. Top of Page | Back to Home Page Scottish Vice-county Recorder Workshop held
Twenty four BSBI Scottish Recorders participated in a residential workshop at Kindrogan Field Studies Centre. We were particularly pleased to welcome our eldest recorder, Elaine Bullard who travelled from Orkney and several others from south of the border. The first day of the weekend event, included sessions on the Local Change, Hybrids, Site Condition Monitoring, Record Computerisation and Rare Plant Register projects. The second day was largely devoted to MapMate workshops – three were held simultaneously – for beginner, intermediate and more advanced users. However there were also workshops on pressing specimens, recording unit areas and assistance for Recorders. There was plenty time in the programme for socialising – important as the recorders are by definition a disparate bunch and don’t often meet. Top of Page | Back to Home Page Skye BSBI Recorder retires after 40 years service Catriona Murray, the BSBI Vice-county Recorder for Skye ( North Ebudes , v.c.104), retired after 40 years service. During that time she has made a huge and invaluable contribution to vascular plant biological recording on Skye and the Small Isles, for which the BSBI is very grateful. The post is being taken over by Dr Stephen Bungard who lives on Raasay, and has been working with Catriona for some time. We wish both Catriona and Stephen all the best for the future. Top of Page | Back to Home Page BSBI Delivers 20 Site Conditioning Monitoring Reports The BSBI has just handed over Site Condition Monitoring reports for 20 Scottish SSSIs to SNH. The reports assess the health of populations of rare and scarce species and give an indication of the overall condition of the site itself. BSBI volunteers, the Scottish Officer and others spent a total of 120 days in the field in summer 2005, and an equal time writing up reports over the autumn and winter. The project provided a great opportunity for botanists, SNH staff and land managers to meet and learn from each other. Many of the sites were montane. They included Ben Lomond , Ben Lui, The Cairnwell and Torridon Forest . These were particularly difficult sites to survey due to their size, exposure and remoteness. Despite this BSBI volunteers produced excellent reports and have made an invaluable contribution to botanical conservation in Scotland. Top of Page | Back to Home Page BSBI Scottish Webpages launched The BSBI Scottish WebPages were launched in January thanks to the help of volunteer, Jane Squirrell. They include Scottish BSBI news, details of Scottish field and indoor meetings, abstracts from the Scottish Exhibition Meeting and a whole page about the Scottish Officer. If you drill down deeply you will even find Scottish Committee and Scottish Officer Steering Group documents! Top of Page | Back to Home Page
(J.Squirrell) Last updated : October 30, 2007 |
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