Welcome to our news page. If you have a news item that you would like added to this page please contact us.
Plantlife Cymru are developing a proposal to run a three year project to
record and conserve our waxcap grasslands. Part of the project will be to
establish a Grassland Fungi Apprenticeship scheme where volunteers would be trained
in identifying waxcaps and other grassland fungi and then conduct surveys in
key areas. Plantlife need to gather evidence that there is sufficient interest
in such a scheme in order to get the funding. If you are interested in taking
part, please do fil... more
Response for Nature Project launched its reports on the 13th Oct 2015.
Response for Nature Project
reports
Many of the UK’s conservation
organisations have joined forces to outline the key actions they see as
essential in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to be taken by
governments and assisted by business, environmental charities and civil society
to stop the loss of nature.
Background
In 2013, the State of Nature
report found that 60 per ... more
17th July to 20th August
There are two easy ways to take
part in the Big Butterfly Count.
Visit the Big
Butterfly Count website to download and print an ID chart. Take it out with you
to make a record of the butterflies you spot then simply log back on and tell
us what you've seen.
If you have a smartphone then the free Big Butterfly Count app will help you
identify different species and allow you to record them there and then, saving
paper as well as butterflies.
... more
The Mid Wales Red Squirrel Partnership (MWRSP) website is now live. MWRSP was established in 2002.
The Partnership aims to expand and protect the unique population of red
squirrels in mid Wales; one of only three significant red squirrel
populations in the whole of Wales.
The map of red squirrel sightings includes historical records populated from the LRC Wales merged database from BIS, SEWBReC and WWBIC. Records entered on-line will be exchanged with the LRCs.... more
The Welsh Assembly’s
Environment and Sustainability Committee is consulting on the Environment
(Wales) Bill.
As part of the consultation the Committee want to hear
the views of the people of Wales on different aspects of the Bill through a
survey which asks a range of questions on environmental issues, from climate
change, nature conservation, recycling and the five pence plastic bag charge.
A
link to the English and Welsh survey are below:
https://www.surveymonke... more
The University of Reading is looking for recorders and naturalists in the Powys area to become
involved with and contribute to the Powdery Mildew Project being run by Oli Ellingham. On receipt of specimens of mildewed leaves Oli will DNA sequence them and then provide identifications to the specimen provider which obviously can then be put into BIS's database. A good way of obtaining records for a very under-recorded group.
Please see Oli's webpages with instructions for sending specimens at the... more
The
Natural History Museum (in partnership with Oxford Uni) has launched a new
citizen science project - ‘Orchid Observers’. They’re looking for
people to help gather data on 29 species of orchids across the UK (by taking
photos of any orchids you see, with date & location & then uploading
them via the project’s website). There are orchid identification tools on line
(but ID is optional).
Recent
research has indicated that climate change is affecting the
flo... more
The scheme asks for volunteers across the United Kingdom to
visit a kilometre square local to them and record the plants they find
there in several
different plots. The scheme will enable us to explore how
plants in different habitats are responding to changes in the environment. More
information about the scheme can be found at www.npms.org.uk
The Data Access Tool (DAT)
is a joint project between the four Local Records Centres in Wales, aimed at
presenting our data in a usable and user friendly manner for the wildlife recording
community.
In conjunction with the other welsh LRCs BIS has developed a system to merge the 4 species databases.
This will now be the basis to uodate and improve the DAT for public and partner access to the data. The first step has been to improve the speed of species records distribution maps.
Go to http... more
With support from the Welsh Government’s
Nature Fund the Long
Forest Community Hedgerow Project in the Brecon Beacons NP area is currently planning 1 or 2 day practical training
for beginners/improvers in:
§
Traditional hedge-laying
§
Coppicing and infilling
§
Hedgerow surveying and wildlife recording
This training will be free of charge to participants and
we’ll have a limited number of places for trainees at each session. The
co... more
