ECOLOGICAL MONITORING Bat roosting boxes
Monitoring
O
the status of the habitats and identify what wildlife is present. The team may also need to confirm whether the area has any conservation designations (local, national or international) and priority species or habitats recorded. Some species records would highlight a need for specific management. For example, if there are bat roosts on the site, any work on trees would need a survey beforehand and a plan in place to make sure bat roosts are not damaged. Appropriate licences would be applied for, and mitigation or compensation measures delivered. Once the team know which species are on the site and have a good idea of its condition, known as the baseline, the Trust will draw
ne of the aims of the Trust’s Wilder 2030 strategy is for 30% of land and sea to become wilder, with nature recovering, by the end of the decade. To do this, the Trust will be linking up existing nature reserves, rewilding areas and, in some cases, looking to invest in new nature reserves with the help of you - our supporters. When the Trust acquires land, the ecology team are involved from the very start of that process. Senior Ecologist Sarah Jackson explains how the Trust goes about choosing, monitoring and improving land for wildlife.
Making a plan
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Duke of Burgundy butterfly
GRAHAM HOGGARTH
Once an area has been identified as a site for a new nature reserve, or an extension to an existing one, the first port of call is the local biological records centre: Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre (HBIC) on the mainland and the Isle of Wight Local Records Centre on the Island. Here, they keep all the records of species (that’s nearly eight million records) and habitats collected from surveys and volunteer recorders. The ecology team combine studying historic records with a site visit to check
Brown long-eared bat emerging
TREVOR CODLIN
MIKE READ
MATTERS up management plans for the site. These aim to improve existing habitats or enable low quality and man-made areas to revert to a more natural state which will be better for wildlife.
Surveys
The habitat type and species present will determine which surveys are needed. Both individual species surveys and comprehensive surveys of the habitat may be used. The ecology team at the Trust includes seven ecologists with two trainees from spring to autumn. The team has also built excellent links with dedicated naturalists in the two counties over the years, who carry out surveys that require a lot of specialist knowledge, particularly botanical or invertebrate surveys. Members of the team hold licences to survey great-crested newts, dormice, bats, southern damselfly and white-clawed crayfish. Reserves officers draw up site management plans for the nature reserves and work with the ecology team annually to determine which surveys need to take place. Sometimes initial
Wild Life | Summer 2021
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23/06/2021 11:42
