Penny Wysome

Botanists wanted!

Shropshire Wildlife Trust is responsible for a large number of reserves which contain very varied habitats. Management of these is a complex task, and over the years various ways of informing the Trustees of the condition of the sites have been utilised. Such condition assessments enable resources to be allocated effectively and provide priorities for the Reserve Managers. Until 2018 the Trust employed a botanist, Fiona Gomersall, who was responsible for gathering the botanical data needed to inform the conservation work. Reserves were visited in rotation over the years covering woodlands, grasslands, mires and heaths. Once a year a summary was presented to the Trustees and the Reserve Managers, and programmes of work drawn up and implemented based on Fiona’s reports. Over this time period Fiona recruited and trained a team of volunteers (myself included) who gradually acquired skills in identification and data handling, and as she got busier with other tasks, began to work more independently to maintain a flow of information. When she moved on, our team was asked if we would take on the task of monitoring the reserves. The current team of eight has accepted this challenge though we are well aware that we are not professional botanists. As a group we do have skills in identification, data handling, conservation management and ecology, and a combined experience of monitoring the same reserves over more than a decade, but we are not professionals. Shropshire Wildlife Trust is currently seeking new volunteers for a number of tasks, including botanical monitoring. We have been asked to draw up what amounts to a job description because we are conscious that we do not have the time – or possibly even the skills, to train people from scratch. We have to work fast across our sites to collect the data and we have found from experience that explaining every step and identifying every plant slows us down. There is an element of guilt about this as we learnt by going out with Fiona who patiently oversaw our progress, though some of us did do a number of courses, Biological Recording

Penny Wysome

Certificate for example, to try and improve our identification skills. It is very possible that existing members of the Shropshire Botanical Society far exceed these requirements and would be ideal members of our team. The Trust website has the full description if anyone is interested, but these are the qualities we have identified. We hope that this does not feel too demanding. • Familiarity with at least 12 of the main botanical families • Enthusiasm to improve plant species identification skills • Ability to use plant species identification keys • Teamwork skills • Willingness to learn and use scientific names of plant species • Experience recording and inputting data • Driving licence and access to a vehicle Some level of commitment is also needed; we go out weekly between May and September in all weathers and on varied terrain. None of us manages every week, but with a bigger team we will always be quorate. Potential site monitors not quite ready to join us might well benefit from the Identiplant training that Sue Dancey is supporting from within the SBS. This is a one year online course in identification designed to introduce the main plant families. There is a fee for the course and learners are allocated a local tutor to support them with the modules. The Shropshire Wildlife Trust website has the full role description and application forms to become a volunteer. https://www.shropshirewildlifetrust.org. uk/volunteer