North Pennines National Landscape

Upland hay meadow surveys

We are looking for volunteers to undertake botanical surveys on a selection of upland hay meadows that have been restored through seed addition, at locations across the North Pennines.

Time-scales: Botanical surveys are undertaken from third week of June until late July.

Methodology: Groups of two to three volunteers undertake 15 quadrats (1m x 1m square) per meadow. One meadow with 15 quadrats may take between one to two days.

 We are offering a free three-day course for beginner’s and botanists wishing to refresh their skills, in exchange for a minimum requirement of helping to survey a meadow over one full day. Beginners are advised to attend all three days, if possible. More experienced botanists can choose which days to attend based on their previous experience.

You will need to sign-up to these three training days separately:

You will need to sign-up to these three training days separately:

• Day One: Wildflower Identification training, Thursday 4^th June.
• Day Two: Grasses and sedges Identification training, Thursday 11^th June.
• Day Three: Botanical survey training, quadrats and meadow assessments, Thursday 18^thJune.

Description of training:

We will spend the morning in a meadow in Teesdale or Allendale, going through quadrat survey methodology. We will split into groups of three to four and practice undertaking quadrats (1m x 1m squares) with the survey sheets. We will spend the afternoon going through meadow assessments, looking at undertaking w-walkthroughs and assessing negative indicator and positive indicator species. Please bring packed lunch.

Prerequisites

For beginners, the Wildflower Identification course and Grasses and sedges identification training course are prerequisites for this training day.  Botanists with previous experience of identifying wildflowers, grasses and sedges may book just for this day, without doing the previous two training days, if they feel confident in their abilities.

 Training will be undertaken by Dr Ruth Starr-Keddle, if you have any queries, please email Ruth: ruth@northpennines.org.uk