Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Survey will make sure our common species count
People are being asked to record their sightings of familiar wildlife this weekend, as Charlie Elder reports
WHILE the state of rare and threatened wildlife across Britain is often the focus of intensive monitoring, common species can get overlooked.
As a result, a new West Country survey is calling on the public’s help to record sightings of a handful of widespread and typically abundant species.
Somerset Wildlife Trust is teaming up with the Somerset Environmental Records Centre to launch a new initiative called The Great Somerset Wildlife Count.
The community science scheme aims to track wildlife and habitat trends in order to better prevent declines in nature.
The Wildlife Trust and Records Centre hope that with the public as their eyes and ears on the ground, collecting and feeding in important wildlife data and information, they will have greater idea of wildlife under threat and be better able to create conservation solutions to address areas where there is the most urgent need.
The scheme will monitor changes in both the diversity and the abundance of wildlife species in the county, in turn helping to assess the health of ecosystems that support them, which the trust says are coming under increasing pressure from development and changes in our climate.
There will be a count in each season and the first autumn count takes place this weekend, October 17-18, focusing on the common frog, the hedgehog, redwing, honey fungus,
Having the data to understand the health of our environment is vital LEON DEBELL, SERC
the painted lady butterfly and the goldfinch.
The two organisations are urging members of the public to look out for these species over this weekend, and record when and where they spot them.
All of the data will also be fed into a new Somerset County Council initiative called the Somerset State of Nature, which ensures that countyled decisions can be made with wildlife in mind.
Simon Clarke, Somerset Wildlife Trust’s head of conservation policy and biodiversity, said: “Somerset Environmental Records Centre currently holds over three million records, but the majority of these are about protected or rare species mostly within higher quality habitats. There’s a gap in our knowledge about how the more ‘common’ species are doing on a wider scale across the county. At the moment, we can’t tell with certainty what’s happening to species we perceive as still being relatively abundant, such as goldfinches or frogs – and that’s a real concern.
“There’s a phrase that describes that concern – shifting baselines. It’s where, over time, knowledge is lost about the natural world and as a result our perception of nature or species decline becomes more and more out of sync with the reality of the situation. We hope that the Great
Somerset Wildlife Count will help us increase and grow that knowledge so we can identify ways to protect species before we lose them forever.”
Leon DeBell, Somerset Environmental Records Centre manager, said: “Having the data to understand the health of our environment through trends in diversity and abundance of wildlife here in Somerset is vital. During the pandemic we know that people have opened their eyes to nature and wildlife, whether on their doorstep or in their local green space, so this is a brilliant way to extend and nurture that nature connection.
“At a time, when so many more people are now asking ‘What can I do to make a difference?’, it’s something simple to do that really can make a difference. Whether you are on your way to school, work, in a local green space with the dog, or with the kids at half term, record the wildlife you see and help make nature count.”
Visit www.somersetwildlife.org/ w i l d l i f e / g re a t-s o me r s e t-w i l d l i f e - count/ for more information, and a guide to the species to look out for this weekend.
The species records can be entered via the website