1. Connecting Communities
through Action

1.3 Big Washlands Watch

Challenging schools, families and individuals to identify species in our landscape.

Project Summary

A range of events and activities to engage with a broad range of people to provide them with support and resources to be able to identify and record species.

Citizen Science recording: we will provide a self-guided identification pack featuring a number of species which we would expect to be present. It will be used by families and schools who will share this data with us.

Specialist group recording: we will engage with specialist groups such as anglers to give us species level data which can be submitted to Staffordshire Ecological Records (SER) and Derbyshire Biological Records Centre (DBRC).

Bioblitz events: we will run one Bioblitz in the first year of the project and two per year for the following three years to show seasonality. These will be held at key sites providing an opportunity for the surrounding communities to have access to a range of subject area specialists such as mammal group, butterfly group etc. We will run training events to increase identification skills for volunteers.

Legacy

Families engaged will have a greater knowledge of habitats and ecology. They will have learnt about species present in the landscape, how to identify them, record them and provide data to eth biological recording centres to assist with mapping and planning requests in future. Understanding how different species fit together in a complex ecosystem will make sure that they know how disruptive human’s influence can be – e.g. pollution incidents and how it can have far reaching effects on a healthy ecosystem.

We will leave behind a network of experienced recorders with wide knowledge of sites and species within the valley area.

Latest News

Call for Citizen Scientists

6 January 2020 by Nicola Lynes

Transforming the Trent Valley scheme is launching our ‘Big Washlands Watch’ project in 2020. This project aims to learn more about the number and types of species living in the Trent Valley area by encouraging local people to get involved in some citizen science activities. We would like to hear from people and groups within the Transforming the Trent Valley scheme area who want to learn more about the wildlife on their doorstep and would like to help us to record it.

For all the latest news about Transforming the Trent Valley, visit our news page.

Big Washlands Watch Blog Posts

RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch.

27 January 2020 by Nicola Lynes

You might have seen that one of the projects running within the Transforming the Trent Valley scheme is the ‘Big Washlands Watch’, which is all about citizen science – engaging people with their local wildlife and teaching them how to identify species and submit biological records.