Volunteers wanted for wild plant survey

Are you interested in wild plants or would like to learn more about them?

The National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS) helps understanding on what is happening to different habitats across the UK. They are looking for volunteers to take part by recording plants against a checklist in five small plots twice a year. They are particularly keen to hear from people who live in less populated areas - or who would like to visit a particular rural area twice a year for the purposes of the survey.

This scheme is a partnership between Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI); JNCC; Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and Plantlife, and is backed by the government.

The plots volunteers check are all within a kilometre area in a location the volunteer has chosen, which can be either close to where they live or further afield. The plants in the checklist have been chosen to be easy to identify, as well as being indicators of the health of habitats.

The survey is fun to do and there are three survey levels for volunteers to choose from, to enable as many people as possible to take part. Lots of support is available to people taking part in the scheme, through web-based and printed materials, email and telephone support, and free (optional) training days.

The live map on the NPMS website shows the squares that are available - blue squares are still available to adopt.

Free training workshops

These free 1-day 'Introduction to NPMS' workshops take place at venues around Scotland each year. They are open to anyone interested in the survey or who are already signed up. Go to http://www.npms.org.uk/content/training-and-events to register your details and book a place.

The remaining dates and venues for 2017 in Scotland are:

• Kindrogan FSC, nr Blairgowrie, Perthshire - Saturday 10 June
• Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire - Tuesday 13 June
• Kirkton, Crianlarich, Perthshire - Saturday 17 June

For information about the survey or to sign up, please visit www.npms.org.uk.  If you have specific queries please email jill.williams@plantlife.org.uk or support@npms.org.uk or phone (01786) 479382 or (01722) 342743.