Summer is here and wildflowers have bloomed and for hundreds of plant-lovers across the UK, it has been other busy season conducting surveys for the National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS). This habitat-based plant monitoring scheme which aims to collect data to help us understand more about how our wild flower populations are changing year on year.
At the start of this year, the NPMS appointed a new Volunteer Manager, Dr Rachel Murphy. Louise Marsh from BSBI caught up with her at the start of the season to get her take on this important citizen science scheme.
LM: So Rachel, you were appointed at the start of this year, I bet your feet have hardly touched the ground since then! Before you tell us about the Scheme and how you support the volunteer surveyors, can you tell us about yourself – what were you doing before you came to the NPMS?
RM: Yes, it has been a real whirlwind over the last few months but I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the ins and outs of the scheme and of course the friendly and dedicated volunteers that make it possible.
Before starting with NPMS I spent 5 years as the Conservation Science Manager for MARINElife, a Dorset based marine conservation charity with a national and European reach. I coordinated and reported on a number of volunteer research programmes, including nationwide monthly ferry surveys, regional small boat programmes and public and partner driven photo-ID studies. All carried out with the support of hundreds of trained and enthusiastic volunteers, providing monitoring evidence and advocating the value of volunteer data for conservation and management. The main difference of course, we were monitoring cetaceans and seabirds, which have a habit of diving under the water or flying away when you’re trying to ID or count them!
Prior to this I studied for my PhD in Population and Community ecology at Leeds University, namely studying the behavioural ecology of Seabirds. So I’m now very much enjoying bringing my experience in citizen science and volunteer management to this role, and getting stuck in to this exciting and important scheme.
LM: Ah, so lots of opportunities to use those transferable skills you need to support the hundreds of NPMS volunteers! What would you say was the main thing that attracted you to your new role?
RM: I’m a huge advocate of the value of citizen science and volunteer data for monitoring, conservation and management. Together with the right methodologies, guidance and training, citizen scientists can make an excellent contribution to both society and scientific understanding, along with the importance of this work in public engagement and community pride in local natural history. I was incredibly impressed with not only the development of the scheme, with the partners and volunteers working together to create an accessible and inclusive scheme, which is very robust and maintains scientific rigour, but also the engagement and reach of the scheme which is still relatively young. There is clearly an appetite for volunteers wanting to share their experiences in a meaningful way and contribute to our knowledge and understand of national species trends and status.
LM: Can you remind readers what they need to do if they want to get involved in surveying for the NPMS, and how you support the volunteers at each of those stages?
RM: Its really easy for folk to get involved and hopefully start surveying with NPMS. By going to the website www.NPMS.org.uk you can find out about the scheme, take a look at the various resources and guidance on offer and then check the “Squares near you” map to see where there are currently scheme survey squares available for volunteers to adopt. There are currently around 2,000 squares (1,300 still available) nationwide, so there is every likelihood there is a square awaiting allocation in your area. Registering to become an NPMS volunteer takes just 5 minutes and once signed up you can request an available square of your choice from the map. Allocated volunteers are then sent our survey and guidance pack by post. This contains a really helpful colour species identification guide book, survey guidance notes, a species list of those species we record within the scheme and recording forms so you can get started. Once you register there’s a whole host of great (free) training sessions you can sign up for nationwide, from an introduction to the scheme and methodologies, plot and survey set up to species and habitat specific field ID courses. There's also a network of mentors on hand to lend support along with of course myself, and the raft of resources and guidance available to volunteers on the website. At every stage, there’s support on offer to help you contribute, you don't need to be an expert to get involved – in fact beginners are very welcome.
LM: How about the role of social media? What support is available there for NPMS volunteers?
RM: The NPMS has a busy page on Facebook acting as a useful noticeboard showing the scheme’s activities and news, and at the end of last year we set up the NPMS support group on Facebook. It is a closed group of registered NPMS volunteers and mentors - a friendly platform and point of contact between volunteers and a great space for sharing your experiences and advice. Membership of this group has tripled just since the launch of the spring season! There are plans afoot to set up an Instagram account for the NPMS and there’s also an active and friendly community of volunteers, mentors and partners on Twitter which you’ve been leading on, Louise – go on, tell the readers about that!
LM: It’s true, as part of BSBI’s partnership on the NPMS I’ve been helping out with the NPMS Twitter account. You can follow us @theNPMS and check out hashtags #NPMS or #NPMSvolunteers - you don’t need a Twitter account to see what people are talking about, you only need an account if you want to join the conversation.
Rachel, can you tell us how many people have signed up for the scheme this year, and how many NPMS surveyors are there in total across the UK?
RM: The scheme has a tremendous 1,344 volunteers currently allocated a square across the UK, each surveying between 1-5 squares. Over 1,500 1km2 survey squares are currently allocated to volunteers. It’s a huge effort! Just in the last year (since April 2018), over 1,300 volunteers have registered with the scheme and around 450 volunteers have been allocated a square in that time. Over 200 of these allocations have happened just since the start of January this year, really showing the building momentum and engagement in this scheme.
LM: Are there any parts of the UK where you’d really like to see more people getting involved?
RM: We would love to see greater uptake of volunteers and square coverage in Scotland, namely the West coast, South west Scotland and also the highlands. Unsurprisingly these areas shown as “blue” on the map comprise some remote and tricky terrain, so we have been building relationships with the likes of the Cairngorms National Park and the South West Scotland Environment Information Centre (SWSEIC), among others to help us to promote the scheme and train in these areas. Other regions include North East England, i.e. the North York Moors and Northumberland, Central Wales, Lincolnshire and Norfolk. We’re building great relationships in many of these areas with stakeholders and landowners such as the National Trust, the MoD and a number of the National Parks. So we’re all ready for new volunteer surveyors when they register!
But we don’t just think about regions when it comes to increasing coverage. There are certain habitat types we would like to see better represented within the scheme, such as coastal habitats, bogs and fens and montane habitats.
LM: There are three different “levels” at which people can take part in the scheme, from ‘Wildflower’ level, where you are just looking for 25-30 species (all fairly easy to ID) and which is ideal for the less experienced botanist (taking part in the NPMS is actually a great way to build up your ID skills!) right up to ‘Inventory’ level – that’s where you record all the plants you can spot - which is maybe more suited to experienced botanists. Is there any other way that more experienced botanists can contribute to the scheme?
RM: That’s right, the level system means that the scheme is inclusive and there are plenty of opportunities to learn and develop your skills. There are certainly other ways more experienced surveyors can help with the scheme also. Within the NPMS we have regional volunteer mentors offering advice to other, less experienced volunteers on anything from survey set up to species ID. This can be in the form of contributions to discussions on our Facebook group or by becoming a regional point of contact someone that volunteers in their area can contact with queries about their survey. While there is a raft of guidance and resources on the NPMS webpage, we appreciate that often it’s easier to just to talk to someone thorough your query. And while I’m more than happy to take queries via phone and email, I understand that sometimes a local perspective can be most helpful or a more experienced botanist is required for a particularly puzzling specimen! The mentor programme is something we are planning on developing this year, by filling regional gaps and offering more support to mentors and regional volunteer groups to really help build that volunteer community feel. We certainly don’t want volunteers to feel that they are carrying out their surveys in isolation, but are very much part of a bigger group working together. NPMS mentors will be really important in this aim, however much time they may be able to contribute.
LM: What about when it comes to entering our data? Even if surveyors manage to find and identify the wildflowers in their square, uploading data can be a bit tricky for those of us who are not very tech-savvy! Is there help available for anyone who gets stuck? Fore-warned is fore-armed!
RM: I certainly wouldn’t be put off by online data entry. Once you’ve done it once you’ll know for future submissions. Plus, we have lots of help and support on this front - our volunteers have made the effort to go out and record on their plots so we want to make sure they can submit that all important data so that it can be used! The resources page on our website has guidance as to how to set up plots on your online profile as well as how to submit data, including Youtube videos that walk you through the process. I think often watching done makes a real difference. Once at the point of data entry, the online forms themselves try to replicate the recording forms used in the field as much as possible, so that it’s just a case of transferring the information over. We also now have an NPMS mobile App available for download for both Apple and Android for those volunteers wishing to use one. This means that once your account and plots are set up on your desktop, you can record your survey data there and then in field. If you still have any trouble at all, we are here to offer help and support by email or phone. No question is too small!
