Our Coast, Our Sea - North East England Common Plant Survey

11 May 2010

The South Northumberland and Durham branches of the BSBI are about to embark on a 3 year ‘North East England Common Plant Survey’. The plan is to survey randomly chosen monads (1km x 1km squares) covering about 3% of the region over the next three years. The intention is to get a geographically unbiased census of the common landscape plants of the region. At the moment the data we have is difficult to interpret because it is very biased towards popular places and populated areas.

Quentin Groom has put together a website describing the survey method and with various other useful bits of information to help anyone who would like to take part. On the website you will find maps and satellite images to help you survey the sites. We also intend to add to the website so that you will know if a site has been visited.

You are encouraged to record all of the species you find in the squares, but the main aim of the survey is to gather information on the more common species. This makes this particular survey ideally suited to those who do not normally send records in (maybe because they find it too daunting or feel they are not expert enough) as it is the common species that are most important. Ideally each square will be surveyed by different recorders and at different times of the season so it does not matter so much if your list for the square is not a complete list. There are a lot of squares to cover so we need as many new people as possible contributing to the survey.