Learn new skills to fight threats to local species!

A new citizen science project to survey the state of nature in the Chilterns, is offering training courses to volunteers to help them identify species and to use surveying techniques.

As part of the five-year Chalk, Cherries and Chairs Landscape Partnership Scheme (CCC), funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and spearheaded by the Chilterns Conservation Board, ‘Tracking the Impact’ has now begun volunteer recruitment as part of its aim to survey birds, butterflies and plants across the Chilterns. The CCC has teamed up with Butterfly Conservation, British Trust for Ornithology, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Plantlife, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust and the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Environmental Records Centre to deliver this exciting project.

Following on from the State of Nature report released earlier this year, the project is calling for local enthusiasts and experts in the Chilterns to get involved and ‘own their patch’. Working across 50, 1km survey squares, the project will dovetail with existing national recording schemes (Breeding Bird Survey, Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey and National Plant Monitoring Scheme) to bolster coverage in a ground-breaking new partnership. The project will offer opportunities to explore new sites in the area and the data will be used to track trends across the landscape and inform practical woodland, grassland and farmland habitat management projects.

Unique to this project is it’s mentoring programme – for those who can identify quite a few birds/ butterflies/ plants but want to learn more about surveying these local species. This project aims to collect key data and tell the story of the landscape, through understanding the relationship between different species groups.

If your interest is in birds, butterflies and/or plants, we are offering exciting new opportunities to:
* take on new survey squares and get involved in national recording
   schemes
* receive training in species ID and survey techniques
* offer training and support to new volunteer surveyors

The project will last initially for four years and will start in spring 2020. The project is looking for volunteers to carry out surveys during the spring and summer and would love to hear from you if you:
* are an experienced surveyor and are keen to take on a new patch
* have some species ID experience but would like some training to help you
  develop
* are relatively new to surveying and want some training on specific survey
   methods

You can register your interest in volunteering by emailing Nick Marriner, the project lead, directly: nmarriner@chilternsaonb.org