THE ART OF MONITORING GRASSLAND

Sunday August 22^nd was a glorious sunny day. Six of us met with Stephen Blow and Janine Morris at Fleecefaulds to be trained in the art of monitoring grassland. Janine has been doing this for the Trust locally, thanks to a 2 year sponsorship from the Heritage Lottery Fund, but eventually volunteers will need to take over. This training day aimed to show us what to do and what to look for.

The monitoring Janine does helps keep track of the effectiveness of using our ‘flying flock’ of sheep to encourage biodiversity. The grassland at Fleecefaulds has been monitored annually since the sheep were first introduced 3 years ago. Janine began the day by demonstrating how she has used quadrats to record species diversity. There are 20 set points in the reserve and she began by explaining how they were determined in the first instance, how a quadrat is placed for repeat monitoring, how species are identified and recorded and what changes might be expected as a result of the grazing activities of the sheep.

We were then given a chance to try it for ourselves, in the species-rich southern compartment. It was difficult to concentrate as we were surrounded by such a host of butterflies, bees and hoverflies [and the occasional wasp]. Apart from problems with grass recognition the morning went well. After a picnic lunch we set off back uphill to a much less friendly area and struggled with rank vegetation, too high to set the quadrats easily. Lack of diversity made counting easier but much less enjoyable. Hogweed, Sticky Willie, thistles and other unfriendly plants made life difficult. However, we learned many useful lessons and by the time we arrived back at the cars maybe even felt confident that we could at least do something in the future to help keep track of progress.

All in all, it was an excellent day.

Elspeth Smith