23 April 2023 Biodiversity Matters: How Can you help?

How can CLOUD members help in recording biodiversity?

Many CLOUD members are rightly concerned by the impact of development on biodiversity and we frequently include these concerns in objections to planning applications. But how can we make a genuine difference to the recording of wildlife in our area that would in turn influence planning decisions?

I was shocked to hear from Belinda Nixie, who has agreed to help CLOUD as our biodiversity champion, that the levels of wildlife recording for planning purposes are lamentably low. In the south Lancaster area species such as butterflies are seriously under-recorded and others like otters are not recorded at all but known to be present. She encourages all CLOUD members to join in a Citizen Science project and begin systematically recording what is seen in our area. Details on how to do this are in the rest of this Newsbrief.

Planning and Biodiversity

One of the requirements of larger planning applications is that various types of ecological assessments are undertaken, the simplest of which is a desk study produced by the marvellous people at the Lancashire Environment Record Network (LERN). When asked to produce a desk study, LERN staff search their database of over one million biological records for records within and around the immediate area affected by a planning application.

Biological records include plants like wildflowers and trees and animals from invertebrates like snails, spiders and insects to fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Historically, biological records were collated by County Recorders who then submitted the records to the county record centre. In the past, records would have been on paper but these days we can all record wildlife sightings electronically, often by app in real time. Some of these apps are also very good at suggesting an identification for the species being recorded.

iRecord is a UK website and the free app (https://irecord.org.uk/) that allows users to record wildlife sightings easily. There are four main elements to a biological record - species, date, location and recorder. When you use iRecord, you'll need to fill in these pieces of information to make a record. You can do this without setting up your own account in iRecord but, if you do set up an account (which is free of charge), you'll build up your own history of the things you've seen.

You can then search your own records and the entire database for species of interest or for a particular timeframe or for a geographical area (or a combination of some or all of those things).

It's important that biological records can be relied upon to be accurate so records are reviewed over time by expert volunteers whose aim it is to verify your record, that is, to say that they believe you've identified the species correctly. (If they think you've made a mistake they'll often message you to suggest a correction.)

Identification to species can be tricky, especially with insects, so having an accompanying photo is useful.

Recording wildlife is fun and it's such a valuable thing to do:

• It means that we can build a better picture of how our wildlife is faring, geographically and over time.

• We can track expansion or contraction of range of species and we can monitor the progress of non-native species.

• It's an absorbing pastime that makes us slow down and observe the world around us which is great for our own health and well-being.

• Our records will contribute to developers and planners having a fuller understanding of the true impact on biodiversity of proposed developments.

Belinda Nixie has agreed to help CLOUD as our Biodiversity Champion.

Here she explains the origins of her fascination with insects which are so vital to our future and so easy to destroy by destroying their habitats. Without them the entire food chain is destroyed.

Belinda Nixie’s story

Although I'm interested in all local wildlife, I'm fascinated by insects in all their glorious diversity of form and function. I was drawn into their world by a friend who pointed out a male scorpionfly on a shaded nettle one sunny day (photo below).

(Scorpionflies are harmless and they're not true flies. The male genitalia in some are held in a red capsule curled up over the abdomen which gives them their resemblance to a scorpion.)

That was about 12 years ago and my love of insects has increased with the years. Species diversity and insect numbers are declining - most likely due to climate change, habitat loss, pollution and insecticide use. And, as we lose insects, we'll lose other species, first those species that rely on insects for food (including, for example, Goldfinches which eat the seeds of pollinated plants like dandelions and thistles) and later top predators such as raptors.

Pollination isn't the only vital function insects perform and it worries me that we're not taking sufficient notice of the ecological damage we continue to do by not realising how vital they are.

I'm concerned about the way we measure biodiversity and then, how we would measure a net gain in biodiversity. Biological recording now will help establish a baseline from which we can only hope we improve. I'm also worried about manicured landscapes because they tend to be the ones that are least beneficial to wildlife. Traditional hedgerows are good for wildlife, acres of 'improved' pastures are not.