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Success for initiative introduced to improve understanding of the local natural environment

Data for Nature, a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and delivered by Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust (SRWT), draws to a close at the end of this month. The 18 month long initiative aimed to address one of the key recommendations in the 2018 Sheffield State of Nature Report, which identified major data gaps in our knowledge of important local habitats and species. The project’s main objective was to lead a step change in how the Trust manages its nature reserves for conservation.

By creating an adaptive ecological monitoring framework linked to the management plans for the nature reserves and by creating a new data management system, staff and volunteers in the Trust are now better able to collect and analyse data about the species and habitats on our reserves. And thus enabling the Trust to make evidence based decisions on the management of our reserves. Examples of vast array of monitoring protocols embedded through Data for Nature included: counting flower spikes for bog asphodel and southern marsh orchids, listening for skylarks and nightjar, counting amount of dead wood and identifying tree species, looking for great crested newts in our ponds and for harvest mice nests and identifying fast moving dragonflies and damselflies.

The data collected through monitoring, as well as historic records, have been entered into a new species recording database, Nature Counts.  The tool has a dedicated website where members of the public can also upload details of the wildlife and plants they have seen in the area.  Information like this helps the Trust to get a clearer representation of how local flora and fauna are thriving or where they are in decline. The data collected also feeds in to the National Biodiversity Network database, NBN Atlas, where it is shared by ecologists across the cou