Surveying Stancombe

There are many aspects to the Glorious Grasslands project, and this time of year is when botanical surveys are carried out. I only have basic ID skills, but jumped at the chance to get some training with Anna. The location was the very beautiful Stancombe at the foot of Stinchcombe Hill.

We used a grid square mapping technique by dividing the area into squares of 100m x 100m.

Each numbered square was then walked through and we shouted out when we saw indicator species. When you reach the end of a square, you start again.

This was a large site and there was an excellent array of the indicator species. Everything except knapweed (surprisingly) and yellow rattle. This information will go into a report by Anna to support a grant application to put some of the land under stewardship. Hopefully a grazing regime can be recommended to meet the needs of the farmer and maximise biodiversity.

In the evening we held the inaugural Dursley Green Drinks at Kingshill House. This was organised by me and Jo, who between us know enough people interested in conservation and sustainability. It was an experiment to see who would turn up. We had about 25 people there, and created a lot of connections and chatter. This is something we will continue to hold on a monthly basis.