We are thrilled to announce that our Autumn Recorders' Conference is back and set to take place on Saturday, 19th October 2024, at Oracle, Thames Valley Park, Reading. Join us for a day packed with knowledge, inspiration, and community spirit.
Get ready to immerse yourself in a day filled with captivating talks, interactive workshops, and engaging discussions led by renowned experts in the field. The conference aims to foster knowledge sharing, inspire action, and promote collaboration among like-minded individuals.
Location
Oracle, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1RA
Tickets
This includes lunch and refreshments. Booking is required, and the final date for bookings or refunds is Friday 11th October
Programme
We are still finalising the programme. Please keep an eye on this page and social media for updates.
We are still finalising the programme. Please keep an eye on this page for further updates.
Talk: Harveet Purewal, TVERC Micro-Intern Student
The effect of climate change on the distribution of the Brown hairstreak over time
Harveet is a current biology student at Oxford University and has completed a week long internship with TVERC looking at possible distribution shifts in the Brown hairstreak due to climate change and its implications for the conservation of the species.
Talk: Rob Curtis, TVERC Berkshire Biodiversity Officer
Berkshire Local Wildlife Sites Update
Talk: Catriona Bass
‘Towards a Protocol for community-based plant propagation for landscape-scale meadow restoration’
Organisations: Long Mead Foundation’s Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project & Nature Recovery Network
Catriona Bass will be drawing evidence from Long Mead Foundation’s Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project and Nature Recovery Network’s community propagation of rare and slow-growing plants for their community-driven, landscape-scale restoration of floodplain meadows, now in its 6th Year. The talk will cover both data the project has collected on the community propagation of individual native species (eg seed storage, germination rates, growing times, seed viability of individual species) as well as their learning on using recycled materials and creating their own zero miles compost.
Talk: Dr Julian Parfitt
‘South East Strategic Reservoir Option: Ancient and Veteran Trees, Bats, Birds and Fungi’
The proposed Abingdon Reservoir (SESRO) would occupy 4.5 square miles of floodplain within the River Ock catchment, with a water surface roughly equivalent in size to Gatwick Airport. Significant biodiversity net gain has been claimed by Thames Water from a desk-based exercise and limited surveys undertaken during the winter of 2021/22.
To provide independent scrutiny of Thames Water’s BNG claims, a baseline habitat survey and condition assessment was carried out during the period March to July 2024. Results indicate that Thames Water’s BNG claims were dependent on a significant under-estimation of the area’s baseline biodiversity.
These conclusions have been supported by extensive surveys across the site, data acquisition from farmers and the use of LandApp to geo-reference data and to recalculate BNG from the revised habitat baselines. This presentation will focus on the fieldwork and recording undertaken during 2024 as well as highlighting some of the wildlife that this threatened green corridor supports.
Dr Julian Parfitt has worked in the environmental sector for over 40 years and has been a keen naturalist for a lot longer. As an environmental consultant and academic he has worked as an expert advisor on waste and resource management issues for major retailers, Defra and the European Commission. Now semi-retired he works as a volunteer at RSPB Otmoor and has devoted the last few months to recording the biodiversity across the SESRO area. To carry out the fieldwork he travels by mountain bike and, to this end, has cycled nearly 500 miles since the beginning of March.
Talk: Rosie Street, Berkshire Nature Recovery Strategy: progress update
Find out about the last 12 months of work on our Berkshire LNRS, and how you can next get involved before publication.
Workshop: Marcus Simmons, The Oxfordshire Nature Project, Community Action Groups Oxfordshire
How free interactive mapping tools can help local species recording
Good species recording work often calls for defining, revising, sharing or printing data on which areas are of interest, what things are present in each area, and other aspects such as access, ownership, other conditions. It’s also often important to show accurate locations of observations and photographs, and to create and review data entries collaboratively. Frequently there’s a need to link with to current and planned interventions or development proposals.
The smart way to create and interact with all this is to use an interactive mapping tool that shows your information in various ways, displayed against a chosen map background. It can also be valuable to make interactive view-only maps for easy access by the public, including linking or embedding in web or social-media pages.
This workshop will introduce free, user-friendly mapping tools and tips for how to easily achieve all these things. It will include a good amount of time for questions and discussions, and a briefing sheet you can have at the end.
Speed Updates:
Give a 5-minute talk on what you/your group are getting up to in your local area. Whether you want to talk about specific species/sites/habitats, recording projects, or conservation campaigns, we would love to hear from you!
Displays:
There will be a range of display stands from different recording and conservation groups which you can visit during refreshment and lunch breaks. Please indicate on your booking form if you would like to bring a display and/or leaflets.
