English Nature LNR info etc..

[ollyk]

Hi folks I want to find out what specific species of flora / fauna at a Local Nature Reserve so went to a link I have previously used that would normally allow exactly that.
Said link is now broken and it would seem English Nature has redesigned their website. All I can find are maps relating to specific LNR's and SSSI's without the accompanying data previously available. Have I missed the obvious or have these files now been removed from public access?

Any help appreciated.

Olly.

[charlieb]

The NBN Gateway (link: National Biodiversity Network Gateway) can show you a species list for sites.

[ollyk]

Hi Charlie thanks for that! You know I have been using that site for the last week and didn't see the link on the main page Couldn't see wood for trees and all that

[ollyk]

Spoke too soon - seems the sites I am looking for are not there.

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

[poschiavanus]

Be careful of the NBN species lists for a site. They appear to be just a listing of the species found in the relevant 10km grid square. So one special site in the square with, say, a range of orchids, will result in all sites appearing to have lots of orchids. Only if someone has provided site lists on NBN would I trust this information. Shame as it would be nice to have such information before visiting a given site.

If a site has a voluntary warden then it's not unlikely that there may be a plant list on a website somewhere. If its local government owned you might try the local Biological Records centre. Similarly if its owned by the local Wildlife Trust or similar try asking the local office.

A surprisingly useful source of information on local plants etc, are large scale planning applications (e.g., for road works, flood defences, new housing developments etc). Usually they will have an environmental impact assessment which will include things like Bird, Bat, wildflower, newts, slow worms and general invertebrate surveys. So if you're in or near a town there's loads of stuff on the council's planning website. One drawback to these documents is that all the info. is copyright so be careful how you use it: particularly any maps included.

[eeyore]

English nature dont exist anymore - they were merged with the countryside agency and rural development service in late 07 to form natural england

this is their new website - and link to the LNRs page

Natural England - Local Nature Reserves

[Adam Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by poschiavanus

Be careful of the NBN species lists for a site.

NBN is also reliant on records being sent in and until fairly recently their UK map for Kingfisher distribution showed that it was only present in Devon.
I use it to check whether a species is present in the square where my site is situated. More often than not it isn't even though I know the species is present.

Cheers,

Adam