Download - BSBI Annual Review 31 March 2016€¦ · 2BSBI Annual Review 31 March 2016 BSBI’s objectives are to: – promote the study, understanding and enjoyment of British and Irish wild

BSBI Annual Review31 March 2016

2 BSBI Annual Review 31 March 2016

BSBI’s objectives are to:– promote the study, understanding and

enjoyment of British and Irish wildplants and stoneworts;

– support, encourage and participate inresearch into the taxonomy, ecology,biogeography and conservation of theBritish and Irish flora; and

– co-operate with Continental and otherbotanists in matters of mutual interestand concern.

BSBI has a long and influential publicationshistory, including plant distribution Atlases, IDHandbooks and our scientific journal, NewJournal of Botany. Our research, training andoutreach programmes benefit botanists acrossBritain and Ireland, whether beginners orexperts. BSBI pioneers new approaches to datacollection and distribution mapping, and hasbecome one of the world’s largest contributorsof biological records. BSBI’s distribution

mapping projects record new plant arrivals andchanges in the distributions of both nativeand non-native plants.

These achievements are only possible thanksto our many volunteer members, whoserecords are validated by BSBI’s network of 186volunteer County Recorders and more than100 specialist Referees, and to our voluntaryofficers, committee members and trustees,who are responsible for the governance of thesociety.

BSBI has a team of 13 paid staff andcontractors who support our volunteers andkeep the society active and functioningsmoothly. This Annual Review includesmessages and updates from many of thesestaff members and volunteer officers, tellingyou about our activities and achievementsduring 2015-6, starting with a message fromBSBI President John Faulkner.

Contents02 BSBI: Who We Are and What We Do 10 Publicity and Outreach03 Message from the President 11 Botanical Publications04 BSBI Staff, Science and Projects 13 Financial Report to 31st March 201606 Training and Education 16 Thank You07 Encouraging an Interest in Plants

BSBI: Who We Are and What We Do The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland is for everyonewho is interested in the wild plants of Britain and Ireland.We have welcomed both professional and amateur memberssince 1836, and the society remains the biggest and mostactive organisation devoted to the study of botany inBritain, Ireland, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man.

Cover photo – Crested Cow-wheat ( Melampyrum cristatum)

BSBI Annual Review 31 March 2016 3

It is in this broad spread of effort, and the pre-eminent position of volunteers, that ourgreatest strength lies. BSBI has remarkablemembers. They are very diverse and many haveextraordinary skills – some innate, some self-taught, and some learned from others. As thestudy of plant taxonomy and systematicsdeclines in universities and other institutions, sothe position of our Societies and its membersbecomes ever more important in perpetuatingbotanical field skills and knowledge about wildplants. Training, educating and raisingawareness of wild plants are all becoming moreimportant features of our work.

This Annual Review summarises our work in2015-6. The lion’s share at present is gearedtowards Atlas 2020, which will be acomprehensive study of the state of the wildflora of Britain and Ireland in the earlydecades of the 21st century. The scale of this

project is huge: thousands of botanistscovering tens of thousands of grid squares togenerate millions of records. Almost all of therecording is done by volunteers giving freely oftheir time and expenses. Ultimately, we hopeto make the information available as widely aspossible to maximise the public benefit.

There are of course some costs in managingthe BSBI, servicing its members, trainingbotanists, and maintaining the BSBI’s database,publications and other scientific assets. Thesecosts are tiny in relation to the scale of ourwork, but they are absolutely essential to ouroperation. I am therefore pleased to record ourgrateful thanks to all our funders, sponsors anddonors, and to give them an assurance thatwhat they give us is magnified many times overin the process of converting into our output”.

Message from the President

BSBI’s new Articles of Association and Standing Orders arenow firmly in place. It is a limited company and a charity,and its governing body is the Board of Trustees. Manypeople, both staff and members, have put a great deal ofwork into making these changes happen, and into strivingto capitalise on them in the interest of botanical science.

John Faulkner and botanists at Binevenagh, Northern Ireland on the BSBI Summer Meeting 2015


BSBI Staff:Jane Houldsworth Head of OperationsKevin Walker Head of ScienceBob Ellis Projects OfficerPaul Green Welsh Officer (to June 2015 job share)

Gwynn Ellis Membership SecretaryTom Humphrey Database OfficerAlex Lockton Website & Network OfficerClive Lovatt Administration OfficerMaria Long Irish OfficerLouise Marsh Publicity & Outreach OfficerJim McIntosh Scottish OfficerPolly Spencer-Vellacott Welsh Officer

(from August 2015)Peter Stroh Scientific Officer

As ever, a dedicated team of recorders,supported by BSBI staff and officers,continued to provide data of the highestquality, vital for achieving our scientific andconservation objectives. We have also forgedpartnerships with other organisations tolaunch new projects to deepen ourunderstanding of changes in our flora. Thisyear’s achievements include:

Atlas 2020Recording effort notched up another gear in2015 in anticipation of the next Atlas, withnational and local field meetings held acrossBritain and Ireland. Updated resources forAtlas 2020 Recorders were made available viathe website, and our network of CountyRecorders continued to do a splendid job co-ordinating the efforts of volunteersthroughout Britain and Ireland.http://bsbi.org/atlas-2020

National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS)BSBI worked throughout the year alongsidepartners from the Centre for Ecology &Hydrology and Plantlife to deliver this scheme,launched in March 2015 with funding from theJoint Nature Conservation Committee. TheNPMS enables volunteers at all skill levels toget involved in recording and BSBI has beenleading on methodology and assessment of theresults, as well as providing training inidentification skills. The scheme aims to providequantitative data on the status of widespreadplants and the habitats on which they depend.http://bsbi.org/npms

Threatened Plants Project (TPP)Analysis of data for this flagship projectinvestigating 4000 populations of 50 threat-ened species across Britain and Ireland wasclose to completion by the end of March 2016. http://bsbi.org/threatened-plants-project

Species AccountsBy March 2016, 56 Species Accounts had beenmade available via the website, providinganother valuable resource for botanists, with24 further accounts in preparation.http://bsbi.org/species-accounts

Irish Species ProjectWork concluded on this two-year project, co-ordinated by BSBI’s Committee for Ireland, tostudy eight species of conservation concern inNorthern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.The Irish Species Project used a similarsampling approach and methodology to theTPP, with volunteers revisiting historiclocalities to collect information includingpopulation size, habitat quality and manage-ment, and current or perceived threats. http://bsbi.org/ireland

BSBI: Staff, Science and ProjectsWith 13 full-time or part-time staff and contractors, we areable to provide more effective support to our members andensure efficient management of the society and its finances.


BSBI Database (DDb)Supported by this recording activity, our in-house database of plant records has continuedto expand. 2.1 million records were addedduring the year ending March 2016, takingthe total to 31 million. Our Database OfficerTom Humphrey has continued to refine thesoftware, adding new reporting and datavalidation tools and improving usability. Over

the past year more than 300 people accessedthe database directly, alongside many otherswho made one-off requests for BSBI data.The database supports the ongoing recordingand validation work for Atlas 2020 andprovides external users with reliable data foracademic research, land management andconservation uses.

Field of Common Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) at Birling Gap, East Sussex


Our Training & Education Committee workedwith the Publicity & Outreach Officer to bringsuccessful grant applicants into the fold, byoffering each of them a guest spot on theBSBI News & Views blog. Eight students tookup this invitation and two went on to produceposters and attend the society’s AnnualExhibition Meeting.

We had a second reprint of So You Want toKnow Your Plants, a guide to getting startedin plant identification, which can bedownloaded free of charge from the BSBIwebsite.

The Identiplant on-line plant identificationcourse, supported by BSBI and the Field

Studies Council, went from strength tostrength and is rapidly becoming a nationalstandard for new botanists.

Field Identification Skills Certificates (FISCs) ranin Leicester, Kent and Shrewsbury and we weredelighted that all were fully subscribed. Mostparticipants were consultants who use theirFISC grade as an endorsement of theirbotanical field skills – a useful personalmarketing tool in the jobs market – but FISCsare open to anyone to take, whether amateuror professional botanists, beginners, improversor experts. We were also delighted that NaturalEngland adopted FISCs as their industrystandard in assessing botanical field skills.

Training and EducationBSBI awarded 50 training grants in 2015 plus conferencebursaries and Plant Study Grants, and we continued to supportthe Field Studies Council’s Young Darwin Scholarships.

Eyebright workshop at Treborth Botanic Garden


Volunteers from BSBI’s Meetings &Communications Committee including Hon.Field Meetings Secretary Jon Shanklin (takingover from Dr Jill Sutcliffe) worked inconjunction with country officers, localvolunteers and the Training & EducationCommittee to deliver this programme.Meetings ranged from day-long excursions toweek-long residential events and, while Atlas2020 was the main focus, training meetingswere also offered for both beginners and themore experienced botanist. Many thanks aredue to all who contributed to making the2015 programme such a success.

BSBI Field Meetings57 field meetings were held during the periodcovered by this review, including:

– 24 training meetings including ones aimedat beginners in plant identification;

– five workshops on challenging plant groups:Atriplexes, brambles, dandelions, rushes andsedges;

– four week-long recording meetings based atGlynhir and Caerdeon, (Wales) and Shetlandand Ayrshire (Scotland);

– 12 field meetings in the Republic and Northof Ireland, which also contributed recordsfor the Irish Species Project.

EnglandMeetings were held across England fromDorset to Sussex to Northumberland, withlonger Atlas 2020 recording meetings in theBrecks, Dorset and Yorkshire. Trainingmeetings ranged from difficult groups such asbrambles and dandelions, to general interest

and some, such as Arthur Copping’s ‘Grasses’,were targeted at beginners.

The Annual Exhibition Meeting and AnnualGeneral Meeting were held in November at theNatural History Museum, London, offering astimulating mix of 46 exhibits, nine talks andguided tours of the herbarium and the wildlifegarden; it attracted a record number of morethan 200 participants.

WalesThe 53rd Welsh AGM, with a theme of‘Peatlands’, was held at Plas Tan-y-Bwlch inSnowdonia and attracted botanists from allover Britain to hear the excellent talks, withkeynote lecture by Dr Peter Jones, and enjoy adiverse range of excursions leading as usual tonew and important plant records.

The ten recording meetings held in Walesincluded four which lasted several days: thetraditional weeks at Glynhir, Carmarthenshireand Caerdeon, Merionethshire, were joined bymeetings in Flintshire and Denbighshire.

A second Eyebright (Euphrasia) workshop washeld at Treborth Botanic Garden in March2016 and proved very popular.

BSBI activities and VCRs in Wales weresupported by Welsh Officers Paul Green (untilJune 2015) and Polly Spencer-Vellacott (fromAugust 2015). Local botany groups acrossWales also continued to actively support manyof the vice-county recorders.

Two issues of the Welsh Bulletin wereproduced, including all the new Welsh PlantRecords. Work on Rare Plant Registers forGlamorgan and Pembrokeshire continued apace

Encouraging an Interest in PlantsIn 2015 we again offered a varied programme of fieldmeetings and indoor events, encompassing the whole ofBSBI’s geography and offering botanists at all skill levelsopportunities for recording, training, networking andcontributing to botanical research.

Ryan Clark enthuses a young botanist at Big Nature Day 2015


and electronic updates were provided forRadnorshire, Montgomeryshire and Anglesey.

IrelandAn ambitious programme of 12 meetings washeld throughout the year, including manytwo- and three- day events aimed at helpingwith recording for Atlas 2020. The MayoRecording Week, held from 27th July to 3rdAugust was a huge success: 42 botanistscollected almost 11,000 records from a totalof 132 monads and across 33 hectads.

A two day conference held at the BotanicGardens, Glasnevin in April was well attendedby seasoned members and, as one third of thedelegates were not members, BSBI membershipin Ireland gained a consequent boost. The BSBIAnnual Summer Meeting, based at theUniversity of Ulster over four days in June2015, also attracted newcomers who went onto attend local recording meetings.

VCRs were kept busy filling in gaps in thedistribution of plants in their VCs for Atlas2020 and BSBI activities in Ireland continuedto benefit from the enthusiasm of Irish Officer,Dr. Maria Long, who offered help and supportto VCRs and kept them up to date via regularnewsletters. Irish Botanical News, under theeditorship of Paul Green since 2009,celebrated its 25th year.

More than 230 data sheets were returned forthe Irish Species Project and almost 60recorders participated, with half of them non-VCRs, from 29 vice-counties. Analysis startedin 2015-6 on a species -by- species basis.

BSBI worked with the National BiodiversityData Centre on a partnership project recordinga suite of spring plants.http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/projects/vascular-plants/

Scotland Site Condition Monitoring of SSSIs for theirvascular plants remains an important aspect ofBSBI fieldwork in Scotland and in 2015fieldwork was completed and reports drafted byvolunteers with help from Scottish Officer JimMcIntosh for six sites including Eigg-Cleadaleand Glas Tulaichean. BSBI volunteers alsoworked with climbing guides to find andmonitor rare plant populations on Ben Nevis aspart of the continuing North-face project.

Atlas 2020 recording was boosted further byanother year of survey for the CairngormNational Park Recording Project with 30,000records gathered, digitised and uploaded to theBSBI Database. Residential recording weeks inShetland and Ayrshire also contributed towardsAtlas 2020 coverage and special mentions go toAndy Amphlett and Stewart Taylor whocollected an amazing 15,000 records inEasterness. Andy has also been providingsupport across the VCR network, particularly ondata and its validation.

Rare Plant Registers were published for WestPerth, by Liz Lavery & Jane Jones, and forOrkney by John Crossley & Eric Meek.

In May an Introduction to Recording day atRBGE was well attended, while beginners’workshops and follow-up field meetings inIdentifying Plant Families were held in Invernessand St Andrews. A total of 41 beginnersparticipated and particular thanks are due toFaith Anstey and her outreach team.

Another very successful BSBI/BSS ScottishAnnual Meeting was held at RBGE in Novemberorganised by Liz Lavery’s team of volunteersand featuring a wide range of interestingexhibits from recorders, the BSBI PhotographicCompetition arranged by Natalie Harmsworthand a well-received keynote from KenThompson on Aliens in the British Flora.

Encouraging an Interest in Plants (continued)


We shifted our focus to working with partnersat national level and providing display materialfor local recording events and Bioblitzes, ratherthan attending high-profile public events,although we did participate in the NaturalHistory Museum’s Big Nature Day in May2015. We are very grateful to the manyvolunteers who contributed their time andenthusiasm to help with presenting exhibitsand promoting the society at all these outreachevents.

Our network of local recording groupscontinued to flourish in 2015-6, with anincreasing number of local groups having theirown webpages hosted by or accessible via theBSBI website. Some groups also set up theirown blogs and social media platforms to keeplocal botanists updated on activities andresources in their area.

The BSBI News & Views blog continued toattract a wide readership, with an average ofaround 400 visits each day. Increasingly, postswere provided by County Recorders, localgroup administrators, staff and officers and“ordinary members” across Britain and Ireland,offering them all a chance to share the latestnews about BSBI projects, reports on nationalevents and local activities, and links to plantID resources. By the end of March 2016, blogsby more than 50 BSBI members were alsolisted on the News & Views blog. http://bsbi.org/news-views

We continued to build our social media profileand by the end of March 2016, more than8,000 organisations and individuals were usingthe BSBI Twitter account to keep up with thelatest botanical news from BSBI and partnerorganisations. Regular promotions such as theweekly #wildflowerhour on Twitter and thelaunch in March 2016 of a ‘Wildflower of theMonth’ slot on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Out forthe Weekend’ programme helped newaudiences take their first steps in plantidentification. Our Facebook page alsocontinued to attract interest and helped usreach a different audience, with several new(young) administrators contributing their time,energy and enthusiasm.https://twitter.com/BSBIbotanyhttps://www.facebook.com/BSBI2011

With the help of volunteer Ryan Clark andHead of Science Kevin Walker, our fifth NewYear Plant Hunt in January 2016 was the mostsuccessful yet. We received 432 listscontaining 9,265 records from 865 botanistsin 108 vice-counties across Britain andIreland, and they recorded 653 species inbloom during the New Year holiday. Ourincreasingly popular social media platformsand growing network of print and broadcastmedia contacts made it easier to publicise ouractivities and we were able to achievewidespread media coverage and engage andenthuse new (and younger) audiences. http://bsbi.org/new-year-plant-hunt

Publicity and OutreachIn 2015 our Publicity and Outreach initiative, launched inJune 2012, continued to find innovative and cost-effectiveways to raise BSBI’s profile and build up ourcommunications infrastructure.


PeriodicalsVolume 5 of our scientific journal New Journalof Botany featured 19 scientific papers or shortnotes from north-west European authors,alongside Book Reviews and Plant Records. Ourprevious publishers, Maney Publishing, werebought out by Taylor & Francis in 2015 andBSBI welcomed the transition to publication bya major international publishing house. At theend of 2015, Richard Gornall stood down asEditor-in-Chief and was replaced by IanDenholm, following the latter’s handing over ofthe BSBI presidency to John Faulkner at theAGM in November 2015. We also moved inJanuary 2016 to publishing New Journal ofBotany on-line as default, with the option topay £10 per annum to receive print copies.

BSBI News continued to be issued three timesa year with the editors, Gwynn Ellis and TrevorJames, ensuring a high standard and variedrange of articles. The BSBI Year Book 2015contained information about BSBI and itsofficers, committees, vice-county recorders andreferees, as well as comprehensive fieldmeeting reports and obituaries.

Botanical Publications

BooksJune 2015 saw the publication of a major newBSBI title, The Hybrid Flora of the BritishIsles by Clive Stace, Chris Preston and DavidPearman – this ground-breaking publicationwill set the standard for other hybrid Florasaround the world and has already been hailedas “remarkable”.

A new BSBI Handbook for the identificationof Oenothera (Evening-primroses) waspublished in 2015, while work continuedapace on a Handbook for Alchemilla (Lady’s-mantles) and neared completion onHandbooks for Euphrasia (Eyebrights) andViola (Violets and Pansies).

The Flora of Derbyshire, which benefited froma BSBI grant, was also published in 2015.

Summerfield BooksSummerfield Books have been a regularexhibitor at Society events this year selling thelatest botanical publications and continuing toexpand their range of natural history titles, aswell as field equipment. BSBI members receivea discount on all BSBI Handbooks and otherselected titles. www.summerfieldbooks.com


Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) flowering in south Wales


further deficit in the current year and, as wesaid last year, whilst this is sustainable in theshort-term, it is not a medium- or long-termstrategy. We are continuing to develop acloser understanding of the Society’s capacityto derive income from its two principal assets,the botanical expertise of its volunteernetwork throughout Britain and Ireland, andthe intellectual property entailed in thebotanical records largely generated by thosemembers and accumulated in the Society’sDistribution Database.

Financial Report 31 March 2016

Chris MetherellTrustee/Honorary General Secretary

Treasurer’s Report

As BSBI is currently without a Treasurer, withTerry Swainbank retiring and the prospectivereplacement not yet in office, we, theundersigned, have prepared this Treasurer’sReport. We would like to thank Terry for hiswise guidance for much of the year inquestion.

Last year’s report set out the decisions that wehad made in using our reserves in furtheranceof our charitable aims, and the steps that wewere taking to implement these decisions. Theresults for this year reflect that path, with afurther substantial though reduced deficit of£128.4K (2015: £177.8K) on our operations.This deficit was increased by largely unrealisedlosses on our investments of £73.1K (2015:gain £42.1K), making the final deficit for theyear of £201.5K (2015: £135.7K). It should benoted that the markets continued to bevolatile after the year-end and by the end ofJuly 2016 the gross investment losses(revaluation deficit) for the year ended 31March 2016 had more than been recovered.

During and just after the end of the financialyear ended 31 March 2016, we have been ableto do considerable work in rationalising ourstaff structure, but even so we expect to run a

Ian DenholmChair of the BSBI Board of Trustees

David PearmanTrustee

Oblong-leaved Sundew (Drosera intermedia)


Resources Expended

Cost of Generating Funds

Membership Administration,

Publicity and Investment Management49,571 60,959

Charitable Activities

Botanical Survey and Interpretation 279,634 275,848

Botanical Education 41,266 30,954

Botanical Publications and Website 113,403 93,446

Governance Costs 42,704 57,485

526,578 518,692

BSBI DRAFT SUMMARISED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL Year ended Year endedACTIVITIES For the year ended 31 March 2016 31 March 2016 31 March 2015

Incoming resources £ £

Voluntary Income

Subscriptions and Donations 85,621 70,360

Core Grants 90,151 64,715

Legacies and Development Fund Donations 25,000 33,174

Investment Income 41,130 43,450

Charitable Activities Income

Botanical Survey and Interpretation 89,171 94,225

Botanical Education 30,935 13,949

Botanical Publications and Website 36,148 21,042

398,156 340,915


Net Outgoing Resources

General and Endowment Funds (128,172) (176,822)

Restricted Funds (250) (955)

Total Net Deficit before (Losses)/Gains on Investments (128,422) (177,777)

Other (Losses)/Gains

(Losses)/Gains on Investments (73,115) 42,065

Deficit for the Year (201,537) (135,712)


BSBI DRAFT SUMMARISED BALANCE SHEETAs at 31 March 2016 31 March 2016 31 March 2015

Fixed Assets £ £

Investments - at Market Value 948,522 1,180,698


Current Assets

Stocks 30,351 12,993

Debtors, Prepayments and Accrued Income 47,188 53,569

Cash at Bank and on Deposit 69,499 69,840

Other Liabilities

Creditors, Accruals and Deferred Income (128,758) (148,761)

966,802 1,168,339

Represented by

Endowment Funds 363,271 387,421

Restricted Income Funds 4,971 5,221

Unrestricted Funds 598,560 775,697

966,802 1,168,339

Notes to the summarised accounts

The summarised accounts presented here arenot the full statutory accounts.

The full statutory Annual Report and Accountsof the Botanical Society of Britain and Irelandmade up to its reporting date of 31 March 2016will be posted on the BSBI website in earlyOctober 2016, and filed with the Charityregulators and at Companies House after thecompletion of independent scrutiny andapproval by the Board of Trustees. A paper

copy will be posted to any member onapplication.

In line with the requirements of the newCharities Statement of Recommended Practicebased on Financial Reporting Standard 102, the31 March 2015 balance sheet and summarisedstatement of financial activities for the yearended 31 March 2015 have been re-stated toinclude an accrual for staff leave earned but nottaken.

The Society gratefully acknowledges financialsupport from Cairngorms National ParkAuthority, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, JointNature Conservation Committee, NationalMuseums of Northern Ireland, National Parksand Wildlife Service, Natural England, NaturalResources Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens Kewand Scottish Natural Heritage.

The Society also wishes to thank all thosemembers who have served, both nationallyand regionally, as officers, on committees, aseditors and indexers, in leading and arrangingmeetings and as assistant secretaries andminuting secretaries; and the many memberswho have participated in surveys, preparedreports and read papers.

BSBI would especially like to thank ournetwork of 186 Vice-County Recorders andmore than 100 Referees, acknowledging theinvaluable work they do and their hugecontribution to BSBI’s success.

Many of these volunteers have served for verymany years, and, whilst these are only aselection, the society notes the sad deathsduring the period covered by this review of PatEvans, Rev. George G. Graham OBE, YolandeHeslop-Harrison, Peter Macpherson, AlanNewton and Edna Stewart.

Without the contribution of all thesevolunteers, and our wider membership, thework of the Society would not have beenpossible.

BSBI is indebted to the following bodies forcontinued support in many various ways:

Biological Records Centre, CEH, WallingfordCambridge Botanic GardenCentre for Ecology & HydrologyThe Department of Environment, Food andRural AffairsThe Field Studies Council (in particularKindrogan and Preston Montford FieldCentres)Manchester Metropolitan UniversityNational Biodiversity Data Centre, WaterfordNational Biodiversity Network TrustNational Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, DublinNatural History Museum, LondonPlantlife Royal Botanic Garden, EdinburghSummerfield BooksThe National Museums and Galleries of WalesThe Wildflower SocietyUniversity of Leicester

Images supplied by: Pete Stroh, Louise Marsh,Dave Steere, Polly Spencer-Vellacott.

Thank You

Registered Address: Botanical Society of Britainand Ireland

BSBI57 Walton RoadShirehamptonBristol BS11 9TA

Charity Numbers: England and Wales (1152954)Scotland (SC038675)

Registered Company No. England and Wales (8553976)