The Cumbria Lichen and Bryophyte Group has been short-listed for a group award in the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2020! These annual Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions adults and young people are making to wildlife recording and data sharing, which is helping to improve our understanding of the UK’s biodiversity.
It’s free to attend the virtual awards ceremony on Wednesday 18th November 2020 from 4pm to 4:40pm – book here.
We’re one of five groups short-listed for the award and we are very pleased to reach this stage so soon after setting up. Thanks very much to April Windle for entering us – and for her outstanding help while in Cumbria as the Plantlife LOST project officer. She enthusiastically commented, “so flipping deserved – you are AMAZING!”. Our group outings have currently stopped due to Covid-19 but members and others are keeping in touch using the Cumbria Lichens and Cumbria Bryophytes Facebook groups.
We record sightings on group trips and submit records individually. Bryologist members are the regional recorders for VC69 and VC70. Lichen group member Chris Cant has produced very useful interactive lichen distribution maps for VC69 and VC70. Over the winter of 2018-19, Pete Martin visited 20 woodlands in southern Lake District doing Rapid Woodland Assessments while also counting the number of indicator lichen species he could find – more info. Species found during the LOST project brought the national British Lichen Society to visit the wood pasture at Rydal, Ambleside, in 2019. Clare Shaw found Pale scalewort moss Radula voluta at Frith Wood in December 2018 which has led to moves to protect the woodland. Member Russell Gomm first reported lichen records while working here in 1974; his interest has been re-awakened and he is now finding new records on his local patch near the Solway. Increased awareness of lichens and bryophytes with conservation managers has led to efforts to translocate internationally important lichen Lobaria pulmonaria on fallen trees brought down in storms of February 2020. The group has raised concerns about a planning application which may affect bryophytes, lichens and ferns at Stanley Ghyll.
Caz Walker says, “A good species distribution map is worth its weight in gold: it allows us to track down things we haven’t yet seen (part of the long learning process) as well as refinding old sightings to confirm continuity; it allows at a glance an assessment of the habitat type and quality once one knows what to look for; it shows many blanks on the map of areas not yet well recorded which is an incentive to visit. Putting good quality records in the public domain is so important and helps others to understand and protect the natural environment.”
You can see what has been found for an area on NBN. Lichen species are listed in the Fungi group. Bryophytes are within the Plants category.
And the winners are…
The well-deserved winner and runner-up of the Group Award in the 2020 NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording are:
* Winner: The Mammal Society
* Runner up: Manhood Wildlife and Heritage Group