Congratulations to the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme on reaching its 50th anniversary year! There may still be a few places left for the celebration conference in Nottingham on 11 October.
The National Plant Monitoring Scheme (NPMS) is celebrating its 10th anniversary, including events on 18 October at UCL East, Olympic Park London, and 25 October at the Lough Neagh Discovery Centre, Northern Ireland. A busy year for the scheme has seen publication of an Annual Report 2024, Summer 2025 Newsletter, and its annual data publication. Work has also taken place to improve the production of species-habitat trends from the scheme (Pescott & Boyd, 2025).
UKCEH announced the launch of the National Vegetation Plot Database for Great Britain (GBNVPD), which brings together relevant plant data from a wide range of sources including NPMS.
The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) has completed another season of pollinator surveys. During the year an Annual Report (covering 2024) was published, along with updated dataset publications. A trial of personalised feedback to survey participants has produced a range of positive feedback, see PoMS Insights.
During 2025 we made some enhancements to the Targeting Revisits Maps, adding additional information about how many species have previously been recorded, and adding a new map for dragonflies and damselflies.
Recording scheme meetings in autumn 2025
These meetings are open to all - please book places via the links given.
- 11 October, Nottingham: UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme 50th Anniversary Conference
- 18 October, online: NPMS 10th anniversary celebration event
- 23 October, online: Bat Conservation Trust Bat Workers Forum
- 25 October, Lough Neagh Discovery Centre, Northern Ireland: NPMS 10th anniversary celebration event
- 1 November, Holborn, London: insect recording schemes are usually well-represented at the Annual Exhibition of the British Entomological and Natural History Society
- 15 November, Cambridge: Dipterists Day 2025 organised by Dipterists Forum
- 15 November, online: British Dragonfly Society Annual Meeting 2025
- 29 November, Edge Hill University, Lancashire: BSBI 2025 British & Irish Botanical Conference
- 29 November, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London: British Mycological Society offers a range of fungus-related topics at their Autumn Open Meeting 2025
- 29 November, Bournemouth Natural Science Society museum: Amphibian and Reptile Conservation / British Herpetological Society Joint Scientific Meeting 2025
