Environment
Amateurs Join Experts to Save Wildlife
by Clifton Coles
Expertise of nonexperts contributes to naturalists' knowledge base.
mateur naturalists are being called upon to help professional scientists monitor
wildlife and save threatened species in the United Kingdom. An estimated 100,000
birdwatchers, anglers, hikers, plant-spotters, and observers of nature of every stripe
have been recruited to share their expertise on everything from mosses to mammals.
"This is the first time such a wide range of British organizations
has attempted to bring the full wealth of amateur and professional knowledge
together," says Johannes Vogel, head of the U.K. biodiversity program at Britain's
Natural History Museum and coordinator of the project.
Specialists from the museum are holding workshops across the United
Kingdom to teach anglers identification techniques and encourage them to contribute data,
particularly on declining populations of river insects. The museum has teamed up with the
Ramblers Association to monitor the distribution of elm trees and track down survivors of
Dutch elm disease, which has wiped out 20 million trees since the 1970s. The results
recorded by the ramblers will form a database that will be used by specialists as they
search for the many threatened species associated with elms, including lichens, mosses,
beetles, and butterflies.
The Natural History Museum is also working with volunteers from the
British Bryological Society on a three-year national survey of mosses, liverworts, and
hornworts living on arable land.
One of the first success stories of this program is the discovery by an
amateur naturalist of a previously unknown fern--the first new fern spotted in the United
Kingdom in more than 50 years. Civil engineer Matt Stribley came across the unusual fern
while inspecting a bridge over the River Camel in Cornwall.
"It just goes to show how important amateur naturalists are in
helping us to discover more about British biodiversity," says Fred Rumsey, the museum
botanist who identified the fern.
Source: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London
SW7 5BD, United Kingdom. Telephone +44 20 7942 5156. Web site www.nhm.ac.uk.
