Biodiversity Action Plan - Find a freedom of information request

I am contacting you as part of a postgraduate environmental consultancy team from the University of Bristol studying MSc Environmental Policy and Management. We are undertaking a rewilding and biodiversity monitoring scheme in partnership with the North Somerset Council.

Your extensive conservation efforts, particularly within the Biodiversity Action Plan, the Green masterplan and your use of natural maintenance techniques, have been inspirational during our work. We would love to find out more to use as a benchmark in an attempt to implement a successful rewilding scheme in North Somerset.

Rewilding can be defined as 'creating new habitats to enable wildlife to flourish as well as helping to address climate change'. In terms of North Somerset, this includes planting trees and letting areas of grass grow longer. If possible, please answer the questions below to let us know more about your conservation practices.

1. Are you monitoring the wildlife in your county and if so which species/taxa do you focus on? 

2.What survey methods do you use to monitor wildlife (e.g. pitfall traps and camera traps)?

3.Do you undertake 'rewilding' or a similar approach?

a.If so, what approach do you take to rewilding?

4.Many national campaigns, such as Rewilding Britain, are in place to encourage rewilding in urban areas. Is there also a standard government framework in place to ensure councils carry out rewilding schemes?

5.Do you use GIS or any other mapping techniques within your rewilding efforts, and how are they used?

6.If it is publicly accessible what environmental data do you use?

1. Our partner, The Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership leads in the area.

2. We do not carry out wildlife surveys to monitor our wildlife. However, as part of partnership working with the Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership (GLNP) we have access to records through the Local Record Centre. We use this as a baseline and when we are developing sites we commission ecological consultants to carry out any further surveys we feel are required.

3. We carry out 'rewilding' of some of our former landfill sites with the aim of improving them for wildlife and local communities.

We also work in various partnerships with other organisations to create new wildlife habitats.

a. We try to concentrate on larger landscape scale project areas, with the aim of linking existing habitats and wildlife areas in line with the Laughton principle of 'bigger better and more connected'

4. We are part of the GLNP where there are more urban authorities focusing on the larger urban areas.

5. Biodiversity Opportunities Mapping is used across the county

6. We use the Lincolnshire Local Record Centre, which is available to all. There is a £100 fee for all information requests, unless there is a service level agreement in place.