#210: Mammal Society

The Mammal Society has a useful website for those exploring the UK's mammals and wanting to know more.

There are around 90 native UK mammal species and a list can be found on the website.

There are some useful technical terms here to become familiar with, linked to orders of species of mammals (remember the taxonomy that we mentioned in a previous blog post and which students will need to become familiar with).

Eulipotyphla (Insectivores)

Lagomorpha (Rabbits and hares)
Rodentia (Rodents)
Carnivora (Carnivores)

Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates)

Perrisodactyla (odd-toed ungulates)
Marsupial - can anyone guess the only marsupial on the list of UK mammals?
Chiroptera (Bats)
Pinnipedia (Seals)
Cetacea (Whales, dolphins and porpoises inc. vagrants)

there are a few words to learn here, and also the difference between even and odd-toed ungulates. The former being the deer family.

I picked up a recent story through their Instagram account on the importance of hibernation to mammal species in helping them to overcome changes to climate.

They have a 'Whose Poo?' page which helps you identify animals from their droppings / faeces / spraints etc.

They have a useful Mammals Hub, which includes details on all the UK's native mammals as well. Plenty of educational interest as well as a range of blogs.

Membership costs £60 for the year and comes with a range of benefits.

They also have an app which I shall blog about separately called 'Mammal Mapper'.

#209: Plantlife

Plantlife is one of the organisations which will be on the list we will create, identifying websites of groups which may well prove useful for teachers preparing to teach the new specification.

The organisation has the following Mission:

Our mission is to secure a world rich in wild plants and fungi.

Wild plants and fungi underpin the health of our environment. They can help us to resolve the climate, ecological and societal challenges which we face.

Protecting them will lead to a world full of colour, beauty and life while allowing the plants and the animals which depend on them to thrive.

Those teaching the specification might be interested in their strategy document. There are opportunities for schools to get involved in their work.

The Advice and Learning section of the website is worth visiting too.

This includes a learning section to help identify plants and fungi with an illustrated database of plants and fungi which are searchable on a number of criteria.

There is also a Meadows Hub giving advice on how to manage this sort of ecosystem. I have blogged about this separately.

#208: Ladybird Books and representations of the Natural World

Another Twitter account worth following for those considering teaching Natural History is the Lady Bird Fly Away Home account of Helen Day. 

She has a very large collection of Ladybird books, and has created a range of books and exhibitions celebrating the wonderful illustrators who brought the books, which will be particularly familiar to people of a certain age - such as me - to new generations who hadn't heard of S. R Badmin, Charles Tunnicliffe or Ronald Lampitt.

I would love a GCSE Natural History textbook which was presented almost in the style of the old Batsford books with Brian Cook Batsford illustrations. I hope that whoever produces the official textbook has some striking visual ideas and illustrators involved, and not just lots of stock photos and dense text.

There are quite a few who I particularly like - particularly this one from 'Plants and How they Live'. 

Lichen, algae, funghi
‘Plants and how they Live’ (1965)
Artist: Ronald Lampitt pic.twitter.com/R5etmR2C3l

— Helen Day (@LBFlyawayhome) October 2, 2023

Other work by the Ladybird artists The English Lakes British Railways poster Artist: Ronald Lampitt pic.twitter.com/6h3HAI7aC0

— Bess (@MonayiAnya) October 6, 2023

Other work of the Ladybird artists.
‘Autumn Wedding’
Artist : SR Badmin pic.twitter.com/yDmT9BFTAm

— Helen Day (@LBFlyawayhome) October 17, 2023

There are many images from these artists online as well. 

Follow the accounts mentioned here and they are posted regularly and many of them are relevant to GCSE Natural History.

#207: Meadows

This is a concerning statistic.

The Plantlife website has a meadows page which goes into detail on the value of this type of habitat, which has been a victim of intensive farming. Plantlife is trying to protect meadows.

The headline is stark. Since the 1930s, over 97% of wildflower meadows have been lost. Where once thirty species of plants would bloom under your outstretched arms, in most of our fields there are now just six.

But, in the last few years, we have come to appreciate what we’ve lost. The tide is turning and the appetite for creating and restoring meadows - from the smallest garden to the largest fields - is greater than ever.

From storing carbon, to supporting biodiversity, to just enjoying their astonishing beauty, many of us want become meadow makers.

Whether you want to learn more about creating and planting meadows, help on how to keep meadows looking fabulous, or want some advice on starting a local meadows group by adopting a few basic principles, you are in the right place to find out how you can create flower-rich meadows on any scale - from a few square metres in your garden to fields of many hectares.

#206: Natural History Reading List #14: 'The Great Naturalists'

A book published by the Natural History Museum.

Cheap second hand copies are available from various online stores.

It features the following people. 

How many do you know something about? 

What was their particular contribution to the discipline and to Natural History.

Why not give a name to each student. Make sure you have a diverse range of people and backgrounds and contributions.

The Classical World
- Aristotle
- Theophrastus
- Pedianos Dioscorides
- Pliny the Elder

The Renaissance
- Otto Brunfels
- Leonhart Fuchs
- Ulisse Aldrovandi
- Andrea Cisalpino
- Pierre Belon
- Konrad Gessner

The Enlightenment
- Nicolaus Steno
- John Ray
- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
- Robert Hooke
- Hans Sloane
- Mark Catesby
- Carl Linnaeus
- George-Louis Buffon
- Georg Steller
- Michel Adanson
- Erasmus Darwin
- William Bartram
- Joseph Banks
- Johann Fabricus
- James Hutton
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
- Antoine Jussieu
- George Cuvier
- William Smith

19th Century
- Alexander von Humboldt
- John James Audubon
- William Buckland
- Charles Lyell
- Mary Anning
- Richard Owen
- Jean-Louis Agassiz
- Charles Darwin
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Asa Gray

#205: Chipping in for nature

You will perhaps have seen the current TV ads for McCain potato products.

Take a look at the company's logo...

Tree... rolling fields and terrain... and some bird in flight. They are trying to position the brand as being connected with the landscape and nature, and perhaps a rising or setting sun for the overall shape of the logo.

McCain was founded by two Canadian brothers in the early 1900s.

They are chipping in and moving over to regenerative / sustainable agriculture use from all their suppliers and this is prominently displayed on the packaging of their products.

When thinking about branding, you can see particular words often appearing on packaging.

Here's their work:

In 2020 they launched the McCain Potato Farmer Pledge, a £25 million investment designed to help ensure the long-term sustainability of British agriculture, in the face of increasing climatic events like droughts and floods. 

Since 2020, they have committed a further £50 million to British farming to safeguard the UK’s potato industry. This includes significant contract price increases for growers, as well as a supplementary energy support package.

As you can see, they are very active in East Anglia.

They also say:

As 80% of all potatoes eaten in the UK are home grown, they don’t need to travel far from the field to the plate, and this kind of local sourcing is great news for the environment. But for food retailers and consumers, local sourcing goes beyond simply decreasing emissions, it also supports hundreds of British farmers and farming communities.

When it comes to our supply chain, quality and traceability are key. 100% of our British potatoes come from certified Red Tractor growers –the UK’s leading farm and quality food production certification, that assures food safety and traceability.

There's plenty of interest in this website

This might make a good example of how decisions made by companies have the potential to have an impact on the countryside. 

#204: The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch 2024

This takes place between the 26th and 28th of January 2024 for homes, and schools are also welcome to take part of course.

It's important to both take part in, but also encourage all students to take part in this important citizen science project in 2024. 

I've registered for the event, and chosen to receive a digital guide rather than a printed guide.

Across the UK, over half a million people took part in Big Garden Birdwatch 2023, counting a whopping 9.1 million birds! House Sparrows took the top spot, but counts of these chirpy birds are down by 57% compared to the first Birdwatch in 1979. In fact, we’ve lost 38 million birds from UK skies in the last 60 years. 

With birds facing so many challenges, it’s more important than ever to get involved in the Birdwatch. Every bird you do – or don’t – count will give us a valuable insight into how garden birds are faring.

Here are the results for 2023

#203: The Theft Act 1978

The Theft Act 1978 is important for foragers, or others collecting wild plants and fungi. This may be relevant if students are going to be taken into nearby woodland, and teachers are wanting to develop their own skills by foraging and identifying plants and fungi.

Growing up, my parents used to take us to various spots in local woodland during autumn to pick blackberries. My mum would then turn these into jam, straining the fruit through muslin bags on upside down chairs in the dining room overnight.

The Theft Act makes it illegal to collect any wild plant or fungi for commercial purposes without the landowners’ permission.

It is not an offence to collect for personal use, if you are technically trespassing all the landowner can do is ask you to leave by the quickest and safest route.

Theft Act 1978 clause:

(3) A person who picks mushrooms growing wild on any land, or who picks flowers, fruit or foliage from a plant growing wild on any land, does not (although not in possession of the land) steal what he picks, unless he does it for reward or for sale or other commercial purpose. For the purposes of this subsection “mushroom” includes any fungus, and “plant” includes any shrub or tree.

Source: TotallyWild

So, unless you are selling what you pick, it is fine to collect mushrooms to eat, although it's best to ask the landowners' permission.

Other advice is:

Only pick what you will consume
Try to leave a site so that no one would have know you've been there.
Stick to the four F’s: flowers, fruit, foliage and fungi. 

The Woodland Trust has provided some guidelines.

#202: Worms are important

Worms aren't important are they?

One might imagine so, but some of the early naturalists including Gilbert White and Charles Darwin understood the vital importance of them for soil health and other factors, including the incorporation of organic material into the soil, aeration and other benefits.

Earthworms are described by the Natural History Museum as heroes.

Check out details of the former NHM project called Earthworm Watch. This was a Citizen Science project.

Data collection is now closed, but the results can be viewed.

Hopefully one result of studying the GCSE Natural History will be cohorts of students who appreciate the small things a little more. This is not always about the bigger aspects of Natural History but the smaller elements that contribute to the whole.

My Geographical Association Presidential theme was Everyday Geographies, and this is another example of where small everyday actions can make a large cumulative difference. I'm thinking of developing some support around the idea of "everyday natural history".

“The team found that earthworms are responsible for nearly 7% of global grain harvests, such as rice, wheat, and corn. …In sub-Saharan Africa, where many soils are depleted in nutrients and fertilizer is scarce, earthworms boost grain production by 10%.” https://t.co/hWwt2VHGqi

— David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells) December 19, 2023

#201: Spotify Audiobooks

A cross posting from my GeoLibrary blog which has just reached its 600th post.

I have a Spotify Premium subscription, and have had for quite a few years now.

They have recently added thousands of audiobooks to the subscription, which is great news...

Many of these are of interest to Geographers and an equal number almost also connect with the themes which are likely to emerge in the GCSE Natural History.

Here's a sample that I just located from a few quick searches.

They include Brian Groom's Northerners, which I'm reading at the moment. 

This is likely to reduce my book purchasing and will also be an issue for Audible.

I'm really looking forward to listening to the Tristan Gooley book: 'How to read a Tree'. This will be of particular value for the section on woodlands and trees. I have a feeling that trees are going to be an important feature of the work that is completed by students, and as a destination for fieldwork.

There is a range of books from David Attenborough and George Monbiot.

I have also blogged elsewhere about how fantastic this book by Robin Wall Kimmerer is. Gathering Moss is excellent!

I shall aim to make a list of books for reference.

#200: OCR Consultative Forum #1

I've had some chance to digest and read through my notes from my attendance at the first GCSE Natural History Consultative Forum. 

I have previously been a member of the OCR Consultative Forum for Geography for some years and always find the meetings valuable.

The first meeting started with introductions to people with a wide range of experience and expertise, broadly in the area of Natural History. Some of them have been involved in various stages of developing the various documents that will ultimately become the subject criteria / draft specification that teachers will work with, along with various publishers.

There were a number of discussions that followed some presentations earlier. One of them was on the National Education Nature Park which I've signed our school up to.

It ended with a few discussions, where the ideas of the forum were gathered on a number of key questions.

Here's one for you to think about.

What support would you need, and what do you think will help overcome some of the natural uncertainty about starting to teach a new specification?

This is the 200th post on this blog. 

I started it as part of my preparation for potentially teaching the new subject when it appears. There are another two hundred posts in draft, and as the 2024 develops it would be good to think that we might see the subject criteria released so that the awarding bodies and publishers can start working on resources. I have a Google Drive folder full of resources, ideas, reports, images and field guides.

I'm going to explore a few habitats during the Christmas break and aim to put together a guide to how they could be used as a focus for student exploration.

As a final aside, it was good to see the progress made on the GCSE in British Sign Language (BSL). This was first announced in 2019, and the pandemic has been blamed for the delay.

The BSL Subject Content was released a few days ago - we need the Natural History GCSE to reach this point next.

The size of the document and nature of the contents may give some indication as to what will emerge, although the nature of the subject is a lot more 'political' and contested and defining elements will be less simple.

#199: 2023 Children's People and Nature Survey update - visualisation and full report available

Thanks to the Learning through Landscapes social media team for the tipoff here. 

It links to a 2023 update of a Government report.

Last week, the 2023 Children's #PeopleAndNatureSurvey came out, shining a light on what children and young people in England think about the natural environment 🍃

Let's take a closer look at some of the findings 🧵 pic.twitter.com/fkzXtuGkA3

— Learning through Landscapes (@LtL_News) December 4, 2023

The 2023 Children's #PeopleAndNatureSurvey is out today! Discover what young people aged 8-15 think about access to #nature and the #environment.

Find the full results and latest report here: https://t.co/7Ci98oXdkh pic.twitter.com/agcs3PWe5K

— Connecting People with Nature (@together_nature) November 29, 2023

There are some findings which should come as no surprise to anyone. 

Last week the Government pledged to ‘boost Britain’s access to nature’ and ‘connect the public with the natural world’ to 'ensure that love for the natural world continues into the next generations' - my latest blog: https://t.co/s0ZV0O0Ng5 pic.twitter.com/PQvbaQpouP

— Miles Richardson (@findingnature) December 5, 2023

We also had an announcement yesterday regarding the fact that the Government is a long way from meeting a number of environmental targets - which comes as no surprise to me.

 And an update from COP28:

“We can’t tackle climate change without also halting and reversing nature loss.” 📈 🌍@tonyjuniper delivered a powerful keynote speech at #COP28 today, highlighting the need to work together at pace to put nature at the heart of economic decision-making. pic.twitter.com/V2qH0z7ShJ

— Natural England (@NaturalEngland) December 9, 2023

#198: Tree Equity Score

Not all areas have equal access to trees: urban concrete jungles can be tree depleted compared to rural areas. Trees provide all sorts of benefits which are fairly obvious, and hopefully the GCSE Natural History will help raise a new generation of dendrophiles, who love trees and the impacts they have on an environment: aesthetically, as well as with respect to air quality improvements.

The map was released earlier in the week, and this article on the BBC News explores the work being done in one Sheffield school to plant trees to improve air quality.

Go HERE to check out your local area's TREE EQUITY SCORE.

The area where my school is scores 81. The tree cover is 11% apparently. What can schools do to help up the canopy? Time till tell...

#197: World Soil Day 2023

I've posted about this previously, but not actually on World Soil Day itself. This day has been designated by the United Nations.

Our planet’s survival depends on the precious link between soil and water. Over 95 percent of our food originates from these two fundamental resources. Soil water, vital for nutrient absorption by plants, binds our ecosystems together. This symbiotic relationship is the foundation of our agricultural systems.

However, in the face of climate change and human activity, our soils are being degraded, putting excessive pressure on our water resources. Erosion disrupts the natural balance, reducing water infiltration and availability for all forms of life.

Sustainable soil management practices, such as minimum tillage, crop rotation, organic matter addition, and cover cropping, improve soil health, reduce erosion and pollution, and enhance water infiltration and storage. These practices also preserve soil biodiversity, improve fertility, and contribute to carbon sequestration, playing a crucial role in the fight against climate change.

World Soil Day 2023 (WSD) and its campaign aim to raise awareness of the importance and relationship between soil and water in achieving sustainable and resilient agrifood systems. WSD is a unique global platform that not only celebrates soils but also empowers and engages citizens around the world to improve soil health.

Soils form the pedosphere.

Each year, the day has a theme - as do most of these similar 'days'.

This year, the theme is 'Soil and Water" a source of life'.

Check the website for all the details and associated resources.

#196: Valuing city trees

As the world warms, we will need to seek shade on hot days. In cities, this will become even more important. The heat of the summer can be deadly.

Cities which value the well being of their inhabitants should start planting now... and on a large scale.

They will also protect existing city trees. Manchester calls itself the City of Trees.

City trees can also be the focus for some fieldwork. They can be counted, identified and mapped.

Also check out the work of Trees for Cities. This organisation is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Image: Casa de Campo, Madrid - Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

#195: The Wash

One area which would make a good focus for an investigation of natural history and landscape management would be the large estuary called The Wash. 

It is one of Norfolk's Natural Nature Reserves.

The reserve is a mix of open deep water, permanent shallow water, mudflats and saltmarsh, representing one of Britain’s most important winter feeding areas for waders and wildfowl.

The Wash NNR comprises Kirton Marsh, Terrington St Clement Marsh, Point Green and the North Wootton Marsh. It’s a valuable breeding zone for birds like the redshank and supports one of the largest common seal populations in England.

Main habitat: saltmarsh and mudflats
Area: 8,880 hectares

Source: Gov.UK

I lived on the shores of the Wash for twelve years, and could cycle to a beach where I could watch the sun set over the water, or the passing storms as above. I also had friends who lived up on the hill in Hunstanton before the present sprawl of housing estates cloaked the whole area and cut off the view. I remember evenings sat in their garden looking down towards the coast and Searles' beach huts and across to the twinkling lights of Skegness and other settlements on the other side of The Wash: a view now lost forever.

Somewhere in The Wash lies a great treasure waiting to be found.

According to this blog:

In October 1216 King John was travelling from Spalding, Lincolnshire, to Bishop’s Lynn, Norfolk, but was taken ill and decided to return. While he took the longer route around the Wash by way of Wisbech, he sent his baggage train, comprising horse-drawn wagons, along the causeway and ford across the mouth of the Wellstream, a route usable only at low tide, to arrive ahead of him.

The tide came in very high and the baggage train was too slow to beat the tide and was washed away. The baggage included the crown jewels. Their loss was a major disaster, which John didn’t have to deal with, as he died, probably of food poisoning, a few days later. He was recorded as staying the following night, 12–13 October 1216, at Swineshead Abbey, moving on to Newark-on-Trent, and dying of his illness on 19 October.

However, there are plans to change the area irrevocably, and impact on its natural history and wildlife. These include the Snettisham Spectacular - which happens when the tides are right.

Nothing but nothing is safe from those whose lives are defined by making money through destruction. The Wash is precious beyond words. We don’t need a marina, cruise ships and a barrage on one of the best wader habitats in Europe. It’s priceless. https://t.co/o96ADEv7xQ

— Mary Colwell (@curlewcalls) May 21, 2023

There have been several attempts to put a barrage over the Wash in the past to generate tidal energy. This always causes controversy and the plans were recently revived. This may be an issue worth following depending on how serious the plans get over the next five years or so. A public meeting was held in Hunstanton this week.

There is a thread here describing some of the contributions by those who spoke:

Thanks to everyone who came down to support Mike and defend the Wash! 💚 https://t.co/4VGfKtMfIo

— Norfolk Wildlife Trust (@NorfolkWT) November 6, 2023

It's over 70 years since they were discussed for the first (or more) time. This link is to a Hansard discussion in 1967.

There are several useful links:

Britannica Encylopaedia entry.

A website for those who want to Sail the Wash.

One of the places on the edge of the Wash is Wild Ken Hill. This was the location of BBC filming for some years and remains a location which will perhaps be part of the resources I put together on Norfolk as an extended case study, with reference to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, the Wash, Cley next the Sea and other key locations for investigating Natural History.

Images: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license - the Wash from Snettisham beach

#194: Good work

Ronald Good was an eminent Dorset botanist and author of A Geographical Handbook of the Dorset Flora (1948). 

The Flora was the result of an extensive botanical survey carried out between the years 1931 and 1939.

Professor Good collected plant lists from over 7,500 stands and recorded over a quarter million plant records. 

From these he mapped the distribution of some 600 of the 1,300 flowering plants in Dorset. His book was heralded in Nature (No. 4152, May 28, 1949) as an original and valuable contribution to plant geography, and a signpost to new pastures for the field botanist.

The Good Archive is a website which is part of the Dorset Environment Research Centre's website.

The data has been added to the new Dorset Explorer. Add layers and explore the data.

One of a number of regional and county-based directories that probably exist; the results of a lifetime of study saved for others to interrogate and use.

#193: Combatting greenwashing

Follow the link to find out about the new Nature Markets Principles developed by a group of organisations.This aims to raise awareness of corporate greenwashing...

Wildlife Trusts across the UK have been instrumental in the development of various “nature markets”, including carbon, biodiversity credits, nutrient neutrality and natural flood management, delivering multiple benefits for society and the environment and new income streams for rural communities. The aim of Nature Market Principles is to encourage responsible private investment in nature recovery.

🌱 Everyone involved in nature conservation is alive to the risk of #greenwash. The nature market principles are an important step in tackling this.

👉 Learn more: https://t.co/6roOLxxogq https://t.co/Tro5QMbhZE

— Woodland Trust🌳 (@WoodlandTrust) October 22, 2023