Botanical training opportunities - grasses and sedges identification training

We are looking for volunteers to help with botanical surveys on a selection of upland hay meadows that have been restored through seed addition between the third week of June until late July. Groups of 2/3 volunteers will undertake 15 quadrats (1m x 1m square) per meadow. One meadow with 15 quadrats may take between 1-2 days. There are 3 days of free training for beginner’s, and also botanists wishing to refresh their skills. We require a minimum involvement of 1 full day of helping to survey a meadow following the training. Beginners should attend all three days, if possible. More experienced botanists can choose which days to attend based on their previous experience. Volunteers need to sign-up to each of these 3 training days separately: Day 1: Wildflower Identification training, Thursday 4 June. Day 2: Grasses and sedges Identification training, Thursday 11 June. Day 3: Botanical surveys using quadrats training, Thursday 18 June. We will spend the morning in a meadow in Teesdale or Allendale, going through quadrat survey methodology. We will split into groups of three to four and practice undertaking quadrats (1m x 1m squares) with the survey sheets. We will spend the afternoon going through meadow assessments, looking at undertaking w-walkthroughs and assessing negative indicator and positive indicator species.