DO you want to help your local wildlife? Well, there’s an easy way to get started… At Somerset Wildlife Trust, we’re trying to get 1 in 4 people actively engaging with nature by 2030.

We believe that a crucial part of tackling the climate and ecological emergency is for people to come together to raise awareness and take action for nature — and one of the simplest ways of playing your part is to get out in your local environment, or even in your own garden, to record the wildlife right on your doorstep.

We have programmes running across Somerset to train people in the skills they need to survey their local green and blue spaces.

Working with the Somerset Environmental Records Centre (SERC), we offer training on how to use iNaturalist – a web-based platform which allows you to take and upload photos of wildlife straight from your smartphone.

It uses special algorithms to make suggestions on species identification, which can then be verified by experts.

You can even set up ‘project areas’ within the app for your local community space so that you can see all the species that have been recorded there.

We also have other projects running to survey specific habitats.
For instance, volunteers regularly survey our beaches as part of the national Shoresearch project.

This allows us to get a more detailed picture of the diversity of our intertidal habitats.

However, you begin your journey as a wildlife recorder, you can be rest assured that any information you collect will help Somerset Wildlife Trust and SERC monitor the State of Nature in Somerset.

Besides, once you’ve started, there’s a good chance you might enjoy recording and identifying wildlife so much that you get hooked.

You might even then consider joining a specialist group — be it focussing on bats, botany, or bugs.

Getting started might seem like a daunting task, but there’s a simple way to ease yourself in.

Every year, we ask as many people as possible to get involved in The Big Count.

All you have to do is sign up via the Somerset Wildlife Trust website, and then keep your eyes and ears peeled for a number of special species, which includes snails, spiders, certain species of butterflies, and slow worms.

The Big Count 2023 will be taking place between June 16 – June 25 — sign up via www.somersetwildlife.org/bigcount2023 and start your journey towards becoming a citizen scientist.

Written by Mark Ward - Somerset’s wilder coast project manager at the Somerset Wildlife Trust