15 Dec Supporting professional development: Botanical training & FISC Assessment
During 2023 Ecologists from BSG Ecology have enjoyed a range of training opportunities aimed at increasing their botanical skills and confidence in habitat classification. Botanical survey skills are vital for anyone who undertakes habitat survey and monitoring, habitat condition assessment for biodiversity gain work, and more specialized botanical and vegetation surveys.
A number of external training courses have been attended, where staff have gained the benefit of exploring habitats and species they wouldn’t normally encounter close to home. Internal training sessions have also been provided by BSG’s expert botanists, both in-person and virtually. Subjects covered this year include identification of groups such as ferns, bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), winter twigs and vegetative grasses.
As part of BSG’s established Ecologist Training Programme all new recruits were also able to attend sessions on classification and condition assessments across a range of essential habitats including grassland, woodland, hedgerows and urban habitats.
For the first time in 2023 we have delivered Field Identification Skills Certificate (FISC) assessments in partnership with the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI). We held three assessment days across the summer and are delighted that all nineteen ecologists who undertook the assessment have achieved FISC Level 3 – 4 (sixteen of whom achieved a Level 4). Further FISC assessments days will be run in 2024.
Joe Grainger-Hull (Ecologist) said: “There have been plenty of opportunities to improve my botanical skills this year, across a breadth of habitats and delivered by a range of knowledgeable individuals: from whole-practice botanical afternoons at a local SSSI with dedicated volunteers, through days in the field assisting with NVC surveys of floodplain meadows, to lunchtime CPD refreshers on winter trees and vegetative grass ID”.