PlantTracker - Invasive Plants go Mobile

A brilliant little mobile phone application was launched earlier this year which lets anyone with a smartphone collect and submit records of any of fourteen of the most invasive plant species across Britain. I gave it a try out recently, and  would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interesting in contributing to efforts to control  the spread of damaging alien plants. No great expertise is needed  - just a willingness to get out and about with your mobile nphone.

Developed at Bristol University, PlantTracker can be downloaded for free and installed on any smartphone or iPhone. Visit the website at http://planttracker.naturelocator.org to get the phone app. or to view the records already submitted.

Himalayan Balsam now chokes many
UK waterways. (Photo: GBNNSS)

All users need do is simply photograph the plant with their phone, then select one of three keywords to describe the size of the colony. Location coordinates are determined automatically by the phone network, but mobiles with GPS give much greater accuracy. Hit ‘Send’ to upload your record to a mapping website, which appear only after each has been checked by validators. Mine have sometimes appeared in less than 30 minutes! And they're dead accurate on the map.

It's no problem if you're in an area without mobile phone coverage. You can store your pictures and coordinates to be sent later.

Helpfully, the phone app contains a library of information and some great images to aid identification in the field before records are submitted. The species included are:

• Japanese Knotweed
• Himalayan Balsam
• Orange Balsam
• Water Fern
• New Zealand Pygmyweed
• Parrot’s Feather
• Giant Hogweed
• Floating Pennywort
• Creeping Water-primrose
• Piri-Piri Burr
• American Skunk Cabbage,
• Monkey Flower
• Curly Waterweed



Screenshot of the PlantTracker website showing
all Japanese Knotweed records received.

• Rhododendron.

The website has its own blog, giving users feedback on developments and achievements. For example, when the project received its first verified record of Floating Pennywort (shown below) from a London park, the Environment Agency alerted the managers of the site where it had been discovered, and control measures were put into effect immediately to eradicate it. As you can see from the photo, it really is a plant with an invasive streak.

The website offers standard mapping as well as  Google’s satellite mapping, but not Streetview, which is a shame. PlantTracker can certainly help local groups working with INNS (Invasive Non-Native Species), and any scheme organisers needing full access to the data can contact the PlantTracker team for this.  Helpfully, users can also upload invasive plant records and photos direct from the website.

Surprisingly, PlantTracker doesn't yet allow recorders to be 'pre-approved' after submitting sufficient records of each species. So every report needs an accompanying photograph. I think this might discourage its use for more intensive local recording of particular species, as taking yet another and then another photograph of Himalayan Balsam is eventually going to be seen as a bit of a pain.

Floating Pennywort Hydrocotyle ranunculoides
(credit: GBNNSS)

My main criticism of PlantTracker is that location coordinates are displayed as Latitude and Longitude, whereas conversion to OSGB grid references would have been very helpful for local recorders. As someone who has operated a Biological Records Centre for over 20 years, I can say from experience that we tended to ignore records provided with Lat/Long unless it was something really special. The effort needed to convert each record is just not worthwhile. But I'd have thought that a little algorithm in the programme itself could have provided that conversion. I did like the feature to display all uploaded records. Now, had it displayed the National Grid Reference and the date, that would have been brilliant. That said, I do hope LatLong informaiotn will also be retained - it's great to be able to cut and paste it straight to Google Maps and be taken to the location.

At the  moment the amount of validated records presented on the online maps is nowhere near the amount of data available to us locally. But that's not the point. The point is that this app will, in time, generate additional records, encourage new recorders, and maybe generate a new wave of volunteers willing to help record and take action to remove these invasive species from our waterways and other habitats.

And if I were to offer one other minor criticism, I'd say it would be nice to be able to zoom in on the results page of the PlantTracker website to an area of interest and then to be able to change the species being mapped, rather than having to start afresh and zoom in all over again for each individual species.

All in all, PlantTracker is a superb and simple phone app. Both it and the related website are incredibly easy to use. No doubt future modifications will make them even more effective. The PlantTracker project is a collaboration between the Environment Agency, the NatureLocator team at Bristol University and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

It can be downloaded free from the iTunes store or Android Market.


Footnote:
If you are interested in contributing to efforts to control invasive species in your area, contact your local Wildlife Trust, Biological Records Centre, National Park Authority, or check out the GBNNS website for information on the increasing number of formal 'Local Action Groups' being set up around the country to try to control these alien invaders. 
This is an expanded version of an article written for Derbyshire Biodiversity Newsletter Vol 8 Issue 2 

This review was based on the Android version of PlantTracker ver 1.2.1 running on an HTC Desire HD

Nov 7th: Since this review was posted, I've had contact with Dave Kilbey from the team at PlantTracker. He tells me that OSGB grid references will be added in an update next spring (do keep the Lat/Long display on the database, too, guys). The pre-approving of recorders for particularly common species may be made more obvious - it does actually happen at the moment behind the scenes, but users don't know see it. A pat on the back for being appreciated as a competent recorder would go down well with most users, I'm sure.  I've even suggested that there could also be opportunities for getting greater involvement from the userbase by making the app a bit more like Foursquare, for examle. Users of PlantTracker could win 'badges' for becoming an 'approved' recorder, or for submitting set numbers of records, or for reporting more than one species, or for recording in a certain number of regions, whether they be countries, counties or 10km squares. Perhaps it's a case of 'watch this space'

Will you be riding rough-shod over nature?

UPDATE: Derby City Council eventually granted itself permission to develop a multi-sports arena in March 2012.  (Application ref: 12/11/01496)  It says any racing track would be the subject of a separate application, but clearly indicated its preferred location on this map.Whilst the Council remained tight-lipped over intentions, Margaret Beckett MP, speaking on Radio Derby, was wonderfully forthright in her opinions of their insensitive actions. I'll bring you a transcript of her interview soon. Meanwhile here's the BBC News coverage from 29 March 2012. The cycling groups mentioned below have since also publicly expressed their concerns over these plans.

Back in May I wrote to Derby City Councillors and sent an open letter (see this post) to Margaret Beckett MP after becoming  concerned that plans to build a Velodrome at Pride Park in Derby might also include the idea for an outdoor racing track to be built over the city's first bird reserve -  a designated Local Nature Reserve (LNR)  The Council wrote back to her, assuring Mrs Beckett that they would not build a cycle track on this important site. But now it seems there is a distinct possibility it might happen.

Sand Martin on the fence at The Sanctuary, Pride Park

After voicing my objections, I was invited to meet with a senior member of staff, Paul Robinson, and Derek Jinks of Derby City Council to discuss their proposal for a Velodrome and associated racing track. One of their suggestions was to put this pay-to-use race track outside the perimeter of The Sanctuary, possibly using just a small part of the LNR along the River Derwent. This idea did have some merit, as it had the potential to bring some wildlife gains to the reserve, so I suggested they worked up one of those ideas further, whilst not offering to withdraw my formal objection.

Lapwing at The Sanctuary (the cycle track is shown in plans
 going along the green strip in front of the fence.)

Last week I was invited back by the City Council, and was saddened to hear that they mow wanted the entire Park and Ride site for their velodrome and car park, and are now thinking of putting a 1.5km x 7m wide track right around the inside of The Sanctuary bird reserve. This would be in just the places I've watched Little Ringed Plover, Sand Martin, Skylark and even a Dartford Warbler, and would eat up more than one hectare out of this amazing twelve hectare bird reserve. 


They've discovered that the Park and Ride car park just isn't big enough (though I could have told them that in the first place). So now it seems that it's important wildlife that comes under threat yet again - this time it is external funding from Cycle England that seems to be riding rough-shod over it.


The planning application for the velodrome is out for consultation right now until 8th February. And sensibly the Council will submit a separate planning application for this racing track at a later stage. And I predict they will have one almighty fight on their hands. But right now the track is there in the plans for all to see. So it's of great concern. 

And it must not remain there. 


Sadly Derby Cycling Group have expressed their whole-hearted support for the velodrome and closed circuit race track. Of course they won't have realised at the time the impact on biodiversity that it would have.  As a keen cyclist myself, I would normally given my unequivocal support for anything that encourages more cycling in Derby. But I can't support such a damaging proposal for a cycle track as this, and I hope you won't either.   




Note: This is my letter of objection sent to developmentcontrol@derby.gov.uk before the planning application deadline of 8th February 2012.  
The application reference is: 12/11/01496  (Erection of multi sports arena and formation of associated car parking area)


Dear Sirs


I write to express my immense concern and alarm, and to object strongly to the site Masterplan for the multi-sports arena at Pride Park including a 1.5km x 7metre wide cycle racing track on the site of The Sanctuary bird reserve. This is a designated Local Nature Reserve, opened in 2004 by the former Secretary of State for the Environment and South Derbyshire MP, Margaret Beckett, and the Mayor of Derby, Ruth Skelton. 


I am fully aware the current planning application is not considering the cycle track itself, and that Derby City Council must submit a separate planning application and EIA if it wishes to build on the Local Nature Reserve. But inclusion of this race track on the Site Masterplan means it cannot go unchallenged at this stage.  Any decision by members to approve the Velodrome construction could well result in an assumption that this closed cycle racing track will inevitably go there. And it must not.


A 1.5km x 7metre wide track and verge would destroy one twelfth of this important Local Nature Reserve. It would demonstrate that this Council is happy to ride rough-shod over the national LNR designation process and not care about key biodiversity interests, or scheduled birds, or Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) habitats and species.


At the launch of The Sanctuary in 2004 - and standing exactly where the Masterplan shows the racing track may go - the Secretary of State for the Environment is on record as saying that Derby's first bird reserve was making a considerable contribution to her Department's biodiversity targets.  And when the Mayor of Derby, Roy Webb, unveiled new wildlife viewing platform facilities in autumn 2005 I doubt he envisaged that racing bikes would one day be whizzing past in front of birdwatchers where scheduled species like to walk. Your own Strategic Director for Neighbourhoods, Paul Robinson, wrote to Mrs Beckett on 23rd June 2011 stating "...we do not require any of the Sanctuary land".


The Sanctuary contains Derby's most important bird species and some important BAP habitats. The Little Ringed Plover is a Scheduled Species and has nested here. I have photographed it exactly where the racing track is shown on the Velodrome Masterplan. Other key (BAP) bird species, including Skylarks, Reed Buntings and Lapwings, have bred here too. Sedge Warbler nest along the river corridor, and are found within the LNR; Sand Martins breed in abundance, close to the car park, and would be disturbed if cyclists race by too closely. Wheatears, Snipe, Jack Snipe, Linnets, Ringed Plovers, Whinchats, Stonechats and even the immensely rare Dartford Warbler have all been recorded on this site, and all have used habitat close to the perimeter and most were easily visible from that fence. All would be liable to disturbance. In fact 93 different bird species have been recorded here so far. 


The Sanctuary featured in Alan Titchmarsh's Nature of Britain series in 2007 (http://ow.ly/8UACQ) and more recently has been written about in Birdwatching Magazine by TV broadcaster David Lindo (http://ow.ly/8UATs). Unlike Derby's other iconic bird site, it is not well-known. The velodrome could, potentially, improve people's understanding of the importance of urban wildlife, but not if damaged by a race track running through it.


Finally I must also bring to your attention the incompetently researched and incorrectly referenced ‘Site Ecology Walkover Report’, dated 3/1/2011  It fails to mention the Schedule 1 Little Ringed Plover that mates and attempts to breed at the adjacent Sanctuary each year. It tries to suggest that the area west of the riverside pathway is not within the LNR - when it is. (The so-called 'LNR fence' referred to on p6 is not the site boundary of The Sanctuary; inspection of the Management Plan and the Local Wildlife Sites system will show the site boundary runs right up to the riverside pathway).  And the Harris Hawk is definitely not, as stated, a rare species listed in The Sanctuary Management Plan of 2006 – it’s a falconer’s escaped bird.  


I have given my time freely and tried to work positively with staff from the City Council to guide them on ways to avoid damaging the key biodiversity interests of The Sanctuary, and even to bring benefits to the reserve. I do not see in the current plans any measures designed to encourage biodiversity, along the lines I suggested at meetings with your officers, Derek Jinks and Paul Robinson.  So, as a member of the public and Derby resident, I am severely disappointed the Masterplan now exposes this threat to The Sanctuary LNR by indicating a cycle race track entirely within the reserve. And for that reason I must reiterate my objection to the multi-sports arena plan for failing to include the 1.5km racing track within the footprint of the existing park-and-ride car park.


Yours faithfully


Nick Moyes

A Sanctuary - but for how long?

See Comments below this post for an important update: 24th June 2011


Open Letter sent to Margaret Beckett MP, former Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and Member of Parliament for Derby South.

Dear Mrs Beckett

This year sees the seventh anniversary of your visit to Derby to open The Sanctuary bird reserve at Pride Park. It will also be the fifth anniversary of its designation as a statutory Local Nature Reserve (LNR).

Margaret Beckett, when Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
opening The Sanctuary bird and wildlife reserve with Cllr Ruth Shelton in 2004 

So it seemed timely to write and update you on how successful Derby's first ever bird reserve has been during that time in protecting some of the rarest and most endangered avian species in our city. I still treasure the video of you speaking at the launch about how the protection of UK BAP and Schedule 1 bird species was not only good for Derby City, but good for your former Department’s national biodiversity targets, too.

Despite having plans to help specific bird species, the unexpected always happens. Perhaps the most amazing events were the arrival of a Curlew Sandpiper and then an incredibly rare Dartford Warbler which stayed for six weeks in 2005. It had not been recorded in Derbyshire for 150 years and was a real crowd-puller!  Its choice of The Sanctuary seemed to vindicate the decision by the Lib Dem-controlled City Council to approve the creation of this unusual bird reserve. It had received the support of so many local naturalists groups, and it proved every one of them right.

Derby County Football Stadium as seen from within The Sanctuary.
Curlew Sandpiper just visible in front of reed beds.

In 2005 we won a grant from the Aggregate Levy fund to build two raised viewing platforms which give access for the mobility-impaired. It also created special bare gravel habitats to encourage Little Ringed Plover to breed. Sadly, this schedule I bird has lost many of its bare ground habitats in Derby as the city has developed recently. But these delightful plovers still appear on The Sanctuary every year, showing the value of what we have been doing. We would not normally publicise their presence when nesting, for fear of attracting illegal egg collectors. But these are not normal times.

Sand Martins still nest in abundance in the huge artificial nest bank that you admired when you launched The Sanctuary in July 2004. This year some 50 birds are present – making it the largest of the three known sand martin nesting sites in Derby.

Left to right: Nick Moyes (Derby Museums), Margaret Beckett MP,
Cllr Ruth Shelton, Debbie Alston (DWT)

Who can fail to be moved by the song of the skylark, when its musical notes are heard trickling down from the blue sky above? Their presence here, right in the heart of Derby, was one of the main reasons The Sanctuary was created. They can be heard at Pride Park each summer, singing high in the air above the reserve, but are probably missed by most footballers coming to Derby’s Park and Ride car park on match days. The large raised mound that securely holds most of Pride Park’s contaminated waste was specially hydra-seeded, and has since encouraged both skylark and lapwing to nest here. The short rushy pasture right next to Derby County Football Stadium is also a super place for these magical little birds to be seen.

In 2007 Alan Titchmarsh’s Nature of Britain BBC TV programme  featured The Sanctuary in a regional look at urban wildlife. But despite the publicity, and with so many other key bird species like reed bunting, little grebe, green woodpecker, kestrel, whitethroat, meadow pipit so easily visible, The Sanctuary still unfortunately remains one of Derby's hidden gems. We offer free car-parking to anyone wanting to come just to look into the reserve, rather than use the Park and Ride car park for its intended purpose. We just ask them to sign in at the ticket barrier, though of course its not open on Sundays. It may not be as well known as Derby's other wildlife spectacle  - the Cathedral's peregrine falcons - but most importantly The Sanctuary still continues to do its prime job in protecting key bird species from disturbance. And all within just a 15 minute walk or a short cycle ride from Derby City Centre.


Sadly, it's cycling itself that now threatens the survival of The Sanctuary Local Nature Reserve. A multi-sports arena and velodrome was recently approved in outline to be built on the adjacent Park&Ride car park.  The Council will not reveal the precise extent of the velodrome's footprint, "as the specification for the building has not yet been completed".

We were so grateful for your support back in 2004, and we may welcome your support once again should it transpire that Derby City Council does indeed plan to cycle rough-shod over a designated Local Nature Reserve, and all the wildlife that it so successfully protects.


Yours sincerely


Nick Moyes
(former Keeper of Natural Sciences, Derby Museum & Art Gallery, and Sanctuary Project Team member.)

Background Resources

For anyone wanting to assess the likely damage that could occur from the City Council's velodrome proposal, just compare the aerial photograph of the site against the artists impression on Page 8 of the the Leisure Services Strategy. Feel free to draw your own conclusions before we hear the final proposals from the Council at some later date.

• Pride Park from the air: http://bit.ly/pridepark-air
• Council Leisure Facility Strategy 12 April 2011 http://bit.ly/derbyvelo   (see picture page 8)
• TV's David Lindo (aka The Urban Birder) writes about Derby in Bird Watching Magazine July 2010
• Derby's urban wildlife on BBC TV's Nature of Britain 2007.
• Amateur video of Dartford Warbler in 2005

Photos from The Sanctuary at Pride Park, Derby

Lapwing, with Derby County Football Stadium behind.
(Photo S.Whitehead)

Little Ringed Plover can be seen at The Sanctuary most years.
(Photo N.Moyes)

Wheatear - a passage bird, but some suspicion of breeding in past years.
(Photo: N Moyes)

Sand martin flying into artificial nest bank at The Sanctuary.
(Photo S. Whitehead)

Curlew Sandpiper - The Sanctuary's first rarity!
(Photo N. Moyes)

Sand Martin. Each year around 25 pairs bred successfully at Pride Park.
(Photo S.Whitehead)

To visit The Sanctuary, walk or drive into the Park & Ride car park next to Derby County Football Stadium. Birdwatchers travelling by car should stop before the barrier and ask the security man to let them sign for a free ticket. This lets you exit without paying - though you'll still need to collect ( and destroy) the one given to you by the machine to raise the barrier. 
The Park & Ride service operates from 7am-7pm Mon to Sat. Unfortunately,there is no access to view The Sanctuary on Sundays.