Urban Grassland Conservation is a one-day introduction to the ecology, assessment, and management of grassland habitats in urban environments. Designed for those with little or no prior experience, this practical course will guide you through the fundamentals of understanding, surveying, and improving urban grasslands for biodiversity.
This course prepares those new to biological recording with an understanding of how biological recording works and how casual species observations can be converted into useful biodiversity datasets. Students will undertake a simple field recording activity and submit their data through the iRecord platform, generating real biological records as they learn.
Course Content
The PDF below features the slides from the course presentation.
The Good Meadow Guide
Plantlife’s Good Meadow Guide provides guidanced on creating, restoring, and managing wildflower meadows. It emphasises that the secret to a thriving meadow is keeping soil fertility low, introducing vital pollinator-friendly plants like Yellow Rattle, and utilising an annual cycle of late-summer hay cutting followed by autumn grazing
Rapid Grassland Assessment
A Rapid Grassland Assessment (RGA) is a streamlined, repeatable field method used to monitor and evaluate the ecological condition of meadows and pastures. By recording the presence of positive and negative indicator plant species and structural variety, land managers can quickly track habitat health and adjust grazing or cutting regimes.
Assessment form (editable Excel version)
Assessment form (printable PDF version)
Rapid Assesment Guidance (short)
Rapid Assesment Guidance (full)
Plantlife Wildflower ID Guide
This illustrated guide to 99 common flowers has been produced to help people identify plants from a wide range of different habitats.
Urban Butterflies Guidance
The Big City Butterflies “Urban Butterflies Guidance” refers to practical, nature-friendly management resources published by Butterfly Conservation. It provides actionable steps for councils, community groups, and gardeners to create, restore, and maintain green spaces that allow butterflies to thrive in concrete-heavy urban environments.
Free Online Training for Barnet Residents and Volunteers
Barnet residents and volunteers can access any of our online courses and virtual symposium content for free. We have 200 spaces to give away. A full list of eligible courses is provided immediately below. Instructions on how to claim free course places can be found below this.
- Navigate to the relevant product on the Biological Recording Company online learning platform: https://courses.biologicalrecording.co.uk/collections/products
- Click on the button ‘Buy £X‘ to bring up the basket page.
- Click on the text stating ‘Have a coupon?‘ to bring up the coupon box
- Enter the code barnet3628 into the coupon box and click ‘Apply‘ to reduce the cost to £0. Barnet residents and volunteers should contact Harriet at Barnet Council to request a code.
- Enter your email address, first name and last name to complete the purchase and set up your account.
Mini Meadow Movement
The Mini Meadow Movement is a borough-wide community challenge organised by the Finchley Pollinator Project in partnership with Barnet Council. Together, the project aimz to plant 600 mini meadows in 60 days (September and October 2026).
More information here: https://ecoshowandtell.org/mini-meadow-movement/