Northern Ireland Countryside Survey

13 April 2007

University of Ulster
Dr. Alan Cooper,
Senior Lecturer in Plant Ecology,
NICS Director,
School of Environmental Sciences,
Coleraine.

Tel. (028) 70 32 4692
E-mail a.cooper@ulster.ac.uk

The University of Ulster will be carrying out a major research project this summer, on the distribution and types of wildlife habitat in the Northern Ireland countryside. The research will investigate how the countryside has changed over the past 25 years. Applications of the work are to issues such as how biodiversity and agri-environment strategies have influenced the countryside and what the effects of other environmental variables might be.

The work is part of a research programme that began in 1986 with a baseline ecological survey of 650 randomly selected quarter kilometre grid squares throughout Northern Ireland. Re-survey was carried out in 1998 to statistically determine how the habitats had changed with time. Thanks to the good will of farmers and other land owners in allowing access land, the work provided a scientific background against which countryside change could be assessed. The results of the 1998 field survey are available on our website.

In 2007 countryside survey is being repeated, guided by a steering group from the Environment and Heritage Service and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Teams of two professional botanists trained in countryside matters will carry out the field work between April and September.

If you own or manage land that lies within one of the sample squares, the University hopes that you will once again give our field surveyors permission of access to carry out the work. The identity of each field surveyor can be verified from their University of Ulster photographic staff cards.

Alan Cooper,
Coleraine.