2024 County Report for Kirkcudbrightshire
David Hawker, Sarah White and Jan Davidson
A new Joint VCR, Jan Davidson, has been appointed as Data Manager, with the task of organising records and catching up with the data entry backlog.
The main recording effort is through the regular outings of the Kirkcudbrightshire Botany Group. 14 meetings were held across a range of habitats, focussing on under-recorded areas. We aim to offer training and enjoyment as well as recording.
There was a joint meeting with South West Scotland Environmental Information Centre on NatureScot’s Cairnsmore of Fleet NNR.
We helped assess the status of several Nationally Rare and Scarce species on two RSPB reserves.
We are working with two regenerative farmers/landowners to enhance the biodiversity of their land; there are already additional requests from other units in 2025.
The Botany group’s members were interviewed and photographed at a recent field meeting for a forthcoming article in the Dumfries & Galloway Life magazine.
The VC73 RPR is almost ready for uploading to the BSBI’s webpage.
There is increasing concern about pressure from forestry and wind turbine developments, especially the loss of purple moor-grass habitats and unimproved grassland.
