BSBI Irish Spring Conference 2021
120 recorders, members and non-members participated in our first ever online BSBI Irish Spring Conference on Saturday 27th March. All the conference talks are on BSBI's YouTube channel and are linked here:
- Project Save our Schedule 8s! - Debbie Gillies, True Harvest Seeds & Karl Hamilton, Dryas Ecology
- Can botany provide a window to our medieval past? - Dr Fiona MacGowan, BSBI Recorder Co. Laois
- Marsh Saxifrage: conservation in NI - Dr Gareth Bareham, RSPB Garron Plateau SAC Project Manager
- Discovery of Dune Helleborine in Dublin - Gonçalo Santos, University of Lisbon
- BSBI New Year Plant Hunt 2021 - Jessica Hamilton, Co-ordinator of the BSBI Kerry Local Group
- Distribution and ecology of Irish Lady's-tresses in Galway & Mayo - Dr John Conaghan, BSBI Recorder West Galway
- Distinguishing large riparian sedges - John Faulkner, BSBI Recorder Co. Armagh
- History of Cloudberry in Ireland - Dr Noeleen Smyth, Conservation Botanist, National Botanic Gardens
- Ireland's disjunct flora - Dr Rory Hodd, BSBI Recorder Kerry
- Aquatics Plant Project 2021 - Paul Green, BSBI Irish Officer
- Rare Plant Project in Ireland - Jim McIntosh, BSBI Scottish Officer
During the break, we also showed an excellent slideshow of Exciting Finds from around Ireland.
Thank you to all our lovely conference speakers.
Irish BSBI Conference 2020
Sadly the 2020 Conference, scheduled for March 2020, had to be cancelled due to Covid-19.
Irish BSBI Conference 2019
The 2019 Conference was held on Saturday 30th March at the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin. County Recorders, BSBI members and interested members of the public came together and everyone was welcome, whether a beginner botanist or an old hand. It was a great opportunity to catch up, to hear what’s going on in the botanical world across Ireland, and to make plans for the upcoming final Atlas 2020 recording season.
Scroll down and click on the links to download PPTs of many of the talks, as well as workshop hand-outs.
You can read blogposts about the 2019 Conference here and here, or follow the action via the #IrishBSBIConference hashtag on Twitter.
Irish BSBI Conference 2019: talks & workshops
- The State of Ireland's Environment - Key Challenges: Tadhg O’Mahony, EPA
- A Study of Festuca ovina agg. (Sheep's-fescue) in Ireland: Alexis FitzGerald, BSBI County Recorder for Monaghan
- The continuing adventures of the Rough Crew: riding waves and scaling cliffs in search of plants: Rory Hodd, BSBI joint County Recorder for Kerry
- Planning for the final year of Atlas 2020: Robert Northridge
- Aquatic Plants Project 2019 Maria Long, BSBI Ireland Officer
- Workshop #1: Callitriche/water-starwort ID – Lynda Weekes, IT Tralee [auditorium]
- Workshop #2: Lamium/dead-nettle ID – Paul Green, BSBI County Recorder for Wexford
- Quiz time: David McNeill
- Flash talks – updates, new books, and more!
- The winter Burren: Roger Goodwillie, BSBI County Recorder for Co. Kilkenny
- Mapping the black poplar, one of Ireland's rarest trees: Daniel Buckley, National Parks and Wildlife Service
- The long overdue rediscovery of moss campion (Silene acaulis) in H34: John Conaghan, BSBI County Recorder for West Galway
- Update on the conservation status of six rare vascular plants: Fionnuala O’Neill, BEC Consultants
- New book: ‘ Photographic Guide to Aquatic and Riparian Plants in Ireland’: Joe Caffrey, Inland Fisheries Ireland
- 20 sites, 20 species: Mark O’Callaghan, National Botanic Gardens
- The story of frankincense: Noeleen Smyth, National Botanic Gardens
Irish BSBI Conference 2018
This year's Irish BSBI Conference was held on Saturday 24th March at the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin and it was a huge success! Here's the flyer with the programme, so you can see what was on offer, here's the hashtag for the event on Twitter and here's a report about the day's proceedings put together by Jessica, one of the delegates. Click on the links below to download the presentations.
Highlights of the 2018 Conference
- Mike Porter (author of the BSBI Handbook on Violas): A Decade of Violas and a workshop on IDing Violas - using stipules; Separating vegetative Viola reichenbachiana and V. riviniana; V. canina and V. lactea; Separating vegetative V. riviniana and V. canina; Separating vegetative V. odorata and V. hirta.
- Clare Heardman (County Recorder for West Cork): Ellen Hutchins, Ireland's first female botanist.
- Jessica Hamilton (the driving force behind the BSBI Kerry group): Botanical experiences and BSBI Kerry round-up.
- Aoife Delaney: Environmental drivers of biological communities in dune slacks.
- Six flash talks including Robert Northridge: Identifying Trichophorum species; the forthcoming exhibition of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists; Colm Clarke: plant ID in the Dublin BSBI group; Maria Long: Lycopod surveys in conjunction with NPWS funding; Rory Hodd: the often overlooked Killarney Fern gametophyte; Pauline Campbell: the National Plant Monitoring Scheme in Ireland.
- Plus a Database workshop with BSBI Database Officer Tom Humphrey, an Introduction to Identifying Horsetails from John Conaghan, themed walks in the Botanic Gardens led by Matthew Jebb, networking opportunities, food and drinks afterwards...
Irish BSBI Conference 2017
The 2017 Irish BSBI Conference featured a packed line-up of botanical talks and workshops, with something for all skill levels - you can still download pdfs of the talks, just scroll down this page. To find out what people were saying about the event, go to the conference hashtag #IrishBSBIConference or click on this blogpost which summarises some of the feedback.
Talks from the 2017 Conference
Tales from the wilderness: the continuing adventures of the Irish Rough Crew - Rory Hodd
Botanising with D.A. Webb - Daniel Kelly
The new team in Cork - talks by Edwina Cole and by Finbarr Wallace
Flash talks – project updates and more:
- The Vascular Plant Red List - Fionnuala O'Neill
- Irish Species Project - John Conaghan
- The BSBI Review - John Faulkner
- Wildflowers of South Armagh booklet - Oisin Duffy
Workshops on tackling tricky plants:
- How to tackle aquatics - Joanne Denyer
- Rushes - ID tips to get you started - Lynda Weekes
- ID of spring-flowering Veronicas - Paul Green: Talk and Key.
Irish BSBI Conference 2016
12 & 13 March at the National Botanic Gardens. We had a great conference, with a series of interactive workshops, and a number of great talks. Below are some of the talks for you to download and view.
Irish Members’ Conference 2014 presentations
Many of the speakers have made their talks available to download. Click on the links below to access them:
- Marsh Saxifrage - Caoimhe Muldoon
- Semi-natural grasslands survey - Fionnuala O'Neill
- Planning for Atlas 2020 - Jim McIntosh
- Charophytes - Cilian Roden
- 50 years of BSBI in Ireland - Daniel L Kelly
- Irish Species Project - John Faulkner
- Report from West Donegal (plus text to go with the report) - Ralph Sheppard
- Report from Wexford - Paul Green
- The BSBI Distribution Database - Jim McIntosh