It's an exciting time to be involved with the biodiversity of the National Botanic Garden of Wales. With the Waun Las estate soon becoming a National Nature Reserve (NNR), and with summer just around the corner, there is much to look forward to.

There is also a lot to look back on. With all the past biodiversity survey work now recorded on our Recorder 6 biological database, we can now produce reports on the flora and fauna that have been accurately recorded here over the past 10–15 years. This has allowed the identification of protected, rare and threatened species, which have at some point been recorded at the gardens. So far over 1000 species of flora and fauna have been recorded within the gardens and estate, from wood anemone to wood mouse, from blackcap to blackening waxcap – but with many taxonomic groups yet to be surveyed, this number is probably just scratching the surface.

For the ornithologists amongst you, at least 59 species of bird have been spotted here, 15 of which are on the current UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) list. Amongst the 77 moth species recorded, five of them are BAP priority species. A total of 31 species of grassland fungi and 17 species of fern have been seen occurring here. Since 1997 we have totalled 323 species of lichen, moss and liverwort, nine of which are Nationally Scarce. On top of this, the previous National Vegetation Classification (NVC) survey, in 1998, picked up 310 species of flowering plant and there are plans being made for another NVC this summer, 10 years on. It's all very encouraging.

Dormouse activity hasn't been recorded at the National Botanic Garden of Wales for over 10 years, so this year, we are managing and monitoring our woodlands for dormice. With the assistance and expertise of local enthusiast Dave Price, we have assembled and put up 90 dormouse boxes, and around 50 tubes. Many of the boxes were kindly donated by RSK Carter Ecological, and the tubes from Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust. Let's now hope for some positive results over the coming survey season. It's brilliant that we have this historical baseline of species to look back on, but with many of the surveys being from over 5 years ago, and with gaps in the records, both taxonomically and geographically, it is important that we continue the monitoring. Over the coming months, as well as surveying some invertebrate taxa, the Gardens would welcome others to come and survey the biodiversity here on the estate.

If you have an interest and experience in surveying a particular group, and would like to come down and exercise those ID skills, then we would absolutely love to hear from you. If you want to get in touch, to organise a survey, just drop me an email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will get back to you soon.