Volunteering with the Selborne Landscape Partnership (SLP)

The very first Selborne Landscape Partnership (SLP) wildlife project was surveying for harvest mouse nests. In December 2014 a team of farmers and volunteers were shown some of these tennis-ball sized nests made of woven grass and learnt where in the farmland hedgerows they were most likely to be found.

 With only one harvest mouse nest recorded in the Selborne area since the 1990s, it was feared that the species was locally extinct, but this early survey effort resulted in over 470 nests being recorded during 2014 and 2015! This was such a tremendous result. The knowledge gleaned from the surveys has informed the SLP about the importance of the scrubby base of hedges and has led to changes in the way that many SLP hedges are managed, specifically to benefit the local wildlife.

The SLP is hugely fortunate to now have a team of 35 volunteers, some of whom are very experienced and knowledgeable, and others who are starting out with a keen interest and willingness to learn and get involved.

Various training events have been held, including yellowhammer and butterfly id sessions, brown hairstreak butterfly egg searches, pond ground-truthing and Living Record data entry.

A system has been developed whereby inexperienced surveyors can ‘buddy up’ with experienced surveyors to help improve survey skills. All these sessions are not only interesting, but they also provide an opportunity for volunteers to meet each other and land managers within the SLP.

The interaction between our volunteers and members, enthuses those that have participated, resulting in a strong sense of comradeship.

The wealth of expertise, and breadth of resource that the volunteer network brings to the SLP is awe-inspiring. Without this support it would not be possible for the SLP’s wildlife survey program to continue.  

With more projects planned we are looking for more volunteers to become involved.


Looking for new volunteers

If you would like to get involved, we are especially keen to get help with collating and inputting our data. At present we are not recruiting new volunteers for our surveying team, as we are developing our 2023/24 Survey Strategy. If you would like to be contacted once we resume, please do make contact with us by completing the form below.


Contact Us

The Selborne Landscape Partnership

Design by Bianchi Blue