Space4Nature

Peter Hewetson, 60, from Dorking became aware of the Space4Nature project via the Surrey Wildlife Trust website. Upon contacting Citizen Science Officer Dan Banks, Peter began volunteering at Quarry Hangers nature reserve near Caterham in summer 2023, where he conducted plant surveys, recording indicator species which typify chalk grassland habitat.

As well as reporting that participating in Space4Nature helped him hone his plant identification skills, Peter says that using the S4N phone app and learning about involvement of satellite technology and AI in the project helped him boost his IT and tech skills in a practical context.

He says that thanks to the collaboration with Surrey Uni and Buglife, he was able to network with other volunteers and SWT staff, both at volunteer briefing meetings and while out on site.  This forged friendships and connections with the potential to endure after the conclusion of this project. These positive experiences have made him more likely continue to volunteer, especially for SWT – and more likely to work for an NGO rather than in the private sector in future.

He was motived to become involved because he was excited by the opportunity the project represented to harness technology and citizen science to improve nature, leading to more land managed for conservation and less fragmentation of nature-friendly sites on the road to the international 30by30 target.

Tessa Colman, aged 67, from north Surrey, has been a volunteer with SWT at Nower Wood education centre and with the Trust’s conservation grazing team as a cattle Lookers for some years, thanks to her lifelong passion for nature.

Tessa was excited about S4N from the outset, when Citizen Science Officer Dan Banks spoke in person to volunteers at Nower Wood at the beginning of the project in 2023.  Specifically, she was motivated by S4N’s focus on practising a joined-up, collaborative approach which benefits local areas but also looks at the bigger picture. Since then she has appreciated regular updates and newsletters from Dan about current and future areas of focus.  

In 2023 she took part in the lowland heath plant data collection on Chobham common. In 2024 the focus was chalk grassland plant data collection, which she helped undertake at Sheepleas nature reserve in West Horsley.  Tessa also helped survey Grayling butterflies on Chobham common.

For plant data collection, Tessa’s task was to enter weather conditions then plant details and numbers within marked quadrats. For the Grayling butterflies it was a case of finding one specimen, then spending 10 minutes observing and logging other Grayling numbers, behaviour and conditions within a 10-metre diameter area, also using the S4N app. 

Although Tessa was already generally familiar with heathland and grassland plants, she reports that she gained a lot of new knowledge about many different plant species and about Graylings. She also really enjoyed the opportunity to do useful work out-of-doors ‘in some beautiful locations’.

Space4Nature has influenced Tessa’s future plans in that despite her being an established volunteer, the project has provided an insight into new areas of nature conservation outside of her previous ‘comfort zone’.  She says that she’ll be looking out for more opportunities as and when they arise.

Space4Nature Conservation Officer Louis Harrington-Edmans led habitat improvement work in several locations across Surrey as part of Buglife’s B-lines project, which is working to create connected corridors of habitat to enable the wellbeing and movement of pollinators and other wildlife nationwide. Two examples of specific work made possible with investment from Space4Nature are below.

Rosamund Meadows, on the north downs near Guildford, is a four-hectare mosaic of species-rich chalk grassland and scrubland. 

In this location the team successfully trialled a novel mechanical scrub clearance using a bespoke excavator attachment to remove large woody scrub that had a history of being coppiced, and was too overgrown to be dealt with using volunteers or targeted grazing. 

Many contractors and wildlife groups had previously suggested the scrub would have to be cut and treated with glyphosate, which was not an acceptable option for Buglife or the landowners due to the risk of harming invertebrates and other species on this fragile habitat. 

Over two years S4N trialled the attachment to remove the scrub, including removing associated roots, reprofiling the site into a habitat mosaic of scrub of various ages with crucial areas of open species-rich chalk grassland.

Over the years we expect this to improve the ability of the Trust’s conservation grazing cattle to access and effectively graze the area, thus boosting floral abundance and diversity within the sward and creating better habitat for invertebrates, reptiles and Skylarks. Orchids are already appearing in the areas cleared. 

Furthermore, disturbance to soil was minimal, while the limited areas of bare ground created will create nesting opportunities for solitary bees and wasps and basking areas for the butterflies onsite. Species of butterfly that will benefit from the overall improvements include the Small Blue, Grizzled skipper and Dingy Skipper.

In summary, good conservation outcomes were attained at competitive with prices, without the added concerns of introducing chemicals that are harmful to wildlife and humans.  Buglife has subsequently trialled this methodology with Guildford Borough Council on its sites at Tytings Meadows and The Mount, with further success. This will help the council deliver on its policy of reducing the use of harmful herbicides.

Denbies Vineyard, near Dorking, holds 2.4 hectares of species-rich chalk grassland.

Working with Denbies Vineyard, Buglife and Space4Nature hosted a workshop engaging landowners in the strategically important Mole Gap, home to some of Surrey’s rarest invertebrates including Adonis Blue butterflies, Straw belle moths and Shining Pot-beetles, to accelerate efforts to deliver B-Lines habitat. 

We recognised an interest in sustainability within the Denbies Vineyard team due to the estate’s certified Net Zero accreditation, and membership of the Sustainable Wines of Great Britain (SWGB), and history of working effectively with Jenny Desouttre. However, the Denbies team voiced some concerns over the potential impact of B-Lines habitat on production, the perceived appearance to visitors and ongoing management commitment. Our team was able to provide advice - for example around mowing ‘harder’ edges and paths through meadow restoration areas - to minimise these concerns. 

While we also then took steps to reintroduce Yellow Rattle, a hemiparasitic plant that supresses grass, making restoration areas look tidier but also allowing wildflowers to compete and thrive. This has the double impact of making areas look more attractive at the same time as providing more feeding opportunities for local pollinators. This shows how aligning goals and finding creative solutions to anticipated challenges can help deliver for pollinators – in this case including the Red-tailed Mason-bee and Small Blue, Adonis Blue, Grizzled Skipper and Dingy Skipper butterflies - in commercially-productive landscapes.

The Buglife team has subsequently carried this model of Yellow Rattle reintroduction and meadow management to several other landowners including the National Trust at Polesden Lacey as well as Albury Vineyard and Mickleham church.

Surrey Wildlife Trust’s Wilder Schools programme works with schools throughout the county to introduce pupils, teachers and families to simple steps they can take to conserve nature, with an initial emphasis on improving school grounds for wildlife.  

Through Space4Nature, an increased focus has been placed on mapping and connecting habitats on a local level, mirroring the wider aims of the S4N project – and more than 60 schools have taken part in talks, visits and practical training sessions as part of this strand of the programme. Through sweep netting, bird watching, tree ID games and minibeast hunts they have looked at where nature thrives in the grounds and learnt about what actions they could take to enhance other areas. They have used satellite images and aerial photographs to consider the schools’ setting in the landscape and potential to link up with other habitats.  The students have then developed and implemented plans for how the school grounds could be enhanced for nature – including the creation of meadows, ponds and connecting hedges, and the planting to date of over 1,000 tree whips, with advice and support from SWT’s Wilder Schools team.  Students have designed posters and prepared assemblies to inform the wider school community of their intentions and presented these to their peers and teachers during assemblies and special sessions. In some schools, older children who have completed work through the project have ‘buddied’ with younger cohorts to help them implement their own plans for nature. 

Many children have visited SWT’s education centre at Nower Wood, near Leatherhead to learn how to learn from other S4N project schools, celebrate their achievements and undertake training in how to identify plants and invertebrates - all skills they will use to monitor the new habitats in their grounds, which include hedgerows, raised beds for pollinating plants, ponds, no mow areas and meadows. 

The S4N team has also encouraged families to take similar actions at home and record these on the Trust’s Geographical Information System (GIS) using ArcSurvey123 so that the students can see them spatially. This demonstrates to participants a) that digital technology has a big and growing role in conservation and b) that their small actions can quickly start to have a big impact. To date, families have logged over 1,000 actions for nature, ranging from the installation of bird feeders and ponds to the planting of native plant species to benefit pollinators. 

The S4N team also attended the 2024 Teen Tech festival event in Brighton, where they trained 72 teenagers to carry out habitat assessments on chalk grassland and heathland sites using Survey123 software. It is hoped this that will open young minds to the possibility of careers or at least voluntary work in the fast-evolving conservation and land management sectors.

A YouTube animation, exploring the key themes of the project and suggesting ways to help wildlife, has been produced by SWT for use within schools visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP0ht_B5Zp0

• The predictive modelling of chalk grassland and heathland, based on S4N’s citizen science data, satellite imagery and machine learning has been submitted for publishing in the academic press by the University of Surrey, after which it will be made available as a mapping layer for conservation practitioners.
• Our colleagues at University of Surrey are also currently modelling acid grasslands across Surrey using data collected in summer 2025 by our citizen science volunteers.
• Work carried out in parallel by SWT and Surrey Botanical Society on the Surrey Important Grassland Inventory is providing additional data to validate the S4N modelling.
• The S4N research work is continuing through to the end of 2027 thanks to additional funding from the Garfield Weston trust. This is supporting PhD student Sahar Sharifi’s work using  “deep learning” AI techniques to map wetland and peri-urban habitats.
• Following the completion of his PhD in March 2026, Ben Siggery will further explore of applications of palaeoecological data to conservation projects, including potentially the reintroduction of Natterjack Toads – a formerly common but now very rare species – to sites in Surrey.

• Project partner Buglife has delivered habitat creation or restoration works over 62 hectares across 22 sites, for 13 different landowners.  These include national and local government, charities, community groups, private landowners, and several sites owned or managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust. The work focussed primarily on the restoration of species-rich chalk grassland and lowland heath, but included scrub clearance, wildflower seeding, hedgelaying, pond creation and the implementation of traditional meadow management regimes. The sites included land with a broad range of primary uses including nature reserves, orchards, vineyards, schools, churches, and road verges.
• As part of this project, all the landowners signed a 10-year agreement to continue to manage these sites for conservation, and this is being documented in site-specific Habitat Management Plans, along with ongoing advice from Buglife, in order to create a long-term legacy for this project.
• We also want to create more B-Lines habitat across Surrey, Buglife has successfully secured a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for “Surrey Chalk Lines”: a 2.5-year project commencing in spring 2026, and which aims to restore 30 hectares of flower-rich grassland including 15 hectares chalk downland in the Surrey Hills National Landscape. This project will also focus on seven specific threatened invertebrates: Large Scabious Mining Bee, Armed Nomad Bee, Red-tailed Mason Bee, Adonis Blue butterfly, Straw Belle moth, Shining Pot Beetle and Hazel Pot Beetle.

Space4Nature has been the most ambitious citizen science project undertaken by SWT, with more than 1,000 individual surveys contributing a substantial body of data and greatly enhancing the capacity of our partners at University of Surrey to deliver a meaningful new tool for habitat mapping.  To keep this momentum up as we seek to retain the skills and enthusiasm of the S4N volunteers, engage even more people in conservation and use data more intelligently on the road to 30X30, the Trust is now developing a long-term Citizen Science strategy in consultation with volunteers and biological recorder groups.  This will be published in 2026.

Working in close partnership with Buglife, University of Surrey and Painshill Park Trust has enabled the development and use of new project management, technical and land management skills and practices at all levels of the Trust (and we hope, within our partner organisations).  As we seek to rise to the challenges posed by the biodiversity and nature crises, we will increasingly use what we have learned from this project to build new alliances to deliver conservation on a landscape scale.