It might be an understatement to say that it has been a busy year for us, which you can probably tell if you’ve been keeping up with our monthly GiGLer articles. We’ve had to say some sad farewells but have also welcomed many new GiGLers, with no less than six new arrivals! In this winter edition of the GiGLer editorial I am delighted to introduce all of our amazing new team members, and I’ve also got some fantastic GiGL achievements to share …
Japanese Knotweed is one of a number of invasive species affecting wide swathes of the UK. It is known to displace and ‘crowd out’ native vegetation with its aggressive growth and can easily spread through fragments of rhizome, which often find their way into streams and other waterways. Once established, the plant is incredibly resilient and very difficult to remove completely …
Though it has been a long time since we last met, the atmosphere at London Recorders Day (LRD) 2021 was that of a reunion of old friends, united by a shared passion for recording, studying and protecting the wondrous nature of Greater London …
I joined GiGL in September as an Ancient Woodland Inventory Officer and am tasked with ensuring that we have a robust and accurate record of all ancient woodlands in the capital. This means that no matter their size, these valuable and irreplaceable habitats will receive the protection they deserve. It will be exciting to see how the AWI Update project develops over the upcoming year and my role with it ….
A 20 year review of river restoration across London published at London Rivers Week 2020 identified the importance of river restoration for delivering a range of social and economic benefits, such as contributing to health and wellbeing and reducing flood risk …
With the populations of cities growing all the time and the world facing unprecedented climate and biodiversity crises, urban nature has a critical role to play in supporting a sustainable planet. Nature-based solutions offer a tool for addressing the multiple environmental, social and economic challenges faced by cities that can also contribute to mitigating the environmental crises more widely …
During the autumn of 2018 I was part of an ongoing survey of the larger fungi to be found in various areas surrounding Heathrow airport. Adam Cheeseman, who heads up an onsite biodiversity team, told me that whilst he’d previously seen lots of fungi fruiting they hadn’t since a formal survey began in 2015. However, there was finally lots of fungi again. I promptly made my way over to Heathrow…
The biggest opportunity is that organisations are looking to become more environmentally sustainable. GiGL fit in brilliantly to share data on this. The challenge will be how GiGL can reach and communicate with these organisations to find out what data would be useful for supporting them …
Since the start of 2021, the GiGL team have been hard at work updating and improving our Areas of Deficiency (AoD) models. We’re excited to announce that these are nearly ready for launch, and we can’t wait to share the new features we can offer to our partners and clients.Although the concepts behind AoD are quite simple, the modelling itself is anything but. This article will explain what AoD is, the changes we’ve made and what this means for our services going forward…
Over 15,000 different species have been recorded in London so identifying a smaller number of priority species allows conservation efforts to be focused towards those species that need help the most. London’s priority species are those we share our city with that are national priorities for conservation and those that are believed to be declining in London or beyond…
Even though LERCs are mostly associated with biodiversity data, they often provide services that are not strictly related to the data they hold and manage. Below are just a few examples of the wealth of non-data resources available through the records centre community…
Part of our commitment as a community interest company (CIC) is to submit our annual accounts and a completed CIC34 form, to Companies House. The form includes sections to demonstrate how our activities have benefited the community we were set up to serve, and whether we have consulted our stakeholders and acted on their feedback. We have a series of standard metrics to illustrate these points drawn from our social media accounts, internal monitoring spreadsheets and various other stats-rich resources. What the mandatory reporting doesn’t do is show GiGL in full colour…
Like most organisations, we often find we have a list of things we’d like to do on a ‘rainy day’. But sometimes that rainy day never comes. A solution we’ve found helpful at GiGL is to have a dedicated “Closed Week” every six months…