Fen Management Handbook - Scottish Natural Heritage

10.2.5 Permission and licences
As good practice contact regulatory bodies such as NE, CCW, SNH, NIEA during
development of a monitoring strategy to establish any obligations for permissions
and licenses for access and works (including handling of certain protected species
of plants and animals) within designated sites. Many of these organisations can
provide useful information or data to help inform management decisions (see
Section 5: Managing and restoring fens), or offer constructive comments on the
design of an effective monitoring strategy.
10.2.6 How to convert observations into management advice
Monitoring observations are only worthwhile if translated into practical management
information. For example a change in the area of ‘wet soil’ during the spring months
due to ditch blocking is interesting. However, a fen manager needs to know how
this has impacted on the management target. Similarly it is not enough simply
to record an increase of species X in the first year after increased grazing has
been introduced; what matters is interpretation of whether this is a good or bad
development, and if it is a short-term issue or a longer term change.
Statistical analysis is often overlooked or disregarded as too academic but is
essential to underpin expensive management proposals and results with hard
evidence, and to provide an unbiased, functional understanding of the relation
between management effort and observed change.
10.2.7 External help in developing monitoring strategies
An alternative to designing and executing a monitoring programme yourself is
to seek help from a third party, for example a consultant. Help might be sought
for strategic aspects of a project, such as design of the monitoring strategy, or
installation of monitoring equipment and training, leaving the bulk of the routine
monitoring to be carried out by in-house staff. Alternatively consultants might
be bought in to analyse and interpret monitoring data, or to undertake computer
modelling, but this often requires the same (or even more) thought than devising
or implementing your own strategy to ensure that you retain ‘ownership’ of the
programme, and are able to understand and utilise the data produced.
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Tips on commissioning consultancy input to monitoring
The best and most comprehensive monitoring strategy in the world is of
little use if you can’t understand it, or if it monitored the wrong thing!
– Think carefully and make absolutely clear what you want to know,
and how you want to use the data in the future.
– Make sure that whoever is commissioned to help with monitoring
appreciates your own knowledge, experience and levels of technical
understanding so that data output is in a form which you can
understand and utilise.
– Wherever possible, involve consultants or seek advice from the
outset in designing a monitoring strategy to ensure that information
gathered is both adequate and appropriate.
– Produce a clear, written specification for the work.