Thirty years after they first attempted it, the National Trust is to archive all of the plants and trees within the boundaries of the properties on it's register.
Back in the seventies, the National Trust wanted to collate a map of every specimen that has been collected by the great plant hunters of the Victorian era and before, in order to establish what existed and where it came from.
However, using just paper and the Royal Mail, the task proved too difficult and the scheme was abandoned - Run the time clock onto 2008 and we have a different story.
Trust staff, as well as hundreds of volunteers, will be led by Mike Calnan, the head of parks and gardens to survey every corner of their eighty plus managed gardens and parks, using the latest GPS technology, computers, cameras and powerful database software.
Each plant will be photographed and have it's exact position logged and entered into a database. At present, only 5% of the Trust's plants are logged and it is hoped, within three years, that number will have risen to 75% and during that process, there is hope a few rare gems will be found and identified.
Recent Comments