Partnerships

We have a number of key partnerships, including the Floodplain Meadows Partnership and Treezilla: the monster map of trees.

Our partnership working also crosses over into our public engagement, citizen science and enterprise activities.

Floodplain Meadows Partnership

A group of men and women wearing outdoor clothing and standing together in a field

We are engaged in a high-profile collaboration through the Floodplain Meadows Partnership.

The Floodplain Meadows Partnership is hosted by the Open University, but has a steering group composed of some of the major players in nature conservation in the UK. Our Steering Group are:

Natural England, Environment Agency, National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, People Need Nature, Field Studies Council, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, RSPB and Natural Resources Wales.

The Partnership’s work is based around research undertaken by the Open University on floodplain meadows. Based on the research, the Partnership undertakes a range of externally facing activities to support the conservation and restoration of floodplain meadows in the UK. These include:

Policy: We employ an Advocacy Officer who is working with external partners to secure changes to Government legislation and policy to benefit floodplain meadows.
Practice: We visit sites and talk to land managers and owners about managing their species rich floodplain meadow, or giving advice about restoring floodplain meadows. We also give advice on the telephone or via email. A site visit would give simple feedback based on what was visible.

We have a range of ways in which to access information about floodplain meadows including how to manage and restore them, most specifically our website Floodplainmeadows.org.uk and a Technical Handbook which is freely available as a download or can be bought as a hard copy Floodplain Meadow Technical Handbook.

Treezilla: the Monster Map of Trees

Treezilla: the Monster Map of Trees is a citizen science project that aims to crowdsource a map of the UK’s trees, particularly those in urban areas. It is established as a partnership between the OU, Forest Research (the research agency of the Forestry Commission) and Treeconomics (a social enterprise specialising in understanding the economic value of trees).

The latest version of the Treezilla website and data collection apps were developed through a partnership project with Forest Research, Treeworks Environmental Practice and citizen science app developers Natural Apptitude.

One recent initiative led by the OU Treezilla team and Forest Research has been the development of a data standard for data collection on individual trees. This involved a widespread consultation with private, public and third sector organisations who work with trees and tree data. The data standard should define the approach to future individual tree data collection in the UK.

Treezilla is free for anyone to join and contribute data. You can access the site at Treezilla.