Long term monitoring of wet river valley plant communities in the Highlands working for SNH/Quadrat in 1997.

Ecological Consultants specialising in:

• National Vegetation Classification (NVC)
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) - Windfarms, Urban developments etc.
• Conservation Management Plans
• Habitat Condition Assessment
• Site Condition Monitoring
• Alien plant survey and advice (Japanese knotweed control, himalayan balsam, giant hogweed)
• Deer impact survey
• Land Management
• Ecological Evaluation and Assessment
• Training and Education
• Wildlife Surveys
• Vegetation Mapping
  River Corridor Survey

Close-up photograph of the bryophyte Orthotrichum cupulatum on Stirling Castle walls. As well as photography we also do film work.

Carrying out ecological clerk of works duties for McAlpines

Japanese knotweed along the RIver South Esk during catchment survey of alien plants on Lothian rivers for SNH in 2004.

Recent clients include:

• Forest Enterprise Scotland
• Scottish Natural Heritage
• The National Trust for Scotland
• Quadrat
• The Deer Commission
• BMT Cordah
• Keir Construction
• KDM Architects
• Halliday Fraser and Monroe
• English Nature
• The Environment Agency
• Scottish Wildlife Trust
• British Energy
• West Coast Energy.

Ecological Consultants based in Scotland

Based in central and western Scotland we are a network of ecological consultants with many years of experience carrying out work in Scotland and also England.

We are able to carry out a wide variety of services, ranging from baseline vegetation surveys on uninhabited islands in the Outer Hebrides to urban alien plant surveys, development-related impact assessments and management planning.

In 2008 one of our main projects was to carry out vegetation surveys and provide input to the ES for the proposed Viking Energy windfarm on Shetland, the largest proposed windfarm in the UK. As well as highly detailed NVC footrpint survey and widescale Phase 1 survey we also designed and carried out a unique blanket bog activity survey.

Summary of types of work:

• NVC Surveys
• Phase I and II Habitat Survey
• Environmental Impact Assessment EIA
• Conservation Management Plans
• River Corridor Survey
• Habitat Condition Assessment
• Alien plant survey
• Site Condition Monitoring
• Bryophyte survey
• Bird survey
• Mammal survey
• Geographical Information Systems GIS
• Wildlife/landscape photography and film work
• Ecology-related design of websites, literature etc.

Vegetation Survey (NVC and Phase 1), Site Condition Monitoring

The bulk of our work through our early years has been for Scottish Natural Heritage carrying out baseline NVC surveys throughout Scotland. This has given us wide insights into natural and semi-natural habitats and the effects of land management. More recently for SNH we have done a number of SSSI Site Condition Monitoring surveys, Habitat Condition Assessments and red deer impact surveys.

Windfarm Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

We have recently carried out much work on detailed Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) for several large windfarms in Scotland.

We offer the following services:

• vegetation survey (NVC- or Phase 1-based)
• ornithological survey according to latest SNH and RSPB guidelines
• input to ecology component of Environmental Statements: evaluation, impact assessment, mitigation, enhancement etc.
• GIS

Bryophyte survey

In addition to normal vegetation survey we also offer specialised lower plant survey for mosses and liverworts. For example we have recently been working on a bryophyte flora for the Glencoe mountains of Scotland (for National Trust for Scotland).

Development Survey and Impact Assessment

We also carry out more general planning and development- related work supplying ecological survey and management advice for building developments, pipelines etc.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

Highland Ecology use the latest version of Manifold GIS (V8) to digitally map and reference survey data. We can supply datasets in most common GIS formats and we have successfully provided spatial data to clients who use ESRI Arcview (.shp), Mapinfo, and CAD (.dxf) for example.

Alien Plant Survey and Control (Japanese knotweed etc.)

We have carried out extensive river catchment surveys of alien plants (Japanese knowtweed, Himalayan balsam, giant hogweed) around Edinburgh for SNH. We have also provided advice on control and ecological clerk of works services to MacAlpines.

website designed by T. Rafferty copyright Highland Ecology 2008

The rare Sphagnum pulchrum, a constituent of undisturbed raised bogs. Highland Ecology have recently carried out red deer impact surveys for SNH and the Deer Commission

Carrying out NVC vegetation survey of the uninhabited island of Mingulay in the Outer Hebrides for National Trust Scotland in 2004

Windfarm Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): survey and input to ecology component of Environmental Statement (ES)

Consultants:
The consultancy is the partnership of Tim Rafferty and Kate Proctor who carry out most of the work but we also network with other independent specialists and consultants.

Please click on the links below to get an up to date summary of their experience.

Tim Rafferty, MIEEM, CEnv
Email Tim

Kate Proctor, MIEEM
Email Kate


Field data capture is done using good old-fashioned notebook and maps using a handheld GPS for accuracy to less than 10m in open terrain. It is then later transferred into digital format using Manifold 6.5 GIS and we supply digital maps and data in many commonly used GIS formats such as ESRI Arcview, Mapinfo and autoCAD.

GIS point sample data from Site Condition Monitoring at Kintail, National Trust for Scotland 2005