Our Work
Training for ecologists & planners
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Barn Owl Ecology, Surveys & Signs
The Trust began running 'Barn Owl Ecology Surveys and Signs' (BOESS) training days in September 2005. These unique events are primarily designed for ecological consultants and planning officers who need to consider Barn Owls when carrying out surveys and considering planning applications.
Barn Owl Field Signs (short video)
Watch our three minute video
More pictures of BOESS training days
The Barn Owl Trust is uniquely placed to deliver this type of training having carried out both practical fieldwork and research within this subject area for over 17 years. In 1990 the Trust began a 5-year project looking at the effects of barn conversions on Barn Owls. The results were published in a Barn Owl Trust report and a scientific paper which appeared in Bird Study. These were followed by the booklet 'Barn Owls on site - A guide for developers and planners' first published by English Nature in 1995 with a second edition in 2002. The report and booklet contained a range of recommendations for changes in Local Authority planning policies. These included a requirement that planning applications for the re-use of redundant rural buildings should not be considered unless accompanied by the results of a Barn Owl survey. The most radical recommendation was that provison for Barn Owls should be incorporated (as a condition of planning consent) into all rural barn conversions, even where no current evidence of Barn Owls was found. Over the intervening years an increasing number of Local Authorities throughout the UK have adopted some or all of the Trust's recommendations.
This has subsequently been superceded by the most thorough and up-to-date guidance now available on the subject "Barn Owls and Rural Planning Applications - a Guide". A BOT published document, funded and supported by Natural England, it is aimed at applicants, ecologists and planners involved in rural developments where Barn Owls are or might be an issue.
Publications - Barn Conversion Research Project Report
Pictures of barn conversions with provisions for Barn Owls incorporated
Barn Owls and Rural Planning Applications - a Guide (from Natural England website)
Held on a farm in South Devon the BOESS course covers Barn Owl ecology, the birds' behaviour/annual cycle, sites and habitats, decline and conservation. It looks at the law - protection and legislation, Wildlife and Countryside and CROW Acts and nest inspection licences. There is a section on "reading the signs" - identifying and interpreting what you might find during a site visit and the course also considers survey and search techniques, surveys, equipment, search procedure, health and safety/risk assessment and confidentiality. After a fabulous home-made lunch there is a site visit by mini bus to another farm where safe searching and ladder use are covered and participants have the opportunity to try out survey techniques and reading the signs for themselves.
Pictures of Barn Owl signs
Survey Techniques
We'd be delighted to receive a donation for it too!
More pictures of BOT training
The day also includes mitigation strategies, mitigation methods, and recommendations - when and where to use them - and fictional case study exercises. It is a packed day with plenty of opportunities for questions and discussion. The course has proved immensely popular with participants from as far afield as Scotland and East Anglia coming to undertake the training in Devon.
Details of the next course dates and the cost can be found through the link to the application form at the side of this page. Dates are also posted on the Forthcoming Events page."Thank you for organising such a great day. I went home thoroughly inspired. The skills we learnt will definitely be useful for my work" - Kate Walls
"I have had extremely positive feedback from the ecologists who have attended the course. They thoroughly enjoyed the course and found it very informative. The lunch arrangements were also very popular! Just thought I would let you know that we do appreciate you running these courses and will continue to send our new staff on courses you run in the future" - Rebecca C
