The National Plant Monitoring Scheme is based around 1 kilometre squares of the British and Irish national grids. In order to take part an available square must be assigned to you.
Finding a square
First, please sign-up for an account with the NPMS website. Once you have signed-up, and are logged-in to the NPMS page, you will have access to the Request a square page. The 'Squares near me' page is now also available to visitors who are not yet registered with the website - this means that you can check the availability of NPMS squares before signing up.
If you have added your address and postcode to your account (check here if you are not sure: http://www.npms.org.uk/user, choose the Edit tab to add a postcode to your account), the Request a square page (log-in required) will allow you to filter the map to only show squares that are within a certain number of miles from your house. The public Squares near me page allows you to type in any postcode for filtering squares.
Blue squares are still available for surveying. Don't despair if there are currently no available squares in your area: as squares are allocated, new survey opportunities will be added!
Requesting a square
Once you have explored the available squares in your area, a request for a square can be sent to the coordinator using the Request a square page (log-in required). Once you have found a square of interest on the map, simply click on the square and a request will be sent to the NPMS coordinator for approval. Please note that this option is only available if you are logged-in to the NPMS site with your personal account.
What happens next?
Once you have requested a square, the NPMS coordinator will confirm that your request has been successful and will welcome you to the scheme. If your request cannot be fulfilled, you will be put on a waiting list and contacted when new squares become available in your area. If your square is available, you won't have to wait long before a survey pack arrives on your doormat! However, if at any time you have any queries about the survey, you can also contact the coordinator at support@npms.org.uk.
All of the guidance and supporting documents for taking part in the survey are available on the Resources page.
