Sending your data to BRERC
There are many ways to submit a record to BRERC; you can choose the best method for you.
We suggest creating an account on our online recording website. This is the best way to ensure your submitted data contains all the information we need.
Alternatively you can save a recording form or spreadsheet to your computer, and e-mail it back to us.
Or download and print our recording forms, and return them to us by post.
To quickly tell us about one sighting, just send a normal e-mail to records@brerc.org.uk – remember to include WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHO
BRERC, iRecord and iNaturalist - where should I enter my data?
Whilst we would prefer recorders to use BRERC's systems, we acknowledge that other websites and apps have their attractions to users and so have prepared a guidance statement to allow users to make an informed decision.
Online Recording
We frequently get asked about other recording websites and applications, with iRecord and iNaturalist being two of the most popular.
At BRERC we concentrate on processing data sent to us by our recorders (over 200,000 records per year). Whilst we have the ability to process iNaturalist or iRecord data this is not a task undertaken on a routine basis due to the time intensity of the process.
iRecord is popular with many national schemes and societies and has a means for individual recorders to manage their own data.
iNaturalist is user-friendly with the option for the user to photograph a species and have the app suggest the possible species based on the photo. However, to date much of the data captured has not met the national standards. In a recent move research-grade iNaturalist data is imported into iRecord, so iRecord would prefer it if recorders don’t use both for the same data.
Which system should I use?
This depends on how you want your data to be used:
- BRERC data is used in local decision making. It has been validated and verified and is trustworthy. It is used by WECA, local authority ecologists and planners, Environment Agency, Avon Wildlife Trust and Wessex Water. These organisations do not have time to also manipulate and use NBN Atlas, iRecord, and iNaturalist data.
- BRERC also hold 30,000 habitat data polygons, which are made widely available and can be combined with species data to add ecological context.
- BRERC make data available to environmental consultancies involved in development control, and the public via our website.
- BRERC also upload data to the NBN Atlas from where it is sent to GBIF and is available to all for non-commercial use – from these websites it is widely used for educational and conservation reasons and global academic research.
The situation of data moving between iRecord, iNaturalist, LERCs and the NBN is changes regularly, each time introducing issues for data managers such as BRERC as they are different systems, with iNaturalist, in particular, being fundamentally very different from the BRERC data model.
For more information about how we look after your personal data, see our Privacy Notice.