Who are we?
Set up in 1986 as a joint venture between Somerset Wildlife Trust (SWT) and Somerset County Council, the Somerset Environmental Records Centre (SERC) is a not-for-profit partnership organisation hosted by the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

SERC has been the main centre holding data on wildlife sightings, types of environments and geological information for Somerset and provides Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) service level agreements (SLAs) and data searches to a mix of public, private and charitable organisations that include Somerset Wildlife Trust, Somerset County Council, the District Councils, Exmoor National Park Authority, the Environment Agency, South West Water, Wessex Water and commercial ecological consultancies.

The income from our SLAs alongside our data searches cover the core funding required to operate SERC. We work in close collaboration with our partners on biodiversity strategy for the county and the Southwest region; including the local biodiversity action plans, the Somerset Notables List, locally designated wildlife and geological sites (LWS, LGS), the Local Nature Partnership (LNP), Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS).

Another major function of SERC is the management of the LWS and LGS survey programmes. Reviewing local sites against the county criteria and proposing any changes to designations of sites.

SERC is a member of the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres and has close links to the National Biodiversity Network, and the National Federation of Biological Recorders. SERC also work very closely with Specialist Groups within Somerset to help plan county activities, share species and habitat knowledge and data, and develop a good network of advice and support.

What area do we cover?
SERC covers the administrative county of Somerset – this does not include North Somerset or Bath and North East Somerset – for these areas you will need to contact Bristol Environmental Records Centre. You can also check if your site is in our area using the search facility here.