Grant of £5,230, awarded in 2020. Total project cost £5,543
Through this project, the Oxford Urban Wildlife Group (OUWG) offered a wide range of opportunities for their members to be involved at the Boundary Brook nature reserve and hosted events for the public to visit and find out about the reserve and the wildlife found there.
Volunteers helped with ongoing maintenance of woodland glades and paths, planting out woodland plug plants to enhance the ground flora, building a new bird hide, planting trees and shrubs, as well as gardening and watering in areas planted up with shrubs, trees and a wildflower mix.
Work on the grassland ecology supported by the TOE grant was linked with other ecology work on site by BSG Ecology to build resilient grassland corridors and create buffer zones advantageous to wildlife and to our allotment neighbours. OUWG has continued to plant trees along the borders and also followed recommendations in their Environmental Consultancy report to create a wildlife safe space with tree planting and woodland plug planting along its edges.
A seasonal cutting rotation of the grassland has been developed in consultation with Butterfly Conservation. The work is done by volunteer scythers, alongside a new multi tool strimmer, funded by the TOE grant.
The increasing numbers of work parties and public events have brought more members to help with species surveying which is increasing understanding of the wildlife found there and the impact of conservation work.
A network of all-weather accessible paths on site has been completed using limestone which now means the reserve is safer during the winter and also enables public access to the wildlife habitat areas without damage to them by people wandering off paths.
OUWG concluded their report saying “TOE funding for the ‘Glades, Ponds and Woodlands project’ has enabled us to become a more resourced and dynamic group and to revitalise our mosaic of wildlife habitats. This project has been very beneficial to us and all the budget has been spent on meaningful aspects of work on site. Thank you.”