Biodiversity area
Contact: Katherine Mayfield
The University has identified ‘achieving ecology and biodiversity net gain’ as one of the five pathways to our 2019 Climate Emergency declaration response. Our Campus Masterplan, which leads to 2030 and beyond, sets a blueprint for future development and commits to managing biodiversity holistically and to ensure biodiversity on campus is better than before.
The Ecology and Biodiversity Plan was approved in 2021 and provides a framework and methodology for protecting, creating and enhancing habitats and species within the campus and beyond. Some of our recent projects include tree and hedgerow planting, hedge laying, wildflower meadow establishment, reduced mowing, and bug hotel creation.
We are passionate to work with students to use the campus as a living lab for their studies.
The Arden Farm Network secured £17,380 from Severn Trent’s ‘Boost for Biodiversity’ grant scheme to support a new ‘Tree sparrow village’ project. This, along with supplementary feeding of wild bird food over the winter months will give the tree sparrows plenty of food all year round. In addition, the funding helped to install 110 tree sparrow boxes across 11 farms in the area. As tree sparrows live in colonies, it is vital that their boxes are placed in close proximity to each other.
We have also installed a barn owl box. Barn owls have suffered huge declines over the last 50 years due to agricultural intensification and habitat loss and by working collaboratively the Arden Farm Wildlife Network is helping to restore their habitat and nesting sites at a landscape scale.
In early spring 2021 we planted 1,800 hedgerow trees as two hedges (200m and 160m) to improve biodiversity and provide corridors for insects, pollinators and wildlife.
We are collaborating with Severn Trent and the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust in their 'Wilder Communities' project. At the Wellesbourne Campus we have sown an area of approximately 0.25 hectares with mixes of wildflower and grass seeds. All of the areas have been sown as strips, parallel to hedgerows. We have beehives to the South in a pollen and nectar rich small meadow.