Join us at our new reserve

The previous owners of the land planted hundreds of trees around the two lakes there, but an awful lot of them have since died, due – presumably, to a lack of water during the drought of 2022.

Other trees were planted too close to the lake and have since become waterlogged and died. We’re going to keep the dead trees in situ as they’re good for invertebrates to feed on but we’re going to collect all of the plastic tree guards and tree stakes to use elsewhere.

The areas where the young trees were planted will eventually become wildflower meadows instead.

We have an experienced and qualified tree surgeon who has kindly volunteered to come along with her chainsaw and help to create some ‘sight lines’ over the lakes (so that folks can appreciate the extent of the reserve) as well as cutting back encroaching willow trees in between the two lakes to make it easier for waterfowl to move around the reserve.

Volunteers with hand saws will then cut the trees down into more manageable sizes, and we’ll create several hibernacula (for our insects and small mammals to overwinter underneath) at appropriate places nearby.

We’ll supply all of the tools and PPE (gloves and eye protection) volunteers should need, but if you’re coming along, please wear sturdy outdoor boots/wellingtons and bring a waterproof, in case we have rain. We’ll work though a rain shower but if there’s extreme weather (very high winds or snow) we’ll leave site to seek shelter.

There really are quite a few ‘mini projects’ that will need to be completed at this reserve over the coming months in order to create optimum conditions for the hundreds of species of birds, mammals, plants and insects that call it ‘home’, and we’d be delighted if you could become a part of its success story.

We’ll be running a short series of work groups at Christ College Reserve over the Winter months. So far, we’ve got two other days planned – on Saturday 18th January (10am to 1pm) and on Saturday 8th February (1pm to 4pm).

Hope to see you there!