Conservation Blog

Between the Lake and the Duck Decoy is a dam, used to retain the water in the Lake and prevent flooding of the area around the Duck Decoy. It holds water above its natural level, so it falls under the Reservoir Act of 1975, requiring regular inspection and maintenance. Part of the maintenance plan requires…

A dedicated team gave up their valuable time on a bank holiday weekend to care for the snake sculpture in Wollaton Park, and several other carvings too. By painting them with preservatives, the team helped to:

It was great to see new volunteers join us today for a dead hedging session on Digby Avenue. The community of Saturday supporters is steadily growing, over 25 different people have now attended at least one conservation session. Having learnt a lot from our first attempt at a dead hedge in June, this time our…

Wollaton Park is surrounded by 7 miles of wall. Most (all?) of it is a Grade 2 listed structure. Over time weeds and seedlings grow in the wall, damaging the face of the bricks and the mortar holding it together. The Saturday Conservation Volunteer group carefully cleared the growth from outside of the front wall…

As new trees are planted, they need to be protected from the deer, who would otherwise feast on the new strong leaf growth. We had hoped to fence three trees, but the roots of the replaced trees were too much of an obstacle on the third, so have temporarily left it while we consider options.

Clearing non-native Arum Italicum for the conservation area by Parkside.

The Deer in Wollaton Park are herbivores and eat most things. This includes tree saplings. When new trees are planted, they are often protected from the Deer by wire guards. As the trees mature, the guards need to be removed.

In 2021/2022 over 5000 daffodils were planted in the park.

This Saturday’s volunteering task was to repair the chestnut fencing in the field by Cambridge road.

Painting the wood carvings with preservatives.

Thanks to our new “weekend” Volunteer crew who turned up today and helped remove and cut back the small self-set trees by the lake. A lot of conservation / environmental management is destructive but these little ones in the long term would impact the boggy edge habitat so it’s important they are removed.

During the dry summer of 2022, the lake level dropped in the dry weather making it easy to access the edges and clear debris.