Owen Harris Building Nature Reserve Rewilding

We have been working with Buckinghamshire New University to help deliver their Sustainability Strategy and rewilding the area around the Owen Harris Building.

We have planted a mixed native hedgerow and mulched it with woodchip around the car park.  Hedgerows are essential for biodiversity because they provide food, shelter and nesting sites for our birds, small mammals and insects.  They also act as corridors to allow wildlife to travel safely from one place to another. 

In addition, on the once mown green desert, we have created a mini wildflower meadow to attract butterflies and bees to help with pollination.

You will also see log piles and a stag beetle stumpery and also three swift boxes to help ensure that we don’t lose the wonderful swifts that journey here every summer.  If you are interested in helping swifts, please click here.

The clearance begins…

You can see after just 6 months the difference in the mini wildflower meadow area – 10 pyramidal orchids are in flower (below left) plus ox eye daisy, self heal in the hundreds (pictured left), field scabious, hawkbit and knapweed to name but a few!!

The field scabious in the mini meadow are joined by some in the nearby refurbished planters. These are also filled with non-native pollinators like Rudbekia and Leucanthemum (big daisies) plus some native plants such as Bird’s-foot Trefoil, Marjoram & Knapweed.

We are looking forward to doing more projects with BNU in the coming months.