Spaces for Nature

Our rangers have been working hard again to clear surface coating weed from two ponds. This algae grows fast and can block sunlight from reaching under the pond, preventing aquatic plants from photosynthesizing and oxygenating the pond. If this is allowed to continue it can deplete the pond of life: a process called eutrophication. Not what we want in our new wildlife pond at Oakley Green Cemetery or Trinity wildlife pond. Thanks Ranger Tom and Ranger Jason for clearing this and giving freshwater wildlife the chance to flourish.

RBWM are working with a fantastic artist, Stu McLellan, to produce a fresh new series of signs for our nature reserves. These are already up across Ockwells Park, Trinity Wildlife Area and Battlemead, and soon to be found at Braywick Nature Centre.

We love Stu's designs because we hope they can be engaging for children whilst also informative to adults. We hope you enjoy learning about the wildlife in your local reserves!

This is the perfect time of year to witness one of nature's delights. Head over to Little Thrift wood and follow the newly created head hedge path. Either side of you is a forest of beautiful bluebells. Take time to enjoy this spectacle - it will be gone in a month till next year!

The fencing was put in by a contractor and some of our fantastic community: the Windsor and Maidenhead Conservation Volunteers. We can't thank them enough for providing a beautiful walkway for the public to enjoy the wood whilst keeping the bluebells protected from trampling.

To remember the lives lost by Covid 19, a Memorial Wildlife Pond has been created at Oakley Green Cemetery.

This pond is filled with native freshwater plants, to attract a thriving ecosystem. We hope to see newts, invertebrates and plenty of water plants. A selection of bulbs have been planted around the pond to provide spring interest to the site.

This project has been championed by Cllr Donna Stimson and Cllr Helen Taylor.

These lovely adjacent nature reserves are on the edge of RBWM in close proximity to Heathrow. Part of the Colne Valley Regional Park, you can find a gorgeous poplar lined woodland trail and a series of small lagoons with a biodiversity of wildflowers encasing them. The Natural Environment Team are working to maintain a high species diversity, by adjusting cutting regimes - stopping the overdominance of species like hemlock and nettle. Come here for wetlands, woodland, scrub and fantastic birdwatching.

Our new Ranger Tom and the team have been working hard to make Braywick Nature Centre garden an exemplar of wildlife gardening.

We have wildlife flowers growing across the lawn, plenty of large logs acting as dead wood, an orchard area, silver birch trees, pollinator friendly shrubs, wildflowers and a native hedge perimeter.

Fresh and organically grown produce is going to feature in our environmental education programme, show demonstrate pollination and ways to utilise human and wildlife's needs in a space.

A wonderful Windsor resident donated funds for 3000 gorgeous spring bulbs planted at Trinity Wildlife Area. These snowdrops were planted just at the start of February 2022 and were blooming all early spring! Head over to Trinity to see how the beautiful new area.

To help protect wildfowl from the newly created footpath across the Causeway at Battlemead, a wildlife screen has begun creation. The majority of this work was undertaken by an amazing team from Wild Maidenhead during January.

There has been plenty of other planting work happening at Battlmead over the last few years. WildCookham and Wild Maidenhead have helped place numerous native whips over the West Field. In 2017, along the riverside many groups helped to plant a 850m wildlife hedge made of 4500 native British whips. This will grow into an important habitat and wildlife corridor for many animals.

We are excited to continue to support Battlemead's habitats (woodland, wetland, conservation grass and scrub) to develop and thrive in the future.

Sutherland Grange is one of RBWM's designated Local Nature Reserves. Because a part of the site was historically grazed, the grassland is biodiverse and gets this designation.

Wild Windsor, one of our local conservation groups, recently planted 100 new trees at Sutherland Grange. This fantastic project will help create pockets of habitat amongst the mown grass, as well as providing interesting features across the reserve.

The image shows long time Windsor resident Tim Dodd planting the first tree.

Over 3 years at Thrift Wood, Ockwells Park, 15,000 trees are being planted to aid nature recovery.

As part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Tree Planting Celebration, RBWM organised a family tree planting day at on the 15th January 2022. About 250 volunteers from the public came along and we planted over 600 trees!

Our trees were all native species such as Hawthorn, Oak, and Hazel to ensure plenty of wildlife can enjoy them.