Spaces for Nature

40+ volunteers ✔
4 full days of laying ✔
100m+ of wildlife hedge laid ✔
Many cups of tea drunk ✔
100s of kind comments and questions from passers by ✔

The Braywick Rangers led 2 weekends of hedge laying with volunteers this winter. Laying a hedge helps thicken it, making it a corridor and habitat for a lot of wildlife, as well as looking attractive, producing a natural stock barrier and giving shade. Thanks everyone who was involved in our effort this winter, including Wild Maidenhead, WildCookham, Windsor and Maidenhead Conservation Volunteers and Good Gym. We are excited to see how the hedge looks this summer!

Over the summer we have had 15 corporate groups from Centrica and British Gas who have helped us care for our young trees at Ockwells. We removed the tree guards from ones that were ready and weeded around the bases to give them less competition. We also cleared away old piles of tree gurads that were removed by community volunteers.

We were thrilled to run our first ever Corporate Volunteering Scything Day over the summer at Braywick Nature Centre. Find out more in this video: Instagram

See what our Natural Environment Team and local community have achieved for conservation this winter season.

We also had Suez at Ockwells yesterday! We got up to some more tree planting, cutting back brambles from our bluebell patches and digging some invasive rhododendron. Again, this invasive species control and understory planting is vital work in woodland management and contributes to the Biodiversity Action Plan's (BAP's) Woodland Habitat Action Plan (HAP). Great work all!

Channel Assist came and planted around 300 tress at the edge of Braywick Nature Reserve by Margaret's Bridge last week.

Rangers Maddie and Tom had a great morning of Yellow Rattle seeding on Battlemead Common last week with Donald Reid Group and Green The UK.

🌼Yellow rattle is known as the 'meadow maker' as it is semi-parasitic on grasses, allowing space for wildflowers to break through, and are therefore not fully reliant on photosynthesis for energy.

🌼When the seed pods dry out, they make a distinctive 'rattle' noise.

Winter 1 (W1) – October, November, December

This quarter marks the start of our winter season – Practical Conservation.

Tree Planting

Any tree or hedgerow planting that has been identified as needed during the summer observation starts around November. This is done over winter as the whips (young trees) will be in their dormant stage and will not be too stressed by the transfer, in addition to the extra moisture in winter soils.

Park Management

We are undertaking management tasks throughout our reserves and parks - for example, laying fresh woodchip on paths through Braywick LNR to prevent them becoming muddy/boggy as they mulch down over the wet winter months.

Invasive Species Control

We now undertake invasive species control for plants such as Laurel and Rhododendron. This is important, as without this management, these species would outcompete and over shade our natives and can cause a decline in biodiversity.

Engagement

Our main forms of engagement during the winter are community events (pumpkin carving, yule decoration making) and volunteer practical conservation days (tree planting). Volunteering is done by both local groups and corporate volunteer days. Look out on our social media for events coming up!