Welcome to the Christmas edition of our Lockdown in nature newsletter. Thank you for joining us over the last few weeks - we hope you enjoy the Christmas break and look forward to sharing more sustainability news in 2021.
A 2020 roundup - good news only
This year, nature has been a respite for people throughout the pandemic. Whilst we've been unable to enjoy our usual indoor activities with family and friends, the outdoors have become ever more important. Looking after our planet and the wildlife who reside alongside us needs to remain a key goal for all of us. Everyone can do their bit, by making just one change, with the goal of a safer, greener and more sustainable place to live. Below, we've rounded up our good news for 2020 - usually we'd do a review over the academic year, but it's important for us to highlight some of the good things that we've achieved at the University this year.
Spotted: Wildlife on Campus
Whilst many of us slowed down to appreciate nature, wildlife seemed to reclaim parts of our city back. Below is a video summarising some of the wildlife spotted this year across our estate (all footage was taken in 2020):
Wildlife spotted at the Brayford Campus:
- Otters in the Brayford Pool - these curious and seldom seen mammals spent the summer playing in the middle of the pool, fishing for eels and leaving streams of bubbles in their wake.
- Hedgehogs - our favourite prickly mammals made the best of our quieter campus, often heard snuffling about in the hedgerows and in the grass around the Delph Pond.
- Small birds; goldfinches, sparrows, wrens and robins, grey wagtails and pied wagtails.
- Birds of prey; sparrow hawks and the Cathedral peregrines.
- Water birds; grey herons, cormorants, swans, geese and kingfishers, as well as a woodcock.
We made our campus more wildlife friendly
Alongside the Hedgehog Friendly Campus campaign, we've made a commitment to making our campus more wildlife friendly where possible. Although our #YearoftheGarden plans were put on hold, a number of projects have taken place in 2020 that have improved our city campus.
We rewilded parts of our Brayford Campus: Over the course of Lockdown, we made the decision to rewild parts of our city campus, leaving the grass to grow long around the Delph Pond, Kitchen Garden and on a bank behind the Stephen Langton Building. These areas have provided respite for our birds, hedgehogs and other small animals.
We planted for pollinators: Our library planters, built by our contractors, were planted up with bulbs and some small plants and purposefully include quite a few pollinator friendly plants such as ivy and heather. We also chose plants native to Lincolnshire where possible.
Habitat Enhancements at the Brayford Pool: Floating bio-havens and coir rolls were installed by the Lincolnshire Rivers Trust this year, to help support native wildlife in the Brayford pool and reinforce the bank.
We installed a bird feeder outside the Isaac Newton Building: Alongside our Kitchen Garden bird feeding station, there are now two stations to feed birds on the city campus.
Lincoln SU have also launched a free binocular library for any student wishing to watch wildlife from afar.
Hedgehog Friendly Campus Campaign
We joined the national Hedgehog Friendly Campaign in November 2019, achieving the Bronze award in 2020. This year, our hedgehogs have been an important mascot for other wildlife on campus and have been integral for our rewilded areas.
We introduced over 300 people to Hedgehog First Aid through our webinar in March of this year. We installed 4 "hogitats" (log piles) on the Brayford Campus created by staff, students and members of the community; ran hedgehog surveys on campus and across Lincoln, and made quite a few in roads to our next award.
Love to Ride:
Designed to encourage people to get out in the fresh air, turn a car journey into a cycle journey and discover the many great benefits of cycling; Love to Ride is the perfect way to discover/rediscover your love of cycling and convince others to join you. For the September #LovetoRide challenge;
- 36 cyclists from the University of Lincoln took part
- Our team cycled 4,599 miles in total
- Top institution in our total staff bracket
- 3rd place overall in Lincolnshire
- Our team placed 44th nationally
In partnership: The UoL C.L.E.A.N Hub
The University of Lincoln has partnered with C.L.E.A.N to deliver our first-ever joint litter picking equipment library on the Brayford Campus.
Our mini launch took place last month, with a member of the Sustainability team, Alex Foxley-Johnson, and Ryan Lovett, from Clean Lincoln Everywhere And Now, conducting a socially distanced litter pick on the Brayford Campus.
We're excited to welcome staff, students and members of our community in setting up litter picks next year.
New Recycling projects on Campus
Our team installed new informative recycling stickers over the summer on the Waste, Recycling and DUO 100litre bins this week, which hopefully will help improve our recycling rates and stop cross contamination.
A Bra Bank has been introduced on Campus to support Breast Cancer Research: The initiative is has been launched as part of the Staff Sustainability Advocates Scheme and the bra bank will be located in the entrance to the Nicola de la Haye building every Monday after Christmas.
An active sustainability presence within the SU
Bailey Marchant, VP Campaigns and Environment, launched monthly "Sustaina-bailey" vlogs on YouTube this term and has been campaigning for on recycling in more student accommodation.
The Environmental Officer, James Morris, runs the Environmental committee and has some brilliant plans for the next year.
We have a brilliant collection of student societies related to sustainability, including but not limited to;
- The E.C.O Society
- Wildlife and Conservation
- Popular Plants
A special thank you to all the students who have supported sustainability initiatives, volunteered to help us during events and campaigned this year. They've built hedgehog habitats, wrote blogs for us, organised litter picks, fundraised and baked hedgehog themed cakes, as well as much more.
Sustainability at Lincoln online: webinars, workshops and more
This year, we converted many of our in person events to online, to help as many of our university community access them.
All of our sustainability events are free and open to everybody.
Coming up:
Wildflowers in Lockdown: Professor Libby John, Pro Vice Chancellor / Head of College of Science at the University of Lincoln, will be a running wildflower identification session on Friday 18th December at 11:00.
The Secret Life of Fungi - Join us with Dr Sandra Varga in finding out all about the secret life of fungi. 13th January 2021 11:00 - 12:00
December Campaign - Switch Off
If you're on campus this week, please don't forget to switch off your computers, monitors, chargers and kitchen appliances, as well as turn down any radiators and unplug any personal heaters before you leave.
Got some #uolgoodnews from this year? We'd love to hear it! Tag us on Twitter (@uolenvironment) or drop us an email to environment@lincoln.ac.uk.
If you want to review any of our previous newsletters, check out our library on our website below:
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Credits:
Images & words by Alex Foxley-Johnson & Tracey Turton