Over the last decade, LCWO’s trees and wildlife group has planted over 1600 trees, saving ~25 tonnes of CO2 every year, bringing biodiversity benefits and helping to reduce local flooding.
As well as planting trees and bulbs, the group has created Kingfisher Corner and Hogacre Common Eco-Park, beautiful local spots for all to enjoy.
This year, the group has brought our local trees to life through the design of the LCWO Tree Trail – find out more and download the map here!
Some work to date
- In 2009 LCWO set up the trees and wildlife group, which subsequently amalgamated with the West Oxford Wildlife group.
During its first year, LCWO members, school children and Woodcraft Folk, planted 640 trees with the support of the Forest of Oxford Charity. The school children named the three tree planted areas “Wiggly Waggly Wood”, “Peace Wood” and “The Wild West Wood”. The trees will sequester around 64 tonnes of carbon dioxide and help to reduce flood risk by absorbing water.
The group also set up a new wildlife area, again with support from the Forest of Oxford, on the site of the former playground in Botley Park. The site, named ‘Kingfisher Corner’, has been planted with many varieties of native trees, wildflowers and shrubs. There are plans to place owl and bat boxes there and other measures to encourage wildlife. In 2013, Oxford Festival of Science BioBlitz confirmed the importance of tree & bulb planting: 394 species were identified in Botley Park, 101 of which were in Kingfisher Corner, including the picture-wing fly – the rarest fly recorded during the BioBlitz.- In 2010, the group set up Hogacre Common Eco Park on land leased from Corpus Christi College. The rent is a jar of honey per annum and the site plays host to a beautiful community orchard, tasty summer cafe, OxGrow, small wind turbine and several bee hives.