Trees and Wildlife

2023:

• West Oxford Tree Trail updated to reflect new plantings and some removals.  Trail published September 2023.
• First dusk nature walk from West Oxford to Hogacre Common Eco Park, with bird expert Nick Boyd.  Birds and bats spotted on leisurely stroll, ending with cidre and fire at Hogacre.  A beautiful summer evening – to be repeated next year we hope!
• Two dawn chorus walks with bird expert Nick Boyd in April.
• Continue to work with Hogacre team to explore synergies and wyas to support each other, and to promote the work of groups like Oxford Swift City.

2022:

• LCWO volunteers planted 500 trees on Oatlands Rec in just over an hour!

2021:

• Activities, including the rescheduled 2019 tree planting delayed further by Covid…
• Local artist Josie Webber created mosaics for the second phase of ‘Unlocking the power of our river’.  These mosaics feature different local river wildlife, as chosen by West Oxford residents, and form the human sundial at Osney Lock Hydro.  You can visit the mosaic and the Hydro site, which is regularly open to the public – for details, see the WOCoRe website.
• West Oxford Naturehood group did regular litter picks; to join the whatsapp group and get involved, see the WON page.

2020: This year’s plans were unsurprisingly significantly affected by Covid-19, but a few things happened

• We teamed up with Earthwatch and local wildlife group Bulstake Naturehood Group to create a new West Oxford Naturehood Group.  This small group has an active Whatsapp chat group, and currently meets fairly regularly to litter pick in the local area, as well as discussing nature sightings, care of the local green spaces and more.  The group is independent from LCWO, and has a whatsapp you can join.  To join the whatsapp group and get involved, see the WON page.
• As part of launching West Oxford Naturehood, we commissioned artist LisaMadeIt to turn this timeline into an infographic:

2019:

• Begin a partnership with HedgeOx to help increase support for hedgehogs in the West Oxford area and beyond.  Letter-writing campaign to 29+ local fencing companies, asking them to join our HedgeOx Hog Hole Roll of Honour and promote hedgehog holes in their fencing.  Read more here.
• Building on the West Oxford Tree Trail, create a tree trail in Florence Park, on the other side of the city of Oxford (download it here).
• Kingfisher Corner relaunch, 27 April 2019, and creation of new display boards to tell the story of the area and introduce visitors to its inhabitants.
• Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to work with Osney Lock Hydro on ‘Unlocking the power of our river’.  First part of project is to run a river-inspired Midsummer Meander in West Oxford which is a great success.  Run a junk workshop with artist Groovy Su at West Oxford Fun Day, to create a display at the Lock site during the Meander; ask members of the community to nominate their favourite river wildlife to appear on the human sundial forming the second part of this project. Full details available on the project page.
• Funded to buy 500 trees to plant on Oatlands Rec.  Planting postponed by the extensive flooding.

2018:

• One minute bird feeder how to video.
• Host free dawn chorus walks around Kingfisher Corner with bird expert Dom Woodfield.  Otter spraint identified at Tumbling Bay.
• Funded to commission BioScan to do a new ecological survey of Kingfisher Corner, which allows the development of a 3 year management plan of the area, working closely with Oxford City Council.  Both survey results and management plan can be found here.

2017:

• West Oxford Tree Trail.  Following hot on the heels of the beautiful Hogacre Common Eco Park Tree Trail, LCWO designs its own tree trail, which it launches at West Oxford Community Primary, with a free map to every child.  Find out more and download the maps on the Oxford Tree Trails website here.
• Offer free accessbile guided Tree Trail walks to local residents as part of our ’10 years of LCWO’ celebrations – plus host a Teddy Bear’s picnic at Kingfisher Corner.

2013:

• Oxford Festival of Science BioBlitz confirms the importance of tree & bulb planting: 394 species are identified in Botley Park, 101 of which are in Kingfisher Corner, including the picture-wing fly – the rarest fly recorded during the BioBlitz.

2012:

• Hogacre heritage orchard.  Hogacre wins £75k grant and plants orchard of 85 fruit trees.  Creates one of Oxfordshire’s most important heriage orchards and wins OCVA Environment Award 2012 for making the ‘biggest positive impact on the local environment’.

2011:

• First Hogacre Common Eco Park Harvest Fest.  500+ attend.

2010:

• 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.  Find out more about Hogacre Common Eco Park here.
• Plant 1100 trees at Hogacre.

2009:

• Set up the trees and wildlife group, which subsequently amalgamates with the West Oxford Wildlife group.
• Mass tree planting.  LCWO members, school children and Woodcraft Folk, plant 640 trees with the support of the Forest of Oxford Charity. The school children nam 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.
• Set up Kingfisher Corner.  The group sets up a new wildlife area, again with support from the Forest of Oxford, on the site of the former playground in Botley Park. Named ‘Kingfisher Corner‘, the site has been planted with many varieties of native trees, wildflowers and shrubs.  Find out more about Kingfisher Corner here.