Wilding Photography Competition with PhotoSoc - voting open until 5 June
In collaboration with PhotoSoc and Green Rewards, submit your best wildlife photos into our competition to win a £20 voucher!
Category one: ‘Life on land’
Category two: ‘Life by the water’
To enter, sign up to Green Rewards, and submit your photos to either category. You will also earn 500 points for entering the competition. Users of Green Rewards will then be able to vote for their favorite photos from 1-5 June.
'Photo post' raffle
We have installed six new fixed photograpghy posts at some of our campuses most scenic locations. Help us monitor our landscapes and contribute to citizen science by sharing the photos you take at them via the . You will be helping to track habitat evolution and the effects of a changing climate.
To launch these photo posts, throughout May, photos from any of the locations will be entered into a free prize draw to win a UoN Wild Campus photo book. To enter, email a link to your post on the padlet to sustainability@nottingham.ac.uk. You can enter six photos, one from each location.
The photo posts can be found at the following locations on What3Words:
- University Park - The Downs: ///couch.vivid.cycle
- University Park - The Orchard: ///works.owner.factories
- Highfields Lake: ///wings.fault.woke
- Jubilee - Lakeside: ///sugars.pasta.music
- Sutton Bonington - Diamond Wood, Pasture Lane: ///noisy.dunk.span
- Sutton Bonington - The Arboretum: ///diamond.recap.putter
All the winning photos and a selection of best of the rest will be exhibited at the June Wilding Festival (see below).
Hedgehog house building - Tuesdays 1-3pm
If you’re an Architecture student, join in with hedgehog house building every Tuesday between 1pm and 3pm. These houses will provide safe, insulated refuges for hedgehogs emerging from hibernation, when they can be most vulnerable to cold, disturbance, and energy loss.
Location: Centre for 3D Design, University Park (drop in)
Nature survey of the Downs - Wednesday 3 June
The Downs on University Park is one of our most biodiverse spaces and is a Local Wildlife Site. To help us manage and maintain this space effectively, we need to know what species are there already.
Spend a mindful hour or two helping us record plants and the insects in this beautiful habitat.
- Plant survey - Identify and record all the species you can using a
- Flower-insect timed counts - Pick a flower type and record all the insects that visit it in 10 minutes. This will support the
Full training will be given.
Meet us on The Downs, location on what3words:
1.30-3pm
Please register . If the weather is bad we will have to cancel this activity as insects dont like it when it's wet and windy either!
Wilding Campuses Festival - Wednesday 10 June 12-3pm
Come and celebrate and connect with nature with an afternoon of talks and activities in Millenium Garden on University Park. Plus have your say on the future of wilding of UoN campuses.
Come celebrate the end of our Wilding Campuses Project and let us say thank you for taking part.
Join us 12-1pm in Room B62 of Law and Social Sciences for:
- Free food!
- Short nature talks by the Wilding Campuses Team, and . With introduction by Katherine Linehan (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education & Student Experience).
- Photo competition winners and exhibition.
Then from 1pm, join us in the Millenium Garden for:
- Nature workshops including: foraging, elderflower cordial and herbal tea making, pond dipping, bug house building and habitat restoration.
- Find out about ways to get involved in restoring nature locally with stalls from Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, Trent Rivers Trust and Nottinghamshire County Council Nature Recovery Team. Plus UoN Wellbeing and Community Engagement.
Please so that we can understand numbers.
Free training - support nature and biodiversity in education settings
If you are passionate about nature, biodiversity and helping people to connect to the world around them, joining the as a nature and biodiversity champion is the perfect opportunity for you to share your knowledge and skills. Through tailored training sessions delivered by the team at , you will receive ready-made activity guides and resources to use with your local education settings, whether it is mapping/creating habitats, aiding planting schemes, or rejuvenating a pond.
Please complete the to receive further information and training dates.
If you have any questions or would like to know more, please email ca-eastmidlands@nottingham.ac.uk.
Important information
- Grounds can provide PPE essential to the task as needed, including gloves, eye protection and hi-vis vests.
- Volunteers should provide their own footwear and will not be permitted to work with inadequate footwear on tasks where risk of foot injury is possible.
- First Aid kit will be provided on site.
If you plan on attending any events, please read this Risk Assessment.
Help us spread the word
Whilst these events are open to all, we are keen to engage with staff and students may not already have much connection with nature. This includes those from working class backgrounds, people of colour, students studying non-environmental courses, those with caring responsibilities and those with disabilities. Get in touch if you can help reach these groups.
Contact the Sustainability Team
Biodiversity at UoN
The university has some of the greenest campuses in the UK. They support a diverse range of habitats and species and are enjoyed by our staff, students, and the local community. The Wilding Campus project will tie in with work already underway to enhance and protect our beautiful green spaces for the benefit of all. A new biodiversity steering group, made up of staff and students, from across schools and operations, is driving this agenda.
Recent surveys have helped establish campus biodiversity baselines so we can set effective improvement targets. For example, as part of the Wild Campuses project, the university has committed to rewilding 15% of our land.
Wilding Campuses is a regional partnership project to restore local natural heritage, led by SOS-UK and made possible with the Heritage Fund and thanks to National Lottery players.