Local wildlife living in Oxford's ponds, glades and woodlands are to benefit from a £5,000 cash grant awarded to the Oxford Urban Wildlife Group (OUWG)

The wildlife group has been given the money for their conservation project at Boundary Brook Nature Park in East Oxford.

With generous support from the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE), and with funding from Grundon Waste Management Ltd, the East Oxford conservationists will be able to increase biodiversity and restore natural wildlife habitats at the site.

The area is home to protected species such as the brown hairstreak butterfly (Thecla betulae) and the slow worm (Anguis fragilis).

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As part of their year-long project, OUWG will be working with local communities to encourage them to get hands-on in conservation work and species identification at the nature reserve.

The conservation project will also involve pupils at nearby Larkrise Primary School to enhance their nature-based learning.

The project will also involve collaboration with local wellbeing services, harnessing the impact of green spaces and nature on mental health and overall happiness.

Helen Edwards, chair of OUWG, said: “It’s a wonderful opportunity to encourage, inspire and educate people to nurture and protect areas of wildness in urban environments.

"We will be offering volunteers of all ages opportunities to gain new skills in wildlife conservation and ecology to protect our local nature sites for future generations.”

Ben Heaven Taylor, TOE’s CEO, added: “We know grants from TOE make all the difference to grassroots projects like this which might not otherwise happen.

"We’re proud to provide the funding to enable the OUWG volunteers to transform their vision for Boundary Brook Nature Park into a reality. Spending time outside brings health and well-being benefits to us all and this project, which benefits both people and wildlife, is the type of initiative we love to support.

"The habitat restoration work is going to keep everyone busy over the next year or so but we look forward to admiring the results of everyone’s hard work."

OUWG has been running for almost forty years, looking after wild and rare species that inhabit the wild space on our doorsteps.

Over the next five years, the wildlife group plans to develop a rare wetland plant conservation project to help preserve Oxford’s freshwater biodiversity.

It also plans to protect its slow worm ‘highway’ that provides essential routes for the protected reptile, and hold species surveying opportunities to monitor and better protect biodiversity at Boundary Brook. Other plans include a children’s poetry workshop inspired by nature at the site, a forest school to enable children to engage with nature and an aim to get live camera footage of our resident badgers and foxes.