Welcome to the sixth 2021 edition of our regular sustainability newsletter during lockdown. In each issue, we'll round up online activities and webinars not only provided by our team and the university, but also some from around the world.
Carbon conscious: calculating and being aware of your own environmental impact | Rebecca Forster
In each newsletter, we will be featuring a talk from the new series of Climate Change Seminars at the University of Lincoln. This week, we're highlighting Rebecca Forster's talk on being Carbon conscious.
Watch her talk hosted by the College of Science below:
University of Lincoln achieves Hedgehog Friendly Silver award
The University of Lincoln has been awarded the Silver accreditation from the national Hedgehog Friendly Campus scheme.
Hedgehog populations have declined around 50% in rural areas and 30% in urban areas since just the year 2000. Taking part in Hedgehog Friendly Campus means that university communities can play an active role in helping hedgehogs to get back to healthy numbers.
After joining the campaign in 2019, Lincoln achieved Bronze in early 2020, and are one of twenty other institutions across the country to have achieved Silver in 2021. Almost 100 universities have currently registered to the campaign.
To be awarded Silver, Universities must take actions that benefit our native hedgehog population, both locally and nationally.
Actions included creating hedgehog related events and campaigns to engage both the university community and members of the public in the plight of these native mammals. Webinars on Hedgehog First Aid, and Hedgehog Surveying at Home took place last year to give people the confidence to help hedgehogs in need and to identify where hedgehogs are in city.
The campaign also required the team to create log piles or "hogitats"; which support hedgehogs by fostering insect biodiversity and providing natural places for them to nest. The team also planted brambles and left areas on the Brayford Campus to rewild where possible. The long grass supports not only hedgehogs, but a variety of insects, small mammals, and birds as well.
As well as this, the University of Lincoln Hedgehog Friendly Campus team presented at the EAUC's Sustainability webinar series to encourage other institutions to join the campaign.
This year, the team will start to work towards the Gold accreditation, whilst creating a guide to making Lincoln a hedgehog friendly city.
The Hedgehog Friendly Campus Scheme is funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
If you'd like to join the Hedgehog Friendly Campus team at the University of Lincoln, please email environment@lincoln.ac.uk.
March winds and April showers bring forth May Flowers
~ Proverb, first recorded back in 1886.
Words by Tracey Turton
Spring is here and you'll have noticed an abundance of beautiful, colourful flowers popping up everywhere!
When to plant bulbs: Most spring flowering bulbs should be planted in the early autumn, but Snowdrops are the exception - you should aim to plant new bulbs in late spring after the current crop have stopped flowering.
Summer flowering bulbs, such as Dahlias, Lilies and Gladiolus should be planted in late spring once the soil has started to warm up. A lot of the summer flowering bulbs will continue to flower through autumn.
Autumn and Winter flowering bulbs should be planted in late summer, but some can start to be cultivated in pots during spring - this could allow you to plan how the colours/flowers appear in your garden throughout the year.
How to plant bulbs: There's no set guide as to how to plant a bulb, with each one requiring a specific location and depth beneath the soil. Make sure to read the growing instructions that come with the bulb or look online for support. The link below has great advice for you.
After care: Daffodils, Snowdrops, Crocus's and many others are sturdy perennials that can remain in the ground throughout the year, but you can help them thrive through fertilising them in early spring whilst they're spreading out roots.
But if you're worried about the location you can dig them up 8-10 weeks after flowering and store them in a box, in a garage/shed until they're ready to be planted again.
Nature's focus: Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)
“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. ” ―Aesop
Words & photos by Alex Foxley-Johnson
Each week, we'll focus on an animal that has been spotted in our city. This week, we're talking about the Grey Heron.
Grey herons are tall, prehistoric looking birds. You'll often spot them standing at the edge of the water, absolutely still whilst waiting for the right moment to fish.
We have a lot of grey herons in Lincoln, particularly at Hartsholme Park, where they reside in a heronry (a nesting site usually found in tall trees) in the Spring. There are several that can also be often seen in the fields near the Pyewipe Inn and Foss bank. We've also seen them at the Delph Pond on the Brayford Campus.
Grey herons have huge wingspans, which can be up to almost two metres. They are probably one of the largest birds most of us would ever see in our gardens... but outdoor fish keepers beware, they have been known to fish in garden ponds!
About Grey herons:
- Their diet includes lots of fish, but also small birds such as ducklings, small mammals and amphibians.
- Grey herons nests are called 'heronries'. They lay 3-4 eggs, with young leaving the nest after about one and a half months.
- They weigh up to 2kg and have a lifespan around 5 years.
- They have an incredibly loud call, it's pretty hard to miss it, especially during nesting season!
- Historically, the heron was regarded as a bird of divination in Ancient Rome.
- In Medieval times, herons were a favourite quarry of falconers. Click here to view an illustration of a falcon and heron.
Extra resources:
What's on:
- Climate Change Series: An Opportunity to Change Practice for the Lincolnshire Agriculture and Food Industries - Professor Simon Pearson and Isobel Wright (10 March 3:00pm - 4:00pm). This talk will be hosted live on YouTube. Details on how to access are listed via the link below:
- Wildflower Identification Sessions with Professor Libby John - Join us on the first Friday of every month at 11:00 for an informal identification and discussion session on Microsoft Teams. Please contact us via email at environment@lincoln.ac.uk for an invite.
- Nature Live - the Natural History Museum has a schedule of free events, you can also watch past talks via the link below.
- The Great British Wildflower Hunt is about seeing the wild flowers that surround us every day. Sign up this Spring and start documenting what you see over the warmer months:
Food Waste Action Week
Joining in the LoveFoodHateWaste campaign to reduce waste, we’ve been focusing on sharing our tips to reduce food waste in the home.
Some fun, and not so fun, facts from the campaign:
- If everyone in the UK stopped throwing away food for one day, it’d do the same for climate change as taking 14,000 cars off the road for a whole year!
- 20 million edible slices of bread go in the bin every day in UK homes. Annually, it takes 205,000 hectares of land to grow crops to produce our bread and that land is used unnecessarily. Freezing your loaf can make a difference.
- Broccoli stems are edible – try them in a stir-fry, stew, sauce or salad.
- Potatoes are one of the most wasted food items in the UK – reduce this waste by scrubbing, not peeling potatoes when cooking them, or add the peelings to a compost bin.
- In the UK, 720,000 oranges are wasted every single day. This is wasting land, labour, water, fuel, time and money!
Do you know the difference between ‘Use By’ and ‘Best Before’ dates?
Use By - is about your safety, food should not be eaten after this date, even if it looks/tastes fine. Examples include meat and some dairy products.
Best Before - is about quality, whilst it may not be in prime condition, it will still be safe to eat for some time after this date. Use your senses to determine if you should still be eating it. Examples include fruit, vegetables, tins of food, chocolate & many more; which will be okay to eat after the "Best Before" date has gone.
We've gathered a few top tips to prevent food waste in your home, but there are many, many more including planning your meals in advance, bulk cooking, composting food waste and making soups out of wilting veg:
If you want to review any of our previous newsletters, check out our library on our website below:
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Credits:
Created with an image by WikiImages - "earth world map", all other images & words by Alex Foxley-Johnson & Tracey Turton