The sun was finally out today and staff at Lockington made the most of it by taking a walk around the grounds to look at the numerous mature trees which are growing in the gardens. The walk was led by Tom Bennett, Senior Arboriculturalist and Steve Roe, Senior Bat Ecologist who provided tips to a group of staff from all teams at FPCR to identify the native and ornamental species and also identify features which may cause a tree to have bat potential. There are a number of bat boxes located on the trees which are monitored on a regular basis by our team of licenced bat workers. A further activity is to be held this evening as the bats will be monitored and a moth trap, set up on the lawn, will also be checked.
All of the 17 UK bat species feed on insects. Trees support a wide range of insects and provide important foraging habitat as linear features, hedgerows and mature individual trees. Mature native trees can support a diverse range of insects with veteran or ancient trees being of particular importance. Certain species of UK bats will also use trees to roost in throughout the year. Trees provide a range of features which can be suitable for roosting such as trunk and branch hollows, splits or cracks along with detaching bark.
FPCR frequently work together on schemes to incorporate existing mature trees into developments and to provide habitat and roosting sites for bats as featured in the case studies below:
- Buckminster Park
- Tickow Lane, Shepshed
- Bishops Stortford
- Loachbrook Farm, Congleton
- Everards Brewery
- Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton
At our Dorking Office:
The sun was also shining in Dorking today where our expanding team went on a walk of their surrounding area. Based at Dunley Hill Court, in the Surrey Hills AONB, the team has recently grown with new staff including Leo Phillips, Principal Landscape Architect and Karen Bartlett, Senior Ecologist who have both relocated from our Lockington Office to increase the skill set at the Dorking Office. Going Greener begins with understanding your local environment and the team took the opportunity to familiarise themselves with local flora and fauna in the area. The team is carrying out work in the south east of the country and frequently works in partnership with English Heritage and numerous developers in the region.
