COP26: Beehives and butterflies: Biodiversity at USW

As part of our commitment to sustainability at the University of South Wales (USW), biodiversity is one of the key areas of activity in our goal to be Carbon Neutral by 2040.

Alice Milanese, Energy and Sustainability Manager, and Mike Davies, Maintenance Officer, tell us how USW is enhancing biodiversity across its campuses, and the University’s plans for the future.

Mike: I started managing the Glyntaff campus in 2017, and at the time, parts of the grassland were left uncut for the use of the BSc(Hons) Environmental Science course; the students would study insect species, identify plant species, and carry out soil analysis as part of their degree.

In order to provide more land for the students to use, and help increase biodiversity activity across the University, the Estates & Facilities department decided to collaborate with the course team and further decrease the areas of cut grass, thus encouraging more wildlife to thrive.

The insect and plant life has since flourished; we have been able to identify several different types of butterflies and wild orchids, which has brought enormous benefits to the students. It has also led to plans to expand the hedgerows on the site, which will help further attract birds and insects to the site as well as increasing carbon absorption.

Alice: We engaged early on with Ground Control, a national landscaping and maintenance company, who carried out habitat surveys of the species we already had on our sites, and gave us pointers on how we could expand our reach.

During the past few years we have planted additional trees which have high carbon capture, as part of our work to reduce our carbon footprint. Our planting programme will continue this autumn on Treforest Campus, where we’ll include a range of tree species.

We’ve also created wildflower meadows across 650m2 , and have cleared the existing study areas of uncut grass to collect thatch and overgrowth, which will encourage a flourish from late spring to early summer 2022. And we’re working closely with Rhondda Cynon Taf Council to work to increase some natural grass species, which are supportive of the insect population.

Our Glyntaff campus is also home to a number of beehives, which are looked after by a local beekeeper. We’re already planning to install additional beehives at the student accommodation buildings on Treforest campus, as well using some rooftop space at our Cardiff site, while delivering beekeeper training to colleagues and students so that they can help conserve the bee population at USW.

Colleagues and students across USW are very supportive of our biodiversity work, and we hope to build on this by expanding our network of sustainability champions, who can help us do even more in the coming months and years on our journey to being carbon neutral.

Mike: One of our current projects is an upgrade of the woodland walking trail on our Treforest campus, which is popular with colleagues and students all year round. We’ve repaired the footbridge and will add bird boxes to the trees, and we are planning to open up the space along the trail to install some benches, allow more light, and make room to plant additional flowers.

It’s a privilege to be just a small part of maintaining and improving this wildlife corridor at USW; having these areas of nature which are untouched will hopefully encourage further species to set up home on our campuses, which can only be a good thing, and, all the while, make our spaces as attractive as possible for everyone who uses them.