Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE) exists to halt the decline in nature and help restore its richness. We work with partners across Oxfordshire and its surrounding area to:
Protect and enhance existing sites of environmental importance;
Create biodiverse habitats where nature can thrive; and
Connect people to their environment, building engagement with nature and support for its recovery.
We have two main strands to our work: the Local Environment Fund (LEF) and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). This newsletter will summarise our key achievements from 2023 and give an idea what’s coming up this month.
The Local Environment Fund in 2023.
Our Local Environment Fund (LEF) is the heart and soul of TOE’s work and we’re proud to have supported so many great partners and projects this year.
Our Top Achievements this year:
Awarded a total of 47 grants, across 6 different funds and worth a total of £199,893.
Awarded 21 grants worth £108,000 to local community organisations to promote engagement with and access to nature.
Awarded a total of £177,496 from Landfill Communities Funds from Grundon Waste Management Ltd.
Hinksey Heights Nature Trail Regeneration
The nature trail winds along a wooden valley through which a stream flows, bordered by a rare alkaline fen making it a hotspot for wildlife. The team of volunteers aimed to relieve winter flooding on parts of the trail and replace sections of dilapidated boardwalk. Thanks to the grants from TOE and other sources including crowd-funding, much of this has been successfully completed.
“Having young explorers enjoying the Hinksey Heights nature reserve is a perfect example of how TOE meets its aim to connect people with their environment by building engagement with nature.”
- Rachel Sanderson, Head of LEF at TOE
Grundon’s Toni Robinson joins Nick Thorn for a stroll along the boardwalk at Hinksey Heights Nature Trail.
“This is a very special area; there are badger setts and the bird life is amazing – we see pairs of buzzards, kestrels and much more. The trail is very popular with walkers and families with young children, and we take the view that if children love the countryside when they are small, then they will love it for the rest of their lives.”
- Nick Thorne, volunteer co-ordinator for Hinksey Heights and also TOE trustee
Above we can see an enchanting selection of the local biodiversity being preserved in Hinksey Nature Trail.
Biodiversity Boost for Island Pond Wood
A grant from TOE is helping the Friends of Island Pond Wood to enhance the biodiversity of Island Pond Wood, a community woodland site in Launton, near Bicester.
The grant has funded capital works including pond creation, woodland thinning and grassland enhancement to provide opportunities for not only wildlife, but community engagement and education. Four hedgerow coppice blocks were also created to allow hedge regeneration, specifically blackthorn for the brown hairstreak butterfly (below right: image by Neil Hulme).
“The funding that TOE provided has been fundamental in achieving our habitat management plans for the Island Pond Wood. The process has been well signposted, with great support throughout from Rachel and the team. We are already seeing the positive outcomes of the project – an established wildlife pond, thinned woodland with a newly developing understory and regenerated hedgerows bustling with life.”
- Friends of Island Pond Wood
Bridge Street Community Bee Friendly Food Forest
Using their grants from TOE, Banbury Community Action Group have built nine new hexagonal raised beds in the Bridge Street Community Food Forest. The Garden is now particularly well populated by different species of wasps (one as small as the head of a pin), weevils, flesh flies, drain flies, hoverflies of various types, carder bees, shield bugs, beetle larva, ladybirds, flea beetles, crane flies aka daddy-long-legs, and more. All thanks to the pollinator-friendly planters TOE sponsored!
Above: The construction of the wildlife pond in a hexagonal bed with the help of volunteers; the installation of the two wooden signs at the entrances to the garden.
“We used the money from TOE very wisely. We are very grateful for your support! Inspired by the "Bee Healthy Project Guide," we made eight hexagonal planters dedicated to growing pollinator-friendly flowers. A further hexagonal bed is now hosting a wildlife pond. We also made our Community Garden more visible by adding two large wooden "Bridge Street Community Garden" signs sited at both garden entrances to increase footfall, general interest, and engagement.”
- Bridge Street Community Garden
The garden in full bloom in the Summer months: a wonderful symphony of biodiversity!
Biodiversity Net Gain in 2023.
This year, TOE have continued to work with developers, providing high quality habitat creation and management projects to off set habitat loss through development across Oxfordshire and surrounding counties; this is known as Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).
Requirements Development
Eight developments have used TOE to provide their offset requirements. Most commonly modified grassland and scrub habitats are lost when development occurs. As these developments have all been approved before mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain is implemented, the offset project can be identified after the build has started (depending on individual planning consents and conditions).
What does this offsetting look like?
Left: Arable land on Killman Down Estate before partnership with TOE.
Right: The same land after TOE’s biodiversity restoration project.
Preparing for mandatory BNG Regulations
Once mandatory BNG is implemented (January 2024) all planning applications that require off-set provision to meet their BNG obligations must include those details a BNG site can be included in a planning application a long term Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan must have been written and approved by a Planning Authority or Responsible Body, secured by a legal planning condition or Conservation Covenant and registered on a National Register.
TOE has been leading the way in taking the regulations and developing this process, working closely with Planning Authorities, landowners and other stakeholders, to ensure high quality nature recovery projects are ready for Mandatory BNG. To enable TOE to do this the team has expanded bringing in additional expertise in financial modelling, ecology and communications.
Thank you to all of our volunteers, grant holders, donors, landowners and developers who make our work possible.
If you’d like to donate to help us protect and restore Oxfordshire’s natural environment, please click below.