Kingston Hill Biodiversity

Feb 2011. Michael Herrmann arranged for an inspection of Kingston Universities Kingston Hills Nature Trail with the universities Biodiversity and Landscape Administrator Lynsey Stafford. Lynsey has developed the universities Biodiversity Action Plan and worked with Wates construction to plan and build the trail. Unfortunately, Wates are not so sympathetic to actual core values, using standard industry materials to achieve the required layout. This included plastic netting sheeting to layout the pathways, with a thin overlay of mulch. Lynsey outlined the enormous task of removing Japanese Knotweed and invasive Rhododendrons from most of the site, which had covered ponds and native plants. It was also very interesting to see how much rubbish students in the surrounding halls of residents had thrown out of the windows over the years. One clever use of waste product was to use wood chipping from plants cut on site as path cover.