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Wildlife The site was originally a Victorian garden and areas of the woodland have remained untouched for over 150 years. This has produced a well-established woodland and areas of scrub meadow and natural glades caused by the windfall of mature trees. The groundcover is predominantly Ivy monoculture with the occasional patch of Brambles. The shrub layer consists mainly of a mixture of Elder, Yew, Hawthorn, Holly, Laurel and Privet. Friends of Lynwood Gardens are planning to introduce a more diverse ground flora through the introduction of native woodland seed mixes and bulb planting. Click on the buttons below to see
wildlife species information. Pondlife The new pond in Lynwood was built in summer 2005 and was designed as a Sustainable Urban Drainage system (SUDS) that channels rain water from Park Crescent and Park Lane and feeds it into a three stage water treatment system of reed beds, ponds and a bog garden that will remove pollutants such as dust, oil and petrol from the water as well as keeping the water level topped up. To “kick start” the pond, water and new species were introduced from other established ponds in Graves Park, Norfolk Park, Sunnybank and Broomhill infant’s school. These included a variety of wildflowers such as Iris, Purple Loostrife and Marsh Marigold and animals including insects such as Pond skaters, Water crickets, Water boatmen as well as amphibians such as Frogs, Toads, and 2 species of newt (Common and Palmate). Sticklebacks were introduced to eat the aquatic larvae of mosquitoes that started to appear at the end of 2005. The pond is now well established and is now full of frogs and newts that should continue to breed there for years to come. During the summer you are likely to see insects such as the Large Red Damselfly and the larger Southern Hawker Dragonfly which has been seen breeding and laying eggs in the pond. The pond is also constantly visited by all kinds of insects, birds and mammals and is one of the best places for watching wildlife in Lynwood. It has also become a popular local meeting place for people, a valuable educational resource as well as an important sanctuary for wildlife. Control In any habitat there are some species that require some
form on control. Some people may have noticed a number of rats on the
paths in recent months this is due to the warm winter we have had causing
rat populations to increase country wide. It must be stressed that these
rats do not live in the wood but are coming from drains in nearby buildings
to feed on the beech nuts. We have spoken to the city council pest control
and rather than using poison (which might get into the food chain and
kill other animals) we have agreed to use traps and ferrets to keep the
rats under control. In a similar way we control Grey Squirrel numbers
as they damage trees and eat bird eggs and chicks. We also have plants
such as Bindweed, Ivy and grasses to control to prevent them smothering
the wildflowers. The site is also subject to an invasion of Japanese Knotweed
in two areas and a number of methods have been employed to control it’s
spread, namely limited herbicide use, burning and shade competition through
the use of Ash and Beech transplants.
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