Over the last 3 years, the Riseholme Estates team have been managing the historic lawn at Riseholme Park in a nature positive way, leaving large sections of the lawn in front of the 18th Century Riseholme Hall to rewild.
Paths are cut across the lawn to enable staff, students and visitors to enjoy walking through the long grass and wildflowers. At present, this is minimally managed with one cut a year in the Autumn. We have seen an increased amount of wildlife and variety of wildflowers in this area. 160 species have been recorded on iNaturalist by volunteers; observations including; Cowslip, Lady’s Bedstraw, Ramsons, Creeping Thistle, Southern Marsh Orchids, Blackening Waxcaps, Chicken of the Woods, Lesser Stag Beetles, Silver-washed Fritillary, Latticed Heath moth and much more.
We have recently installed an agri-sound unit in the area to trial recording pollinator sounds. More information on these can be found on the following website: https://agrisound.io/