CONSERVATION & ECOLOGY
Bath Spa University
University’s challenge
Bath Spa University’s main campus is a safe-haven for perhaps the UK’s most treasured and iconic amphibian group: the smooth, palmate and great crested newts
P
enny Snowden is the Bath Spa University grounds manager. She has a long history of gardening and is entrusted with conservation in addition to her
other duties.
There are ponds dotted around the outskirts of the campus for the newts, and their entire year round migration pattern was planned five years ago to give them the best chance of survival. This even included the plotting of a grassy lane from their winter habitats. They are led right across the sports fields, around a newt-proofed car park and, finally, to their underwater destination. In spring, they head to one of the campus ponds for their breeding season.
In summer, the tiny newtlets emerge from the water, then creep the other way along the path to retreat beneath a cool rock throughout the autumn and winter - and the cycle begins again. Pleasingly, the country residence from which the university rents much of its site is called ‘Newton Park’… but that’s just a little coincidence.
Around them, also on-site, is a further selection of animals and plants only present in the choicest UK areas. It includes bats, country birds and even grapevines producing sweet, seeded fruits. Those vines exist due to the staff allowing students and staff with an interest to maintain allotments and glasshouse spaces.
Prevalence of such natural spaces on campus shows how significant a priority this is for the management. The grounds team are primarily gardeners. The campus has been undergoing a large development project since its institution gained full university status in 2005, and this is ongoing. This is part of why the management are so keen on ensuring the protection of the on-site wildlife and gardens. Lead gardener Suman Kawar guides a team which also includes Stanley Rawlings and Simon Johnson. Two more are on the way, as the team is usually five-strong. Newton Park is a sprawling woodland surrounding a 300-yard lake. “The whole site is under a conservation management
126 PC August/September 2018
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