Oxford Green Estate unifies University-owned green spaces

This major new initiative will transform how green spaces around the city are managed, making them more biodiverse, more accessible for everyone to enjoy and more useful for research and teaching. 

The OGE team within Estates Services have assumed responsibility for 23 green spaces around the city, totalling around 3,365 acres (1,360 hectares).  

These range from arable farmland and pasture to ancient woodland. Initially the team are focusing on three new sites – the riverside meadows at Park Farm between Marston and the city centre; the working agricultural site Northfield Farm; and the woodland at Court Place Gardens. They also continue to manage Wytham Woods, the University’s research woodland. 

The University owns a lot of land near Oxford, and until now there’s been very little consistency in how we’ve looked after it. A site like Wytham Woods has been managed with enormous care for decades, and it’s now a world-leading centre for outdoor research. But other places haven’t got nearly as much attention, and as a result they’re much less biodiverse and have seen very little academic use. We want to change that, eventually providing all our sites with the kind of expert long-term management that have made the Woods one of the world’s most studied natural environments.
Dr Nick Leimu-Brown, Chair of the OGE Stewards

Many improvements are already being made – for example, the team are working to keep the Park Farm meadows in good ecological condition by improving fencing so cattle can be reintroduced. Around the same site they have also restored a degraded pond by dredging out years’ worth of leaf litter and cutting back encroaching vegetation, and created a management plan to increase numbers of the rare brown hairstreak butterfly. 

We are looking to build on the experience of the tenant farmers who used to manage many of these sites. Bringing them all together under our active management will let us share equipment and expertise between the sites, getting more benefit from the resources we invest. Eventually we aim to end up with a green estate that’s richer in wildlife and makes a far greater contribution to our academic mission of education, research and public engagement.
Nigel Fisher, Conservator of OGE

Better management informed by the latest ecological research will enable the land to support a greater diversity and abundance of living things. By creating better wildlife habitats, it will help achieve the University’s goal of a positive overall impact on biodiversity by 2035, as set out in its Environmental Sustainability Strategy. 

The project also aims to make more of these green spaces available for the public to enjoy, and for outreach and engagement activities. Several are already accessible to staff, students and the general public – you can sign up online for a free Wytham Woods visitor permit, or enjoy a lunchtime stroll through the Park Farm meadows. 

Researchers with an idea to use one of the sites for teaching, public engagement or a new study should feel free contact the team on oge@admin.ox.ac.uk or visit the Oxford Green Estate page. They are keen to hear from academics both within and beyond the University – including those in disciplines that haven’t previously been heavily involved with land-based research. 

OGE is overseen by the Oxford Green Estate Stewards, a new University governance body reporting to the Buildings and Estates Subcommittee and chaired by Dr Nick Leimu-Brown.