School Newsletter July 2025
Dear All,
In the last newsletter we shared some photographs taken by Brian Mather in our Digital Education Unit near the SuDs attenuation pond on campus near the Large Animal Research and Imaging Facility (LARIF). The good news is that there have been more sightings of wildlife near LARIF! This week we share a photo taken by Thomas Farrugia from Beta Bugs Ltd who are based here at Easter Bush. Thomas was going about their day to day business when they snapped this photograph on campus. The beauty of this particular photo is that you can see how camouflaged our friend is!
If you have photographs of your sighting on campus, please share with EBSustainability@ed.ac.uk.
National Hedgehog Monitoring Campaign
Last year, was the first year that Easter Bush took part in the National Hedgehog Monitoring Campaign. We are the only site in the university involved in this campaign. You can read more about the Hedgehog Monitoring Campaign last year at Easter Bush-including photographs of those taking part at Easter Bush here: https://vet.ed.ac.uk/news/latest-news/citizen-science-project. This year cameras are being set up in the same locations on campus which will help to build a picture of hedgehog populations on campus and allow us to see changes over time. It will be particularly interesting to see changes over time given the restoration efforts on campus. If you volunteered last year, we hope that you will be able to join us again but we also welcome new faces J
If you would like to volunteer, the University of Edinburgh Social Responsibility and Sustainability Department are asking for you to be available at the following times.
- 2-hour training session online via Teams, Monday 7 July, 6-7:30pm
- Camera installation session at Easter Bush, Friday 11 July, 9:30am-4:30pm
- Camera retrieval session at Easter Bush on Monday 11 August, 9:30am-4:30pm
If you are a staff member, we encourage you to make use of your ‘Day to Make a Difference’, although we appreciate that the entire campaign is longer than a day.
Register for 2025 here: https://w2.irm.ed.ac.uk/nhmp-volunteer2025
Hedgehogs Across the University of Edinburgh
Here we share a blog from our colleague, David Overend from the Edinburgh Futures Institute exploring wildlife on campus…and in the search of hedgehogs. Take a peek to find out about work that is happening across the university: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/makingroutes/2025/06/20/footprints-and-fences-in-search-of-hedgehogs-at-pollok-halls-by-david-overend/
The Big Dig Continued…
Tree maintenance is now taking place on site. Many of you have been involved in the Big Dig on campus. Amanda Marshall based in Sports of Exercise has been popping in dates in the calendar between July-December which you can sign up for to help with maintenance now that lots of trees have been planted on campus.
The sessions have been scheduled to take care of the trees we have planted from our previous Big Dig event.
This will include, weeding, replacing canes/collars and re mulching the trees.
The event is scheduled for 3 hours but come and go as you please.
You can sign up here: Big Dig Clean Up
Book Festival Outing
At this years’ book festival, there is an interesting talk that those on the campus may be interested in:
‘’Chantal Lyons‘ Wainwright Prize-shortlisted Groundbreakers investigates the wild boar’s dramatic re-emergence in Britain after seven centuries, while in To Have or to Hold, Sophie Pavelle examines eight symbiotic relationships in nature to demonstrate the critical interconnections between ecosystems. They’re joined by photographer and rewilding thought leader, Peter Cairns, to share their deep understanding of what we’re lucky to have in nature and how to repair the damage done. Chaired by Hannah Rudman.’’
It would be lovely to get together a group on campus and go to the festival together. If you are interested in joining the Easter Bush group, please email EBSustainability@ed.ac.uk. We could not cover the ticket costs for the event but it would be nice to go together to share thoughts and meet others.
Details of the book festival event: https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/chantal-lyons-sophie-pavell-peter-cairns-landscape-and-beavers-and-boars-oh-my
Webinar: World Glyphosate Study (9th of July 2025)
An exclusive opportunity to hear about the most comprehensive, global study ever conducted on Glyphosate from its only UK-based contributor, Professor Micheal Antoniou (Professor of Molecular Genetics and Toxicology at Kings College London). Webinar details here: Webinar Registration – Zoom
We hope you all have a good week ahead.
The Easter Bush Social Responsibility and Sustainability Committee
