Understanding our environmental impact Searching for ways to give back

Simon Blaydes – Gelder Group Environmental Officer.

At the Gelder Group, we understand the impact we have on the environment and we’re taking positive steps to reduce it. In the summer of 2008, we hired a dedicated ‘Environmental Officer’ to manage all the environmental impacts of the Group’s activities and search for ways to mitigate these. The Environmental Officer is also responsible for ensuring we comply with all relevant legislation.

Gelder Group Environmental Project

The pride of our Head Office complex is our environmental reserve. The reserve was created from 13 acres of poor quality ex-agricultural land and has been extensively redeveloped to provide a haven for wildlife and native habitats.

Native Woodland

Native woodland habitat at Gelder Group HQ.

In December of 2008, we planted over 3200 native deciduous trees at our head office environmental park. The creation of the woodland was partly funded by the Forestry Commission’s 'English Woodland Creation Grant' scheme and is expected to offset a total of around 80 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Our woodland contains a diverse range of species, including Ash, Alder, Field Maple, Hazel, Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Oak, Poplar, Silver Birch, Wild Cherry and White Willow.

The Gelder Lake

Fishing at the Gelder lake, a popular pastime with Gelder staff.

The second major feature of the reserve is an artificially created 1 acre lake. The lake has extensive reed beds and they provide habitat for birds, insects and small mammals. The lake is stocked with a variety of freshwater fish, including Common Carp, Mirror Carp, Ghost Carp, Tench, Gudgeon, Rudd, Siver Orfe, Golden Orfe, Chub, Roach and Common Bream.

The lake also provides for recreational activities, including staff fishing competitions.

Owl and Raptor Tower

Situated in the heart of our native woodland sits our Owl and Raptor house. For the past 5 seasons, the tower has been home to families of Barn Owls and Kestrels. To date (2016), the tower has seen the hatching of 15 Barn Owls and 26 Kestrels. The success of the tower is attributed to its ideal location.

Each season, a local registered bird ringer attends the site to ring the chicks and record their vitals.

Honey Bees

Honey bees, nature’s pollinators.

Honey bees are disappearing globally at an alarming rate due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss. At Gelder Group, we're aware of the bee's importance to the environment and humanity, so we collaborated with the Lincolnshire Beekeepers Association to bring a trial hive of 30,000 European Dark Bees to our environmental park.

The trial hive was a huge success and started producing honey immediately. 7 more hives of 30,000 bees have now been introduced and the project is buzzing! All honey from the hives is packaged as "Gelder Gold" and sold to staff and customers from our Head Office. All proceeds from the sales are donated to charity.

Wild in the Woods

Established in our environmental park in 2019 ‘Wild in the Woods’ has now had over 400 visitors to our park and developed areas of interest throughout the park for all ages to experience and learn about nature.

For more information about Wild in the Woods, follow the links below:

Booking Form Visit Facebook Page Visit Instagram Page

November – Nocturnal animals & solar system

Arrange a visit

If you're interested to find out more and you'd like to arranging a visit to our Environment Park, please complete the form. Your enquiry will be passed to our Environmental Officer who will be happy to help coordinate your visit.

When you visit, please remember to bring suitable footwear and:

Take nothing but pictures,
leave nothing but footprints,
kill nothing but time.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank You!

Thank you for contacting us. Your message will be read by a member of our team and we'll be in touch soon. We look forward to seeing you and showing you around our environment park.

Latest News

February 28, 2024

Gelder Group secures Get Fishing Fund

The Gelder Group lake has now been established for over 10 years and is well stocked with a variety of fish including Carp, Roach, Skimmer Bream and Humble Gudgeon. To encourage the next generation of fishers into the sport Gelder Group have applied for a secured funding from The Angling Trust. The Angling Trust set-up […]

October 5, 2023

Gelder Group Memorial Charity Fishing Match 2023

Another well attended Memorial Match at the Gelder Fishing Lake, although the forecast and weather wasn’t great, luckily it remained dry. First and second place was a real clash of the Titans with Gary Cox and Dave Wass going head-to-head between pegs 3 and 5, fishing two very different tactics. Dave with his tried and […]

August 24, 2023

Environmental Park has three new Residents

The environmental park is again alive with life, three beautiful Oxford Sandy and Black pigs joined us 2 weeks ago and are settling in well.The Oxford Sandy and Black is a rare, traditional breed of pig native to Oxfordshire, where they have been in existence for more than 300 years, making them one of the […]

The Environment