Goring Gap Boat Club is in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The stretch is magnificent and home to many rare and native species. At the club we are privileged to be able to provide a protected habitat for both and everything we do is with this in mind.
The Flora
The Loddon Lily or Summer Snowflake is extremely rare nationally but abundant in our area. We have a small patch that will hopefully spread.
Between the boathouse and the river is a large area home to head high sedges and grasses.
Thanks to The Woodland Trust we have planted hundreds of trees across the site. Notably willow, ash and alder. Hawthorne hedging is planted around the car park. The first summer we had teams of club members passing buckets to keep them well watered.
The Fauna
There are currently (as of February 2022) otters on our reach.
If you want to see otters (if you are lucky) and other wildlife with an experienced guide contact GG Wildlife Experiences . There are plans to build a permanent, and raised otter holt with tunnels to the river for the otters in a secluded area near by. Hopefully this will encourage them to stay in our stretch of water.
When we first moved in we built an otter holt but the otters stayed away and then it was swept away in the floods.
Bats
We have put bat boxes in the large willows surrounding the site. Home to species such as Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Nathusius Pipistrelle, Noctule, Daubenton’s and Brown Long-Eared Bats.
A Green (or Brown) roof on the boathouse
You may notice that the boat house appears to have a green roof in the designs. The plan is that as soon as we can fund it, we will be covering the metal roof with green! The development team are still working out the best way to do this sustainably on a very tight budget. Green roofs are not cheap. There is likely to be a test area first whilst we raise funds for the whole – extremely large – roof.