Guided walks
We are exceptionally lucky at Keele to be based on a historic estate with its extensive wooded grounds and eight lakes. With the establishment of the arboretum in 2000 we have begun to exploit the wildlife value of this and many students and staff were have been made aware of the riches surrounding them. Many of the trees have been tagged and some given name labels. A guide to the grounds has been published outlining several self-guided walks.
In addition, Dave Emley and Peter Thomas, experts on the natural environment at Keele, embarked on providing occasional guided tours of the campus at lunchtime for staff and students. Usually each walk has a theme e.g winter twigs, butterflies flowers, and common trees, but other times they are just a general stroll around. These have proved to be very popular with up to 30 attendees!
As well as these, walks for outside organisations are also provided. The result of all this, along with the coverage of the National Collection of Flowering Cherries in the media, has meant that Keele is becoming a popular destination for visitors, helping us to integrate the university into the local community.