Join The Parks Trust and rural TV presenter, Adam Henson at the Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve opening event this August.

by Hannah Bodley

Staff will be on hand to welcome the public to the Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve on Thursday 25^th August and show them around the newly opened site.

Earlier on in the day the site will be officially opened by Adam Henson, farmer and rural TV presenter.   

From 1:30-4pm the public are welcome to take a look around the site and will be able to join in on a number of fun activities including; guided walks, bird spotting and bug hunting. There will be a talk from Adam Henson at 2.30pm and meet and greet opportunities.

Specialists will be on hand to guide visitors around the site and answer questions.

Briony Fox, Head of Community Engagement, at The Parks Trust said: “The site has been developed by the Trust to encourage a rich wildlife habitat.  We look forward to showing the public all that this fantastic nature reserve has to offer.”

Since 2007, The Parks Trust with the help of Hanson UK has been transforming 48 hectares of the Great Ouse Valley near Old Wolverton, Milton Keynes into a Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve.  A network of interlinked lakes, shallow pools, scrapes, channels, gravel islands and other wetland features provide the elements needed to return the area to what it might have looked like before the Bronze Age more than 5,000 years ago – a wildlife-rich floodplain forest.  Martin Kincaid, Biodiversity Officer, at The Parks Trust said:

“The varied floodplain habitat will mature into a diverse ecosystem supporting a wide range of plants and insects, amphibians, birds, fish and mammals such as water vole. At this time of year, the new Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve is humming with life.  The muddy margins of the lakes will attract migrating wading birds to feed. Species like Lapwing and Redshank breed on site and they may be joined by passage migrants like Green Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers and Dunlin, to name but a few.  Elsewhere, a variety of dragonflies and damselflies abound and grasshoppers and bush-crickets can be heard singing in the long vegetation. 

Come along to the public open day where I will be on hand to answer your questions about the wildlife that can be found on Milton Keynes’ newest Nature Reserve.”

Visitors will need to sign up for activities on the day which will take place at 1.30pm and 3pm.  Toilets and refreshments will be available and parking will be on site – follow postcode MK12 5NN.  Dogs are welcome but must be on a lead at all times.

For more information visit: http://www.theparkstrust.com/parks/floodplain-forest

Factfile:

·         The project has involved the removal by quarrying of sand and gravel deposits from the river floodplain by Hanson UK, The Parks Trust’s partner in the scheme.

·         The removal of the sand and gravel has enabled the formation of a mosaic of new water channels, pools, marsh areas and small islands within the river floodplain.

·         Work to extract the gravel from the site began in 2007 and was completed in 2013.

·         The landscape will flood regularly when water levels in the river Great Ouse rise. As well as creating a wildlife-rich habitat, the project has also been intended to enable the more natural functioning of the river floodplain.  

·         This varied floodplain habitat will mature into a diverse ecosystem supporting a wide range of plants and insects, amphibians, birds, fish and mammals such as otter and water vole.