Tree Planting at Milton Creek Country Park

 

Around 30 residents from all over Sittingbourne in Kent turned out to help Carol J Donaldson Associates and Medway Swale Estuary Partnership improve Milton Creek Country Park.

This former landfill site has great potential to provide excellent habitat for wildlife and an important green space for local people. Already it hosts some rare residents such as the shrill carder bee, a nationally endangered species. This species is only found at a handful of sites around Britain including some brownfield sites along the Thames Corridor, illustrating the importance of these places, which are often dismissed as ‘wasteland,’ for our wildlife.

Areas of scrub are being developed across the site, to provide screening and a source of food and nesting sites for returning migrant birds such as whitethroats and winter thrushes such as fieldfares.

Members of the Friends of Milton Creek Country Park turned out on a chilly Sunday morning in January to plant around 200 trees and tidy up areas around the park.

It was great to see a mixture of old and young residents, including our youngest planter of the day, baby Ruben.