The public will be welcomed to the Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve by Parks Trust staff later this month.
The event, on August 25, will be officially opened by the farmer and rural TV presenter Adam Henson.
Between 1.30 and 4pm the public are welcome to take a look around the site and can join in on a number of fun activities including guided walks, bird spotting and bug hunting.
Adam will give a talk at 2.30pm and there will be meet and greet opportunities.
Specialists will be on hand to guide visitors around the site and answer questions.
Since 2007, The Parks Trust with the help of Hanson UK has been transforming 48 hectares of the Great Ouse Valley near Old Wolverton, 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.
“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," said Martin Kincaid,The Parks Trust's Biodiversity Officer.
"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," he said.
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. Parking will be on site – follow postcode MK12 5NN. Dogs are welcome, but do keep Rover on a lead!.
Did you know...
> 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.
