You should definitely visit Berengrave Nature Reserve (maybe on one of the volunteer task days?)! To be fair, it's a wet woodland site, so the "prone to flooding" bit is more a feature than a bug - the ecology is adapted to this. The new improvements are mostly useful (though were quite scary going in - even knowing it'll recover, it can be a shock to see huge chunks of wet meadow and woodland churned up to put a new path in), although some of the layout is a bit odd (a path basically runs into a pond, and then there is a fence that blocks access to a bench...). Biodiversity management is now mostly run by Medway Norse out of Riverside and so that's more proactive than it's been in about a decade, and the volunteer group does a session every 4 months on things like removing invasive species, keeping paths accessible and opening up some areas to improve light and plant diversity. If people would just stop releasing their unwanted goldfish into the big pond we might even make some progress with the aquatic biodiversity...
A good analysis and there is much to read. Am pleased that the lack of seating in the Paddock has been recognised. It's also apparently very low. We must hope this space retains its welcome feel, including for older and less mobile people, rather than being "a rush through place".
You should definitely visit Berengrave Nature Reserve (maybe on one of the volunteer task days?)! To be fair, it's a wet woodland site, so the "prone to flooding" bit is more a feature than a bug - the ecology is adapted to this. The new improvements are mostly useful (though were quite scary going in - even knowing it'll recover, it can be a shock to see huge chunks of wet meadow and woodland churned up to put a new path in), although some of the layout is a bit odd (a path basically runs into a pond, and then there is a fence that blocks access to a bench...). Biodiversity management is now mostly run by Medway Norse out of Riverside and so that's more proactive than it's been in about a decade, and the volunteer group does a session every 4 months on things like removing invasive species, keeping paths accessible and opening up some areas to improve light and plant diversity. If people would just stop releasing their unwanted goldfish into the big pond we might even make some progress with the aquatic biodiversity...
A good analysis and there is much to read. Am pleased that the lack of seating in the Paddock has been recognised. It's also apparently very low. We must hope this space retains its welcome feel, including for older and less mobile people, rather than being "a rush through place".