BBC News 11 June 2019
Almost 600 plant species have been lost from the wild in the last 250 years
... based on actual extinctions rather than estimates
... plant extinction is occurring up to 500 times faster than what would be expected naturally.
What does a biodiversity emergency mean for humans? BBC News 06 May 2019
The final issue of Biodiversity News (Issue 77) Winter 2017-18
Past editions of Biodiversity News going back to October 2007 are also available on the same page. This bulletin was produced for over 20 years but was discontinued following a survey carried out by Defra, which showed that the majority of readers supported a move to social media, which would make articles more immediately available. Defra will also send an email at the end of the year featuring many of the articles that have appeared that year. If you would like to be added to their mailing list, email them at biodiversitynews@defra.gov.uk Twitter: @DefraNature
Almost 600 plant species have been lost from the wild in the last 250 years
... based on actual extinctions rather than estimates
... plant extinction is occurring up to 500 times faster than what would be expected naturally.
What does a biodiversity emergency mean for humans? BBC News 06 May 2019
The final issue of Biodiversity News (Issue 77) Winter 2017-18
Past editions of Biodiversity News going back to October 2007 are also available on the same page. This bulletin was produced for over 20 years but was discontinued following a survey carried out by Defra, which showed that the majority of readers supported a move to social media, which would make articles more immediately available. Defra will also send an email at the end of the year featuring many of the articles that have appeared that year. If you would like to be added to their mailing list, email them at biodiversitynews@defra.gov.uk Twitter: @DefraNature
Dr Judy Webb, founder member of the original New Marston Wildlife Group, is now the Coordinator of the volunteer group of Friends of Milham Ford Nature Park. She has her own website. The Park, and Judy's contribution to Oxford City Council's creation of new pollinator-friendly meadows in the city, feature in an article in The Oxford Times, 7 May 2015. We are always delighted to welcome new volunteers to help maintain the park. There is no requirement to pay a subscription to join the group and you don't have to commit to helping regularly. You can come along to events for an hour or so, when convenient for you, choosing tasks that suit you best, from litter-picking to more strenuous ones, such as digging-out unwanted vegetation. If you'd like to join us or get further information about what we do, we'd be pleased to meet you at one of our Future Events or you can contact Judy at the address below. 
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Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count 2018:
To see what butterflies were recorded in the area around the Park, enter OX3 in the search box here Wonderful photos of harvest mice by professional photographer Dean Mason from the Daily Mail, 22 May 2018 Friends of Lye Valley
Friends of Warneford Meadow Oxford Urban Wildlife Group Photos of birds by local residents Portrait of a Redwing by Barbara Phillips of Purcell Road The importance of dead wood
Article by Curt Lamberth, former Chairman of New Marston Wildlife Group (now Friends of Milham Ford Nature Park). A good website for identifying trees:
http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/tree-identification/ Oxford University Parks Tree Identification The Oxford University Parks website has a page with lists of trees found along each 'walk'. Each tree has a code (indicated in the lists) and bears a label showing its code. With a print-out of the list(s) and the map of the park you can identify the trees. |
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Ducks:
If you see any ducks while you are in the Park, please DO NOT feed them. They eat the pond life that we have been trying hard to encourage by pond management and introducing beneficial aquatic plants. They also stir up mud, which coats the plants, blocking out the sunshine they need to survive. On feeding ducks, see also BBC Newsround article, 14 March 2016 and BBC video 14 March 2016 |
Dogs:
To prevent health risks and to preserve the flowers and fungi, please keep your dog on a lead so you can keep track of any 'deposits' and bag-and-bin them. (There are red bins for dog excrement.) Dog excrement adds nutrients to the soil making conditions more favourable for grass, which could then smother and kill off the wildflowers and the fungi. Roundworm eggs in dogs' faeces can survive for up to 5 years in the soil. Ingesting even just small particles of soil contaminated by dog faeces can cause toxocariasis, which can lead to blindness, as in the case of a toddler who fell in dog mess (click here) and a woman who had to have an eye removed 30 years after becoming infected (click here). |
Please do not bring any species to add to the park. A well-intended 'gift' could be damaging for its ecology.
For example, see Moving frogspawn or frogs between ponds may aid the spread of ranavirus BBC News, 28 Sept 2016
"Ranavirus is one of the most serious health threats currently facing the UK's amphibian population"
For example, see Moving frogspawn or frogs between ponds may aid the spread of ranavirus BBC News, 28 Sept 2016
"Ranavirus is one of the most serious health threats currently facing the UK's amphibian population"
Oxford Swift City project
This project, launched in May 2017, needs help from people willing to record sightings of swifts nesting or foraging in gardens and natural areas around Oxford and those who can take practical action, such as installing swift bricks or boxes.
Swifts are urban birds with a long cultural connection to Oxford but are in serious decline in the UK. This may be due to a loss of nest spaces in urban areas. Swifts arrive back from their migration from April onwards. The project team includes the RSPB, the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), Oxford City Council, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre and the University of Oxford.
This project, launched in May 2017, needs help from people willing to record sightings of swifts nesting or foraging in gardens and natural areas around Oxford and those who can take practical action, such as installing swift bricks or boxes.
Swifts are urban birds with a long cultural connection to Oxford but are in serious decline in the UK. This may be due to a loss of nest spaces in urban areas. Swifts arrive back from their migration from April onwards. The project team includes the RSPB, the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), Oxford City Council, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre and the University of Oxford.
Green Health Route in Marston
The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (a charity) has produced a map of a local nature walk route, (2.5 miles approx.), which includes Miham Ford Nature Park, after liaising with schoolchildren from St Nicholas, St Michael’s and New Marston Primary Schools, as well as with residents at Marston Court, the care home near to the Park, who are encouraged to use the route, or parts of it, by walking or venturing out on their mobility scooters. Copies of the leaflet showing the route (link above) have been put on the notice boards in the Park. For further information click here
Left: some of the residents of nearby Milham Court visiting the park
For further photos, click here
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