Please note children and dogs should NOT be allowed to go into the ponds - see the reasons for this.
Coronavirus - latest information from Government website Also BBC News 6 April 2022
Coronavirus - latest information from Government website Also BBC News 6 April 2022
 Photo by Tony Gillie
Dr Judy Webb BEM, founder member of the original New Marston Wildlife Group, seen here in Rock Edge Nature Reserve, Headington, is the Coordinator of the volunteers group of Friends of Milham Ford Nature Park. She was awarded her BEM in the 2021 New Year's Honours List and was also included in the BBC's Woman's Hour 2020 Power List: Our Planet. More information here
Judy has her own website. |
Please note children and dogs should not be allowed to go into the ponds - see the reasons for this.
Please do not bring any species to add to the park. A well-intended 'gift' (including plants) could be damaging for its ecology. 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" |
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 us via the address given here:
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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). |
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
