wedding fayre at the Forest Centre 29 April

The Forest Centre is proud to present its Wedding Fayre this April, when we will be showcasing everything you may require to make your day extra special. We have around 20 stalls, with professional local suppliers providing their knowledge and expertise for all your wedding needs and queries (see stall hoder list below).  

Entry is free, with goody bags for all brides containing information on all the exhibitors, plus a few little extras, kindly supplied by the Forest Centre.

We will also be decorating both our ceremony room and the Millennium Suite for you to view, giving you a fantastic insight into what your wedding may look like on your big day. The Forest Centre is hosting a free raffle for all brides, containing lots of fantastic prizes, kindly donated by all of the exhibitors.

So why not come and join us? Again entry is FREE! The Lakeside Café & Bar will be open as normal, so you can even treat yourself to lunch as well. We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information call 01234 762613 or info@marstonvale.org

Here’s a list of stallholders so far…

• Putnoe Cakes: Alison  – Call me on 07885 386879         http://www.putnoecakes.co.uk/ email alison.tree@me.com
• Floral Papercrafts; Jo – Call me on 07732 111109  email jaiceefp@btinternet.com
• Button Cars,  Jayne. Call us on 01582 612864     http://www.buttoncars.com/ email jayne@buttoncars.com
• Veedub Occasion Hire; Rebecca, Call us on (08433) 303937  email veedub-occasion-hire@hotmail.co.uk
• Souz Nail Bar,   Suzane – Call us on 07834 591162    http://www.souznailbar.co.uk/ email info@souznailbar.co.uk
• Jasmine Hair & Beauty ,  Jasmine – - Call us on 0208 864 2677 http://www.jasmineshairrestoration.co.uk/ email sales@jasmineshairrestoration.co.uk
• Fantasy Balloons,  David – - Call us on 01908 305039       www.fantasyballoons.co.uk email info@fantasyballoons.co.uk
• Samantha Roach Bridal Couture - Call us on 07508 246508 www.samroachbridal.com email sam@organiseurwedding.com
• April Flowers – Call us on 01234 343335 - www.april-flowers.co.uk      90 High Street, Clapham, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK41 6BW                    email info@april-flowers.co.uk
• Whisper of Love,  June & Paula, – Call us on 01767 222124 http://www.whisperoflove.co.uk/ email info@whisperoflove.co.uk
• AP Film & Music, Alex Partington, – Call me on 07746 139814 www.apfilmandmusic.co.uk email me alex@apfilmandmusic.co.uk
• bkbphotographics – Call us on 01234 766332 http://www.bkbphotographics.co.uk/ email brian@bkbphotographics.co.uk
• Organise Your Wedding – call us on 0845 8387886 – http://www.organiseurwedding.com/  email wedding@organiseurwedding.com
• Matt Roberts. Musician – www.myspace.com/matrobertsmusic

Easter trail at the Forest Centre - 8 & 9 April

Easter Sunday 8 April and Easter Monday 9 April; 11am-4pm

Get your wellies on and follow our Easter Trail at the Millennium Country Park. Solve a puzzling wildlife quiz to win a chocolate prize.

Last Easter was fantastic! More than 200 children, parents, uncles, aunts, grandmas and grandpas visited the Millennium Country Park to enjoy some wonderfully warm spring sunshine and our fun Easter Trail quiz. It was so successful that it’s happening again this year.

So don’t miss out; come to Forest Centre reception to get your quiz sheet and be ready to be sent out into the Country Park’s wilds (well sort of) to look for clues and answer questions. There’s a strong chance that you’ll win a prize – but that’s not the point. Get out and take the air and soak up the newly green world.

No need to book. £2 per child

Stop for lunch or a piece of cake

The Forest Centre has developed a reputation for producing great quality, tasty food at reasonable prices. If you’re here anyway, why not enjoy a leisurely lunch in our beautiful Lakeside Cafe and Bar; you never know, it might even be warm enough to sit outside and eat in the Park.

For more information call 01234 767037

The redshank - a typical wader of the wetlands (image Martin Green)

The Wetlands Nature Reserve in the Millennium Country Park is a fantastic place to walk and quietly enjoy a variety of wildlife. However there are certainly areas which could be enhanced to improve their appeal to wildlife and provide opportunities for people to get closer to nature. Thanks to a successful bid to WREN, we will be able to make a some really exciting improvements in the Park during the latter part of the year.

Throughout last summer I worked with my team and our Fundraiser to put together a funding application to WREN, to pay for improvements to the Wetlands Nature Reserve. As a small environmental charity, any significant projects or developments on any of our sites requires us to find funding from elsewhere.

A bid in three parts

The funding bid had three parts. The first is the installation of a new viewing hide on the edge of the Pillinge Lake. When the new path was laid last year, a spur was created leading to a site which is ideal for a new hide. This hide will be within a short walk of the Forest Centre so should allow people who are less mobile to enjoy a chance to get to a hide and the wildlife on the lake.

The second item on the shopping list is the creation of a number of ‘wader scrapes’ within Bottom Meadow. Wading birds’ favourite feeding areas are shallow water with soft muddy edges. Most waders use their beaks to probe the ground to find their food – invertebrates which live in the wet soil. To try and increase the available feeding habitat for waders in the Park and hopefully encourage them to breed, we will be digging out a number of areas within Bottom Meadow to create shallow depressions which will collect water and provide the all important feeding habitat. These new scrapes will be visible from the view points along the bund around the meadow.

Good news for sand martins

Lastly we intend to create an artificial sand martin bank. Sand martins are birds in decline. They nest by burrowing into the faces of cliffs and quarries and are currently almost wholly reliant on temporary gravel and sand workings. An artificial bank will involve building a wall on the edge of the Pillinge which will incorporate a selection of nest tubes, designed to mimic a quarry face. A purpose-built sand martin bank should enable a permanent population to flourish at the Country Park.

Last week we were delighted to hear that the bid had been successful – we are able to go ahead with the project, later in the summer or early autumn to avoid  disturbance to breeding birds.

Benefits to visitors and wildlife

The completion of this project should make a significant improvement to the Wetland Nature Reserve and give visitors even more to see. The small ticket charge we have in place for visiting this part of the Park helps support the specific habitat management required through the Nature Reserve. If you become a Friend of the Forest, an annual ticket to the Wetlands Nature Reserve is just one of the benefits you can enjoy.

Anna Charles, Head Ranger anna.charles@marstonvale.org

Nigel Davis explains the finer points to Cranfield Uni students

The weather on 11 March, for the planting event postponed from February, couldn’t have been better;  nice and misty to begin with and then warm sun breaking through – not typical for March but not unusual either.

You could be forgiven for thinking that a tree planting event is an easy thing to put on, just turn up & get on with it.  Well, it is in a way, but behind the scenes (or even in front of them) there is a lot of organisation and planning necessary.   There is everything to get to site – tents and displays, catering van & equipment, not to mention the trees themselves, spades for digging holes and lastly transport for the folks who want to plant trees.  So, it was a good thing we had a nice day for it and everything went to plan, mostly!   There was momentary consternation when the hot water boiler refused to play ball, but timely intervention by a Ranger saved the day and everyone breathed a sigh of relief – we can’t have a public tree planting without refreshments, can we?

This event was part of a woodland creation project between Bedford Borough Council and the Marston Vale Trust (on land owned by the Borough), working together to create Bedford River Valley Park.  The new woodland will be part of the transformation of 3.5 square miles of floodplain between Bedford & Willington.   Eventually a huge area of greenspace will be created including a Watersports Lake (possibly).

As the kick-off time approached, the pace of activity increased as we had to get bags of mixed trees – ash, alder, willow, oak & hazel, distributed around the site and set out spades of various sizes.  Some of us volunteers were asked if we would show groups of people, as they arrived, how to plant a tree – it doesn’t always come naturally to everyone.  Fortunately the ground was fairly soft so the hole digging was not too demanding and as more people arrived the trees were disappearing fast.  In fact, the trees were being planted so quickly we had to open up an extra section for planting!   Even with the availability of ‘reserve’ trees, some were concerned that demand would outstrip supply of trees. People were out in the sunshine enjoying themselves so there was no hurry to leave the site. They just wanted to plant all the trees we had. 

The new wood’s name was taken from the nearby Octagon Farm. “An octagon is an eight sided structure you know”  I was reliably informed by a very young lady who was waiting at the end of the day for her mum. “She always plants thousands of trees” she said as she shouted for her mum to catch the last bus.  Now we know why our 2800 trees disappeared so fast, we had a super-fast planter in our midst!

Nigel Davis, Volunteer

Cutting common reed in the wetlands (image Don Morris)

Reed beds occur as natural habitats in floodplains, estuaries and any waterlogged areas. European reed beds are usually dominated by common reed (Phragmites australis) when water levels are consistently high, but can support a range of other pant species particularly if water levels are lower. Reed beds were once extensive, particularly in the now arable fens of the east of England. Through the 17^th Century there was extensive land drainage leading to major deterioration of the existing reed bed. In the years running up to 1970 this land drainage intensified leading to further loss of this important habitat. It has been estimated that up to 40% of the UK’s reed beds were lost between 1945 and 1990.

Vital work has been carried out through more recent years to improve the condition of existing reed beds through correct management of both the water levels and vegetation. Reed bed management and creation has been given a high priority in conservation organisations and a steady increase in the thatching industry has resulted in the high demand for good quality thatching reed, so presenting opportunities for increasing the amount of reed beds in the UK.

The Millennium Country Park has around twenty hectares of reed bed, including their associated open water. These were artificially created when the Park was formed. Since then limited resources have meant that the reed beds haven’t always been managed in the best possible manner.

Reed beds benefit from rotational cutting and removal of the reed. The plan within the Park is to cut an area of reed bed each year. This removes old growth and leaf litter, which if left can have a negative effect on the health of the reed bed by raising ground levels and hindering water movement. By cutting a different area each year we are also creating a mosaic of reed ages throughout the reed bed complex which is advantageous to wildlife as different species require different conditions to thrive. More high profile species which thrive in reed beds are bearded tit which has successfully bred in the Park on a number of occasions, bittern which utilises reed bed edges for feeding and myriad small birds like reed warbler and reed bunting who feed and breed within reed beds. There are also a whole host of invertebrates which make reed beds their home.

This winter I was put in touch with a contractor (also an ex-warden of Wicken Fen a high profile area of reed bed) with the right equipment to cut the reed bed. Tim brought a fantastic machine with a cutter bar on the front but which is adapted to bundle up the reed and even tie each bundle with a length of string. Due to the fact that much of our reed bed has not been actively managed there is currently no commercial value in the reed so unfortunately our only option is to burn it as the material must be removed from the reed bed. As Tim motored through the reed bed bundles were produced at a vast rate of knots. As usual our fantastic and dedicated band of volunteers was on hand to help. Fires were started and the bundles of reed were gathered up and burnt. Even with ten people going full pelt collecting up and burning the bundles, we couldn’t keep up with Tim who nonchalantly said that he was only in first gear!

It was an extremely hard day’s work and I think all of us (other than Tim) were glad to finish. Despite the exertion, it was such a satisfying day and I am really pleased to have made our first step towards managing this vital habitat in the right way. We now need to get our water pump running to flood up this reed bed which will provide the important wet conditions needed for the new crop of reed to grow through spring. I shall be watching with interest throughout the growing season to monitor its progress.

Thank you to all the volunteers for such a heroic effort- see you next year!

Anna Charles, Head Ranger anna.charles@marstonvale.org

Deputy Mayor of Bedford, Charles Royden unveils the name - Octagon Wood (image John O'Reilly)

In February, severe frost forced us to postpone a public planting day at Octagon Wood, near Willington. What a contrast a month can bring! The temperature was nearly twenty degrees higher last Sunday than the -1  experienced on 12 February, and the warm sunshine brought people out in force to enjoy a real taste of spring and do something worthwhile too.

Octagon Wood straddles Route 51 of the Sustrans National Cycle Network, only a mile and a half east of Priory Country Park in Bedford. This is the first new planting to be carried out in Bedford River Valley Park on land owned by Bedford Borough Council. It’s a mark of the continuing, successful  partnership between the Borough Council and the Marston Vale Trust and one that was celebrated on Sunday when Deputy Mayor of Bedford Borough, Charles Royden, joined planters, and unveiled the new Octagon Wood name plaque.

The name was chosen by the Mayor of Bedford, from suggestions made by those who planted the first part of the wood, in March 2011. The winners, both of whom suggested the name, were Penny Ward and Bob Hook.

Nearly two hundred people enjoyed the experience, many for the first time. In all they got 2400 trees in the ground – quite an achievement for one day. Thanks to all of you, including Charles Royden and all the many Forest Volunteers, without whose efforts, such a successful event could not have been staged.

There will be pictures posted on our Facebook page shortly and information about the site added to www.letsgo.org.uk

Tree planting’s a winter thing, so for the well organised amongst you, here’s the date – Sunday 3 December 2012, the last Sunday in National Tree Week.

Helen Murray - Catering Manager

Helen Murray first attended Bedford College as a catering student – but returned in her 40s to take a degree level course in management. The result is that she is now in charge of catering for visitors , conferences, weddings and children’s parties at the Forest Centre.

She said  “I had plenty of real work experience  but the course helped me learn so  much about the law and regulations relating to my job. It also showed me how to  use the correct management terminology to support my work with Marston Vale Services ”

“Because I was working full-time , the assessor came out to see me at the Forest Centre once a fortnight or so and I then worked on assignments  at home.

I think Bedford College is a fantastic  place – so does my son who attends one day a week.”

Why not sample the fruits of Helen’s success by visiting the Centre’s beautiful Lakeside Cafe and Bar?

Felling poplar (image Don Morris)

We recently warned you that we would be felling potentially dangerous poplars in some parts of the Millennium Country Park. The work is now underway. So if you see men with chainsaws up trees – you’ll know what’s happening.

As previously reported, there may be some brief disruption to access around the Park, but this will be kept to a minimum.

Read more

For further information please contact Anna Charles- Head Ranger at anna.charles@marstonvale.org or 01234 762614

 The second half-term activity for kids was all about badgers.  Baby badgers are being born right now in the warmth and security of their underground setts and will stay there until the warmer weather arrives.  They will then be looking for tasty tit bits to eat so the first task for the children was to create a meal for a badger. 

They were provided with paper plates and pictures of all the things badgers like to eat: snails, worms, blackberries, frogs, honey, ants, strawberries, etc.  The aim was to colour and cut-out the various items and then stick them onto the plate in the form of a menu.  We had some very imaginative suggestions from snail and worm pie to mushroom porridge!  My favourite was ant ice-cream – yum yum!

All we needed now were some badgers to eat this wonderful selection of food.  So the next task was to make badger masks.  The kids used templates to cut out the elements of the mask – eyes, snout, ears and nose.  They then coloured in the stripes – not necessarily in black and white! – before carefully assembling the masks using a stapler.  After the final addition of a headband, the masks were ready and the children went home happily wearing them.

Jean Sargeant   Volunteer

Colourful creatures at the Forest Centre (image Jane Lambourne/Wassledine)

Monday 13 February saw the beginning of the half term holidays.  The weather outside was grey and dreary.  But I was soon immersed in a very colourful and creative kids’ session.

As always, Jane had devised a wonderful variety of activities which allowed the children to use their imaginations to the fullest extent.  And that was exactly what they did!

Over the four sessions, nearly a hundred kids showed their skills and coloured, glued and moulded a huge variety of creatures.  Some were from life, like the red-eyed tree frogs and colourful parrots, which they brought to life using crayons and scrunched-up tissue paper.  Others were truly amazing and marvellous creatures that had been dreamt up in their heads and modelled using coloured plasticine.  They used a variety of other materials to embellish their work and they became so absorbed that it was difficult to bring the sessions to a close.

The other volunteers (Diane, Pam 1 and Pam 2) were stunned with the creations and are looking forward to the next session on Friday – Stripy Faces (very nearly fully booked today – please call 01234 767037 to check availability).  I wonder what Jane has up her sleeve this time …

Jean Sargeant, Volunteer