The Parks Trust is looking back at the history of its Floodplain Forest to mark 10 years since its creation.

The Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve was created in 2016 at Old Wolverton, occupying the former industrial gravel extraction site.

Since 2007, The Parks Trust transformed 48 hectares of the valley into a network of interlinked lakes, shallow pools, scrapes, channels, gravel islands and other wetland features.

The new landscape provided the building blocks to return the area to what it might have looked like before the Bronze Age, more than 5000 years ago - a floodplain forest.

The Parks Trust is looking back at the history of its Floodplain Forest to mark 10 years since its creation. Photo: The Parks Trust

placeholder image — The Parks Trust is looking back at the history of its Floodplain Forest to mark 10 years since its creation. Photo: The Parks Trust

Today, Floodplain Forest is a thriving nature reserve and one of the most popular parks in Milton Keynes.

It’s home to wintering wildfowl including teal, wigeon, gadwall and shoveler, and breeding waders such as lapwing and redshank, as well as otters, barn owls, grass snakes and dragonflies.

As the habitat matures, it will benefit a range of different species in the longer term, from waders to wet woodland specialists and an ever growing diversity of wetland wildlife.

Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve is still evolving and changing with every flood of the river and every plant that grows.

James Cairncross, Head of Landscape Architecture at The Parks Trust said: “Over the past ten years we have seen the Floodplain Forest Nature Reserve develop from lakes and pools created through gravel extraction, into a thriving habitat for nature and one of the most biodiverse places in Milton Keynes.

“With minimal further intervention we have allowed nature to take the lead, reclaim the land and reconnect the River Great Ouse with its floodplain.”